In many ways, Steinbeck manages to accurately capture the suffering experienced by countless laborers during the dust bowl by chronicling the Joads’ trying journey. His novel, The Grapes of Wrath, he covers the extensive journey of the Joads. Their adventure is long, occasionally needing to be propelled by coincidences, for Steinbeck to deliver many of his broad messages about unity, power, and politics. Yet, even though his story takes a more “bigger picture” stance on the dust bowl period, Steinbeck doesn’t fail to forcibly capture the difficulties that many faced.
Steinbeck’s novel strongly depicts the substantial amount of difficulty and discrimination faced by many innocent families that were merely trying to find ways to earn a living
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While power can come in numbers, with a great enough amount of desperate people, unity can be difficult to obtain. A man could barely feed his family after an entire day’s worth of work on the measly 25 cents an hour that Collins reported on July 18, 1936 to have been in effect at the corporate level, yet that was all he had. The corporate ranches were making a business out of ripping off the laborers and what was worse is that there was nothing that the laborers could do about it. People that considered banding together to make a change were quickly reminded that there were “probably thousands of workers…willing and happy to work for the 25 cents per hour” (Collins). Laborers had little say in their situation. Even if a large group of workers went on strike, there were hordes of jobless, desperate people ready to replace them and that was enough to break “the threat of [a]…strike for higher wages.” Steinbeck, sufficiently depicts the suffering, both of the desperate job seekers and the laborers, through the Joads’ journey. He analyzes both sides of this unjust system to remind readers that it wasn’t as though the migrants were out to sabotage and replace laborers, but that the situation at the time forced people to have to worry and fend for themselves, to “feed [their own] kids” and recognize that they didn’t “got no call to worry about anybody’s kids but [their] own” (51). For the first portion of the novel, the Joads experience what if feels like to be one of the desperate job-seekers, out of work, being discriminated against, and looking for absolutely anything that would allow them to provide for themselves. Even when they do secure jobs, Steinbeck doesn’t fail to depict the sense of hopelessness. The Joads work for any amount of money because they know what
The Grapes of Wrath explicates on the Dust Bowl era as the reader follows the story of the Joads in the narrative chapters, and the migrants in expository chapters. Steinbeck creates an urgent tone by using repetition many times throughout the book. He also tries to focus readers on how the Dust Bowl threatened migrant dreams using powerful imagery. As well as that, he creates symbols to teach the upper class how the Dust Bowl crushed the people’s goals. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck utilizes imagery, symbolism, and repetition to demonstrate how the Dust Bowl threatened the “American Dream.”
Al Joad is a fairly skinny guy of medium built who starts out being a
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
Steinbeck meets his standard by celebrating the migrant workers’ drive and sense of community in the face of the Great Depression. The Joad family and many others, are dedicated to conquering all odds: “[t]hus they changed their social life–changed as in the whole universe only man can change” (Steinbeck 196). There are no other options available for these tenant families than to take the trek to California in hopes of finding work. The fears they once had about droughts and floods now lingered with
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).
Steinbeck strikes at the fear in every man’s soul, with his portrayal of the poverty stricken life of the Joads as they travel from one stage of abandonment and what would seem like a helpless state to a journey of enduring perseverance. The Joads, Steinbeck’s creation in the Novel Grapes of Wrath is a large close-knit family living in Oklahoma during the “Dust Bowl” era. Steinbeck documents their journey beginning with their homelessness due to the crop failures to them surviving in a box car at the end of their journey. I think Steinbeck’ intention is to illustrate to the reader that being poor doesn’t always equate with being helpless. The Joads demonstrate this by their resilience to overcome homelessness, death, and prejudice.
