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In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Anger, Tom Joad is the hero. Subsequent to serving four years in prison for homicide, he is at long last out on parole. At the point when Tom is initially presented, he is depicted as a negative character. Tom is resolute and likes things to go his direction. In the start of the novel Tom carries on with his life step by step, the future concerns him. All through the novel we additionally saw that the fundamental character, Tom Joad, advances into three distinct "individuals". At first he is self-situated and doing everything around himself. He changes into a family arranged man, assisting at whatever point possible. At last, towards the end of the novel, he changes into a leader who tries to continue what …show more content…
Tom discovers Casy out of prison. Casy tells Tom that he is sorting out a strike against the area proprietors that are paying sub-standard wages. Casy has found a strategy to improve the circumstance for everyone and urges Tom to go along with him. A few agents discover their strike camp and his Casy on the head murdering him. Tom loses control when he sees his honest companion executed and lashes out against the agent letting out his subdued unpleasantness slaughtering him turn. This occasion is like the first run through Tom slaughtered a man in light of the fact that the individual executed disregarded Tom's ethics. Tom is smacked in the face misshaping his nose and escapes back to camp. After Casy's demise Tom is at his nearest indicate acting naturally realized. He wants to spread the idea of everyone being a little bit of a greater family. Tom has a productive view of reality. He can judge circumstances accurately and genuinely. He is assignment focused in that he has found a mission to satisfy outside of himself. He has self-sufficiency since he is free from reliance on outer power outside of his family. in particular Tom has an association with humankind. He discovers profound recognizable proof with others and the human circumstance by and large. Before he leaves the family he expresses that he will proceed what Casy has as of now began. " "Tom," Mama rehashed, "what you going to do?" "What Casy done," he said. "In any case, they executed him."" (page
Finally becoming convinced that life is unfair for his people, Tom decides to leave the family, find the union men, and work with them.
John Steinbeck once stated: “If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.” The classic text Grapes of Wrath contains several characters with a considerable amount of depth. Characters like Tom and Ma Joad are usually celebrated for their symbolism and dialogue. I feel as though Grandpa Joad is a highly underrated character in Steinbeck’s text Grapes of Wrath.
Not in decency, anyways ... Sometimes a fella got to sift the law" (Steinbeck 179). As the seeds of change and defiance began to set in, both Huck and Tom decided to help free people from their bondage. After talking to Casy for the last time, Tom reached a realization that he can be a catalyst to change by bringing all the migrants together. He vows to free the migrants from their unjust treatment and use the festering "grapes of wrath" inside them all to produce their change. "I been thinkin' a hell of a lot, thinkin' about out people livin' like pigs, and the good rich lan' layin' fallow. An' I been wonderin' if all our folks got together an' yelled, like them fellas yelled –" (Steinbeck 536). Tom wants to save the starving kids and migrant workers from the hardships pushed onto them by the unspoken laws that are established to target them. He wants to overcome the legality of the situation by doing what he believes to be morally
Steinbeck's intercalary chapters in The Grapes of Wrath have nothing to do with the Joads or other characters of the novel, but help describe the story in different terms. They are similar to poems, offering different viewpoints of the migration, and clarifying parts of the story that the reader might not understand. An excellent example of this use can be seen in chapter 21, where an examination of the attitudes of migrant Okies and the residents of California reveals the changing nature of land ownership among the changing population of California and gives greater meaning to the fierce hostility that the Joads meet in California.
The final stage of Casy’s philosophy is a turn toward activism for the betterment of humanity, eventually leading to his death. This turn towards taking actions is paralleled by Tom when he, in the end of the novel, sacrifices his future and safety for the betterment of the Joad family as a whole. This occurs when he decides with Ma Joad that the best results would come of them leaving him behind and continuing on to find work, due to the fact that Tom being with them puts them at risk due to his history and criminal status. This also reveals that he cannot withstand the thought of people like the Joad family being hurt, that a turn toward activism could help their family and the whole human race as a single entity. This shows the final of many actions that reveal how Tom has grown closer to Casy’s beliefs, and also shows when Tom becomes the spiritual heir due to the fact that he has developed the exact same philosophy that Casy had worked
Before the move to Coghill, Tom wanted his old life back. He sees the accident as the end of his life, though this he seems to have lost connection to his family and his sense of identity. Tom feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences of Daniel’s irresponsibility and the impact this had on other people and their families. Retreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black. After the accident, Tom’s life was changed forever.
We live in a time where gender equality is almost a reality. Women can do many of the same jobs men can do and in single families or in times of need take a patriarchal role in their family or the workplace. This is exactly what happened in The Grapes of Wrath, when Ma had to slowly take control over her family and progressively lead the Joads out of their own familial depression. The role of women and their status within the book is elastic throughout the novel and breaks the common convention at the time. As a reader, we see Ma Joad often assume a male role, and we see Tom Joad display a more traditionally feminine role as time progresses in the story. The novel complicates its own understanding of women and men in 1930’s America and changes definitions of gender roles and female character in the novel and in life.
