A Summary On The Grapes Of Wrath

850 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The grapes of wrath writing style

Sara DePover American Lit Learning Project March 3, 2014 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck In the book Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck a man, Tom Joad is released from an Oklahoma state prison after being there for four years for being convicted for manslaughter. A former preacher that he meets named Jim Casy, has come to the believe to give up his calling of being a preacher to believe that all life is holy. He helps Tom come back to his home only to see it is now deserted. Tom’s old neighbor names Muley Graves meets the men and tell them everybody has been “tractored,” or told to leave, the land. He tells them that most families went to California in look for a job. The following morning, Tom and his new friend Jim go on a journey to Uncle John’s, which is Tom’s Uncle. They head out to find Uncle John because Muley is almost positive that they will find the whole Joad family. When they finally arrived Tom finds Pa and Ma Joad getting together the last of the families belongings. In California there was advertisements for fruit picking jobs and they all wanted to travel to California in hope that the fruit picking would get their lives back together. On their trip to California they take an old used truck, in which we meet Grandpa Joad. He’s an angry old man who doesn’t want to leave his land. Grandpa’s life ends sadly not long after they begin the trip to California. After grandpa passes away they meet Ivy and Sairy Wilson, who are some people with car trouble. The Joad’s invite them to travel on with their family. Sairy grows will near the border of California and told the Joad’s she is unable to continue the journey. When the Joads get closer and closer to California they hear many rumors about no more jobs being ope... ... middle of paper ... ...r everything other family member, and they had a lot of losses throughout their trip to California. They are blood related but through the text you can tell their trustworthiness and commitment to all other family members is what made them all so close. As a reader I noticed a really great thing when the Joad’s finally meet the Wilsons, another family in need. In a short time the two families become very close, almost like they are all family already. All the Joan’s and Wilsons care about each other’s problems and everybody’s lives. I really enjoyed this book because of all the emotion. All the people passing away and how John Steinbeck described the people dying made you think you were right their with the family. Also I liked this book because I didn’t know so many people traveled to find work and would honestly do anything for a job and money for their families.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes Of Wrath'

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Grapes Of Wrath Chapter 1-11 Analysis

    810 Words  | 2 Pages

    The faces of the Joad family revealed the years they have endured and what they have persevered through. Ma and Pa are weathered, as are the grandparents, from the sun and dust and wind over time. Not just on the outside, Ma showed her strength and worth as the leader of the family. Pa took a lesser role than Ma and typically was lost and dazed without her guidance. Additionally, the grandparents instilled in the younger family members the importance of hierarchy and

    Read More

  • Ma Joad in the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents both a challenge and their only hope. Among them are only four women embodying every ages: the Grandma, the Mother and her two daughters, the pregnant Rose of Sharon and the young Ruthie. Appearing in Chapter Eight the mother, who is referred to as “Ma”, holds a decisive role in Steinbeck’s novel. She is, along with her son Tom (the main character of the book), present from the early stage of the story until its very end. We will attempt to trace back her emotional journey (I) as well as to analyze its universal aspects and to deliver an overall impression on the book (II).

    Read More

  • The Grapes Of Wrath Chapter Analysis

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout the novel, The Grapes of Wrath there are intercalary chapters. The purpose of these chapters are to give the readers insight and background on the setting, time, place and even history of the novel. They help blend the themes, symbols, motifs of the novel, such as the saving power of family and fellowship, man’s inhumanity to man, and even the multiplying effects of selfishness. These chapters show the social and economic crisis flooding the nation at the time, and the plight of the American farmer becoming difficult. The contrast between these chapters helps readers look at not just the storyline of the Joad family, but farmers during the time and also the condition of America during the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck uses these chapters to show that the story is not only limited to the Joad family,

    Read More

  • Grapes Of Wrath Compare And Contrast Essay

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck had many comparisons from the movie and the book. In 1939, this story was to have some of the readers against the ones that kept the American people in poverty held responsible for their actions. This unique story was about the Joad’s family, who were migrant workers looking for a good decent job. They were also farmers from Oklahoma that are now striving to find some good work and success for their family in California. This novel was one of Steinbeck’s best work he has ever done. It was in fact an Academy Award movie in 1940. Both the movie and the novel are one of Steinbeck’s greatest masterpieces on both the filmmaking and the novel writing. Both the novel and film are mainly the same in the beginning of the story and towards the end. There were some few main points that Steinbeck took out from the book and didn’t mention them in the movie. “The Grapes of Wrath is a

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.

