During the early 1920s to late 1940s, people in the whole world suffered from the two darkest periods in the humankind history. One period was, from 1929 to 1932, the longest and deepest economical depression, the Great Depression. The other, right after that, was the most widespread and deadliest total war, the Second World War. In those periods, people were devastated; millions of millions people died, some died from hunger, others died in the war. Some survived, but they surrendered; lived like a walking dead. The physical harm was not deadly enough for people, but the mental harm was. Those people who did not have a strong sense of love, moral, or spiritual belief died mentally. They were, weak-minded and shiftless, the ‘sheep’. In contrast, there were the real ‘goats’; they were enduring and constructive. They fought against the evil and followed their beliefs tight to avoid being lost in the dark. These people knew how precious love, moral, or belief could be in the adversity and, thus, made an utmost effort to uphold these senses. Whether one can hold one’s own in adversity depends on how strong one’s love, moral, or belief are.
The Grapes of Wrath, a novel is written by John Steinbeck, sets the Great Depression as the background. When Steinbeck was young, he was a ranchman in California. He witnessed the migrant laborers who worked in the farms and he had noticed the social inequalities among different classes of people. The story he wrote is about, during the Great Depression, a poor migrant family, the Joads, encounter all kinds of difficulties when they moved from Oklahoma to California to seek for jobs and their future. Coupled with that, The English Patient , is written by the famous Canadian author Michael Ondaatj...
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...so that they lose themselves in it. Hence, hardships test out that the ones who lose belief lose oneself, the ones who keep belief hold one’s own.
Consequently, love, moral, or spiritual belief are the three senses that can brace people up in adversity. The stronger these senses are, the stronger the person is. The Grapes of Wrath and The English Patient portray many vivid characters. Each of them undergoes various plots and encounters all kinds problem. While the fates are testing them, some stand up and overcome, and others escape and hide. At this moment, who are the ‘goats’ and who are the ‘sheep’ has never been so clear.
Work Cited
Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient. New York: Vintage International, 1993. Print.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Web. 25 September 2014.
When times get tough, many people turn away from everyone and everything. It must be part of human nature to adopt an independent attitude when faced with troubles. It is understandable because most people do not want to trouble their loved ones when they are going through problems, so it is easier to turn away than stick together. Maybe their family is going through a rough patch and they reason they would be better off on their own. This path of independence and solitude may not always be the best option for them or their family, though. Often times it is more beneficial for everyone to work through the problem together. It is not always the easiest or most desirable option, but most times it is the most efficient and it will get results in the long run. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck makes this point very clear through several characters. Many characters throughout
drop their life and move to a different state. When they arrived in California they were not
There are numerous symbols in The Grapes of Wrath that through analysis provide additional levels of insight and understanding into the novel. These symbols enhance the reader’s overall experience and provide a deeper meaning to the novel. They encourage readers to look beyond the surface to identify parallels in the text that foreshadow future events or represent certain ideas that the author is trying to stress. One of the major symbols of the entire book, is Tom himself. He represents the mental attitude experienced by the migrant families throughout the book. Tom accurately represents the hope burning inside of every migrant. As we learn about Tom throughout the novel, we come to know of the murder that he committed. Although it may not have been completely intentional, he is still forced to abandon his family. When he reunites with his family, he is immediately accepted back into their family, and he joins them as they begin to embark on their journey to California. He is with them every step of the way to California on Route 66 and constantly encourages them to persevere even through the difficult times. While in California, history is repeated, and Tom kills yet another man out of anger. He is forced to hide away and is of no use to the family anymore as he can no longer work. Later, he is forced to abandon his family yet again. This all directly correlates to the hope found in every migrant. It all began in Oklahoma, where hope hurt farmers during the Dust Bowl. After the hope had hurt them, it abandoned them. A quote in Chapter 1 of The Grapes of Wrath represents this, “The children stood near by, drawing figures in the dust with bare toes, and the children sent exploring sense out to see whether men and women would break...
Wyatt, David. New Essays on the Grapes of Wrath. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.
The Grapes of Wrath is a classic piece of American literature that provides an in depth analysis of the great dust bowl. The author, John Steinbeck, illustrated the everyday life of a migrant farmer from the perspective of the Joad family. By describing many important motifs, Steinbeck illustrates the many social and economic transformations that America experienced in the 1930’s. These themes include race, religion, gender, and class. The changes that occurred during this time period forever changed the American way of life.