John Steinbeck wrote a book, The Grapes of Wrath, which would change forever the way Americans, thought about their social classes and even their own families. The novel was completed in 1938 and then published in 1939. When this novel was released the critics saw it as being very controversial. Some critics called it a master piece, while others called it pornography. Steinbeck's attack of the upper-class and the readers' inability to distinguish the fictitiousness of the book often left his readers disgruntled. The time period in which this book was written was the 1930's while there was a horrible drought going on in the Oklahoma pan handle and during the Great Depression. Thousands of Oklahoma families were forced off their land because of their failure to farm and as a result they were unable to pay their bills so the banks were foreclosing on their houses. This resulted in a huge population of people all migrating west to California, because they were promised work by big fruit plantations. Unfortunately, when this mass of people showed up the jobs with high wages advertised on the pamphlets were not there. This left them homeless and in deep poverty with no where to go. The families would stay in California though either in hoovervilles or government camps. Steinbeck brings you along with the Joads on their journey to California. Although Steinbeck shows some comparisons between the Joads and the greater migrant community, the Joads do not serve as a microcosm of that culture because they differ in regards to leadership of the family and also the Joads' willingness to give to anyone.
Steinbeck depicts the Joads family as migrants who lose their land in Oklahoma. The family is unemployed and homeless. Steinbeck based his story of the Joads' experiences on the real accounts of those living at the Weedpatch camp, built by the federal government as a place of shelter and protection for the desperate migrants who were often unwelcome in California and frequently exploited and abused. The novel succeeds as a gripping story and showing people in the time period. John Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, alternates chapters following the Joads’ saga with poetic interludes detailing the larger forces at work against the migrants. His lack of knowledge and understanding reinforces suspicion and hatred of the migrants, who for their part can’t understand why they’re so vilified. It’s an important lesson on perspective, and a fantastic starting point for discussing political, economic, and social issues still very relevant today.
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.
Not only does Steinbeck tell his story and put it in perspective, he also gives social commentary. One might expect this social commentary to be...
This issue affects both the Joad family and many migrants, as they are both searching for proper living conditions. Before migrating to California, the Joad family, especially Ma Joad, imagined to live in a little white house surrounded by orange trees. Their dreams later become a false reality as the family discovers the impossibility. However, instead of being completely homeless, they come upon the town Hooverville. This town was created specifically towards unemployed migrants shelter. Migrants came together to construct temporary homes and creating a whole new community for themselves. The Joads join the community until they realize Hooverville was only going to be temporary. The police and many landowners resented Hooverville; the way migrants were able to create a suitable community. Soon the Joad family and migrants were forced to leave Hooverville sand continue on their job searching journey. The Joad family never had a chance to settle down at a decent living space. They were always forced to continue traveling due to the lack of money they possessed. Throughout this book, Steinbeck shows the poor conditions other families lived in, as the Joad family passed them at the edge of the roads. In the different living conditions the Joad family and other migrants lived in, they all struggled to find somewhere suitable for both their family and health. The strict law
...however, feels that to solve the plight of the Okies, land should be set aside for them to start their own small farms, since farming is all they know. He also suggests that local committees set wages and labor needs before the harvests to protect the rights of the workers and prevent them from being extorted (Pgs 58-59). While Steinbeck’s ideas made sense and had good intent, the grim reality still remained that the corporations controlled the agriculture industry and that they were going to save every nickel and dime they could, even if it meant a lower standard of living for the Okie. Today, we have unions that attempt to prevent things like this from happening again, but the plight of illegal immigrants demonstrates that the reality of this country’s need for cheap labor remains.
Floyd Knowles was another character associated with Tom. At one point the police were after Floyd and Tom trips the policeman, resulting in him going to hide in the willows so they don’t find him and catch him. The Joads wanted to leave that camp site soon after that happened, after one of the family members went missing, Tom went to find him. The missing member was drunk by the river and Tom was forced to knock him out to get him back to the truck so they could load up and leave. It’s hard for people to change from their old ways, like Tom is doing and Steinbeck is showing us this, and showing that Tom is the protagonist in this novel.
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.
The novel focuses on the negative aspects of capitalism and sheds a positive light on communism. Steinbeck proves that there are many problems in capitalism with the way the migrants suffered during the era of the Great Depression. The economic slump, which many people assume affected the urban populations, was even harsher on the migrants. Steinbeck, throughout his novel, reveals the plight of the migrant workers during the Depression and how capitalism has crushed them. He reaches out to his readers and plants the idea that the glorified capitalism in America is not what it seems, and that any path, even communism, is preferable.