    Read More

  • The Powerful Ending of The Grapes of Wrath

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but its jus' in their head.” (Steinbeck) The Grapes of Wrath is most often categorized as an American Realist novel. It was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. As a result of this novel, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and prominently cited the novel when he won the Nobel Prize a little over twenty years after the text’s publication. This text follows the Joad family through the Great Depression. It begins in Oklahoma, watching as the family is driven from their home by drought and economic changes. Within the introduction of the novel the living conditions is described, “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: The walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it.” (Grapes, 1) This novel is and will remain one of the most significant novels of the Great Depression. Despite its controversial nature it is timeless. In fact, the ending of this text is one of the most controversial pieces of literature written during the time period, and has never accurately made its way into film. The ending to John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is the most significant portion of the novel due to its historical accuracy as well as its message about the American spirit.

    Read More

  • Grapes of Wrath

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of the devastating disaster of the dust bowl, the Joad family was forced to leave their long-time home and find work and a new life elsewhere. They, like many other families, moved to California. "The land of milk and honey". The people in the dust bowl imagined California as a haven of jobs where they would have a nice little white house and as much fruit as they could eat. This dream was far from the reality the migrant farmers faced once in California. The dreams, hopes, and expectations the Joads had of California were crushed by the reality of the actual situation in this land of hate and prejudice.

    Read More

  • Grapes of Wrath Essay: Prejudice Against Immigrants Exposed

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the way to California, the Joad's encountered other people that had already been to California and were now returning. One of these encounters, with the ragged man with the sunburned face, is described on page 242. The ragged man had children that died because wages were too low and work was too scarce to afford food for his children and wife. His story was one of pain and despair and was evidence of the cruel and inhumane treatment which resulted from the California farmers prejudice towards the migrant workers.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Grapes Of Wrath And Antigone

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    The family had to find other means of creating income. Tom Joad and his family faced many tragedies throughout their journey to California, including several family deaths and cruelty from all of the California Natives. As the Joad family was nearing California they were in need of money. They came across a businessman, which they sold all of the belongings from the farm that they could spare. The Joads were not familiar with the way people did business in the west, the businessman knew that and took full advantage of it. The narrator explained, “and the men in the seat were tired and angry and sad, for they had got eighteen dollars for every movable thing from the farm: the horses, the wagon, the implements, and all the furniture from the house. Eighteen dollars. They had assailed the buyer, argued; but they were routed when his interest seemed to flag and he had told them he didn’t want the stuff at any price. Then they were beaten, believed him, and took two dollars less than he had first offered. And now they were weary and frightened because they had gone against a system they did not understand and it had beaten them.” The men knew that their belongings were worth more but had never seen business done like that, the businessman took full advantage of them and their money. Thereafter, the family is getting closer to California and

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Tom Joad In The Grapes Of Wrath

    1795 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tom Joad experiences many struggles in The Grapes of Wrath. Due to his struggles, he undergoes an immense change that causes him from being unconcerned and impassive to being contemplative and expressive. The journey with Casy and his family affects how he achieves success to become a true, strong character. With his responsibility of taking care of the family, he carries great burden and doubtful decisions of leading them to California. Throughout the journey, he faces trials and sufferings that lead him to have an inner conflict with himself in order for his family to have the golden opportunity to live prosperously in the scarce but hopeful land. His moments of feeling helplessness and vulnerability in the position of a deterred migrant,

    Read More

  • The Importance of Minor Characters in The Grapes of Wrath

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Finding Hope in The Grapes of Wrath

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Joad family members were facing hardships from the beginning. Before the journey, Tom Joad had been in prison and that was a downer to everyone. In the scenes of overcoming this problem, Tom was released and his family was so excited and full of joy to see him. Before they could celebrate too much, they found themselves having to leave the land that most of them were born on, raised on and labored for. They decided that as shady as it was to be forced off their own land, the drought had shattered any hopes of prospering from it anyway. With the hope of a better life out in California and a flyer that said pickers needed, they set out for the proclaimed promised land.

    Read More

  • John Grisham's A Painted House

    1790 Words  | 4 Pages

    The story is told through the eyes of seven year old Luke Chandler. Luke lives with his parents and grandparents on their rented farmland in the lowlands of Arkansas. It takes place during the harvest season for cotton in 1952. Like other cotton growers, these were hard times for the Chandlers. Their simple lives reached their zenith each year with the task of picking cotton. It’s more than any family can complete by themselves. In order to harvest the crops and get paid, the Chandlers must find cotton pickers to help get the crops to the cotton gin. In order to persevere, they must depend on others. They find two sets of migrant farm workers to assist them with their efforts: the Mexicans, and the Spruills - a family from the Arkansas hills that pick cotton for others each year. In reading the book, the reader learns quickly that l...

    Read More

  • The Theme of Man vs. Environment in The Grapes of Wrath

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about A Summary On The Grapes Of Wrath

Open Document