Grapes Of Wrath Rhetorical Analysis

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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck followed the struggle of farmers recovering from the 1930’s Dust Bowl and accepting their new identities as migrants. Throughout the book Steinbeck used detached diction, a mocking tone, and pathos to point out the social vices that plagued the migrants in hopes of potentially making people angry enough to cause change. One rhetorical strategy Steinbeck uses to achieve his purpose in The Grapes of Wrath is detached diction. At the start of the book, in the interchapters specifically, Steinbeck explains how one major conflict of the book, the cruelness and injustice of poverty, begins with a detached manner, with detached diction. In the first chapter there are plenty of examples of Steinbeck distancing himself from the farmers, page 6 demonstrates some such as, “The women went…”, “...the faces of the men and women...:”, and “The people came…”. Steinbeck describes the people in a journalistic manner, it is in his roots, and in doing so, it makes the writing seem more accurate, more believable. By making the piece more real Steinbeck enforces his purpose. He is informing people of the problems that the …show more content…

His intents are similar to those of T.C. Boyle in the Tortilla Curtain in that they both showed how agricultural labor in America is an issue. The major difference between the two is the groups of people who do all the work. The Mexican immigrants are the ones who do the hard work and suffer the whiplash in Boyle’s book and the migrants, former farmers, did the work in Steinbeck’s piece. Overall it is a tragedy in both instances and the work both authors did was crucial and hopefully if someone is inspired enough their purposes will be achieved and the terrible labor system that is still in place will change for the

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