In conclusion the Grapes of Wrath is a literary masterpiece that portrays the struggles of man as he overcomes the adversity of homelessness, death, and the wrath of prejudice. Steinbeck fully explores each faucet coherently within the boundaries of the Joad family’s trials and
John Steinbeck was one of America’s great authors, and had written several remarkable novels during his time. His novels always seem to consist of men who have committed crimes that are considered unforgivable, and instantly mark a person as evil. In his text, Of Mice and Men, Lennie was a big guy but a little special in the head, he was sweet but had no control over the strength in his body. He would always end up doing sinful things, but not because he was simply a bad person. In Steinbeck’s other text, Grapes of Wrath, he had another character that had committed unforgivable crimes. The character was Tom Joade who had killed a man at a bar. In the beginning of the novel they follow Tom on his way from jail, and continued to follow his family once he had found them. The family is one of the many who have to travel to California to their life started again, the setting takes place during the great depression. Tom Joade is one the most memorable characters involved with the plot. What the best qualities that Tom Joade contains is his passion toward his family, the way that he treats him mom, and his passion to help others.
Ma believed that as long as a preacher was with them, nothing could go wrong. As the story progressed, her optimistic state of mind about the preacher being with them was ruined. Casy tells Ma that he is not a preacher anymore but Ma believes, “once a preacher, always a preacher.” Anytime grace was needed, she insisted Casy say it. The Joad family loses a few family members on the way to California, so Casy is forced to say a few words as they bury them. Casy even happens to make an impact on Tom throughout the story. Tom manages to memorize a few bible verses that Casy referred to and also begins to see the truth in those verses. Casy is killed by police, leading Tom to decidethat it is safer for him to leave the family and go out on his own so that he does not cause them anymore trouble. So Tom gives Ma peace as he tells her about his plans to follow in Casy’s footsteps and help people start labor strikes for higher wages, just as he
In literature as in life, people often find that they must make difficult choices in order to survive. The reasons behind their decisions and the results of their subsequent actions affect our opinion of them. In the Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the author portrayed situations where two main characters became involved. The nature of their choices, the reasons behind their decisions, and the results that followed affected them greatly. However, the choices that they made were surmounted successfully. Ma Joad and Tom Joad are two strong characters who overcame laborious predicaments. Their powerful characteristics helped to encourage those that were struggling.
The moment when Casy says, “You don’t know what you’re a-doin,” and the aggressive man, who was afraid of the monster, the fear and the anger boiling into wrath, and the desperation of surviving, hits him in the head and kills him with a white pickhandle (Steinbeck 386). Tom’s companion and closest friend, who shared his thoughts and beliefs and gave him advice, is murdered in front of him. Tom must have been into deep shock that he didn’t notice the men with the aggressive man trying to kill him. After being hit and injured, he hides and goes back to his family in the cabin. He realizes that he needs to leave before someone in the farm finds him. Tom wants to leave since he wants to protect his family and to recollect his thoughts and feelings about Casy’s death. He goes away temporarily only to get into the truck with his family and go to the boxcar camp. At the boxcar camp, Tom is stuck in the same plight as last time at the farm. Using the time of being away from his family, he must have been pondering over what Casy must have thought before he was murdered and why he said his last words. Tom must have put himself in Casy’s shoes to figure out what he meant by the people having one huge soul and how there is no sin and virtue. Contemplating in the dark for a long time, Tom has an epiphany about the Oversoul and how the migrants who are subjected to the monster’s tyranny should unite to overcome the relentless cruelty and oppression. He tells his mother, “I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there” (Steinbeck 419). From this, Tom recognizes where he stands
Tom Joad is an ex-convict that was only into his own self-interest and lived by a mantra of live your life day by day and not concerned with the future, to becoming a man who thinks about the future and someone with morals and an obligation to help others. Ma Joad is a typical woman of the early 1900’s whose main role was a mother only with a role of caring and nurturing. Later in the novel, she becomes an important figure for the family and is responsible for making decisions in keeping the family together and emphasizes the importance of unity. Another important transition in the book is the family starting off as a single close knit unit to depending on other families to survive. This common interest and struggle bonded the community of individual families to a single one. Steinbeck wrote this novel very well, by having great character dynamics and development that displays the characters strengths and also their
In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck illustrates the Joad’s endurance by his use of extended metaphors in intercalary chapters. Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes in the novel. He effectively foreshadows upcoming events by telling of the general state of the local population in the intercalary chapters. He then narrows it down to how it effects the main characters of the novel, which are the Joads. Setting the tone of the novel in the reader’s mind is another function of Steinbeck's intercalary chapters.
Tom is a young man bearing the responsibility of his handicapped sister, Laura, and his suffocating mother, Amanda. He works in a factory, and uses his paycheck to provide for the family. Jim, a fellow factory worker and former high school friend, knows Tom as Shakespeare, in that Tom writes poetry, sometimes to alleviate his suppressed feelings of frustration. Poetry is one of Tom’s methods of escape from the lunacy in his home. Adventure is something Tom does not experience much of, and is angst toward his less than mediocre life is expressed in many of his arguments with Amanda.