On the one hand, in order to endure the “pressure of existence,” qualities such as pity, patience, humility and compassion become commendable. In this sense, “slave morality is essentially a morality of utility,” as it promotes qualities that would comfort and placate those who are living in pain. In another sense however, these aforementioned qualities are revered because the people are afraid of one another. The nobles valued and maintained some of “the highest and strongest drives, [which can] drive the individual far above the average and the flats of the herd conscience, wreck the self-confidence of the community, its faith in itself, and it is as if its spine snapped.” Wishing to prevent any possible danger to the stability of the community, the virtues of the nobles, which elevate the individual over the community, are condemned as evil. Since everyone is in fear of each other, slave morality is used to ensure that no one tries to subjugate the
Throughout the hundreds of years, individuals have pondered the impact of heavenly or insidious force, environment, hereditary qualities, even excitement, as deciding how free any individual is in settling on good decisions. Fate, a result of the past, is often described as the advancement of occasions out of man 's control, dictated by an extraordinary force. In any case that someone may utilize their freewill can reflect upon their outcomes, decided upon a supreme force, whether they are positive or negative. In the novels “A Lesson Before Dying,” Ernest Gaines and “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck, the authors explore the trials and tribulations of self influenced fate controlled by an higher force.
John Steinbeck's epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, chronicles the struggles of the Joads as they join the thousands of fellow "Okies" in a mass migration westward. The Joads reluctantly leave behind their Oklahoma farm in search of work and food in California. While Steinbeck writes profoundly and emotionally about the political problems of the Great Depression, his characters also show evidence of a deep concern with spirituality. When they feel hopeless and are uncertain about their immediate future, their concentration on religion dwindles. On the other hand, when they leave their home, the Joads regain spiritual faith; they have something to live for: California. Once they arrive and find only more difficulties, they lose their sense that better things are ahead of them and gravitate back towards thinking politically. However, they finally return to the source of their original faith--religion-- at their most desperate time.
... the hard time would get better and that prosperity would soon come. Additionally like movies and radio, music was a huge part of the distraction of the hard times that American’s faced during the depression. The people enjoyed the popular music of the 1930’s, which was “Swing” music. Swing music was played by big bands and was the highest on the music charts. In literature during the 1930’s many featured working-class heroes trying to make it in America. One of the most classic American literatures today is John Steinbeck, The Grapes Of Wrath. This explained that instead of achieving the American dream, the Joad family faced struggling times. In English classes all over America, the Grapes of Wrath is read to teach students of the effects and history of the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Culture during the 1930’s shaped our culture and how we live day to day.
John Steinbeck wrote the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to rouse its readers against those who were responsible for keeping the American people in poverty. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family, migrant farmers from Oklahoma traveling to California in search of an illusion of prosperity. The novel's strong stance stirred up much controversy, as it was often called Communist propaganda, and banned from schools due to its vulgar language. However, Steinbeck's novel is considered to be his greatest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and later became an Academy Award winning movie in 1940. The novel and the movie are both considered to be wonderful masterpieces, epitomizing the art of filmmaking and novel-writing.
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, a fictitious migrant family, the Joads, travel west in search of a new life away from the tragedies of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. Along the way, Steinbeck adds a variety of minor characters with whom the Joads interact. Steinbeck created these minor characters to contrast with the Joad’s strong will power and to reflect man’s fear of new challenges, and to identify man’s resistance to change. Three minor characters who fulfill this role are Muley Graves, Connie Rivers, and the tractor driver.
John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath in response to the Great Depression. Steinbeck's intentions were to publicize the movements of a fictional family affected by the Dust Bowl that was forced to move from their homestead. Also a purpose of Steinbeck's was to criticize the hard realities of a dichotomized American society.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.
What lengths should one go to in order to survive? This is a question which has challenged the human race for generations and to which no satisfactory answer exists. In the modern world, this issue is examined theoretically, but rarely confronts individuals, with the exception of the most destitute. However, in harsh environments and forbidding territories, this matter becomes very real and pressing. Nature pays no attention to the arbitrary emotions of man, demanding only the forfeiture of the sorrowfully short life granted to him. Many would argue that in order to delay the inevitable conclusion awaiting every man, humans must act upon their primal intuition rather than their emotions. Jack London’s “The Law of Life” includes this naturalistic viewpoint that human survival instinct drives individuals more than feelings or compassion. London shows this through his protagonist Old Koshkoosh’s past experiences and tribal upbringing, his view on life, and the actions of his family members.