Unity of a Family Explored in The Grapes of Wrath
One would say that on a literal level The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is about the Joad family's journey to California during The Dust Bowl. However, it is also about the unity of a family and the concept of birth and death, both literal and abstract. Along with this, the idea of a family unit is explored through these births and deaths.
As can be seen in The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads are a very tight-knit family. Yet on their trip to California, they experience many losses and additions to their family. In general, Steinbeck's novel abides by the circle of life. When a birth occurs, a death follows, and when a death occurs, a birth follows. However, in The Grapes of Wrath, the number of deaths outweighs the number of births as a way to show the negative impacts of The Dust Bowl.
The first birth in the novel occurs in Chapter Eight when Tom Joad returns from jail to his family. Prior to Tom's homecoming, Ma Joad had been deeply concerned about making the journey to California without him, because she did not want the family to break up before the start of their journey even occurred. The idea of Tom Joad returning at this point is considered a birth because the Joad family is now complete. This starts the novel giving the reader a better sense of the closeness of the Joad family. In addition, the first reference to death occurs in Chapter Ten. Grampa decides that he does not want to leave his land and go out west. "'This here's my country. I b'long here...I ain't a-goin'. This country ain't no good, but it's my country'" (152). Once again, as to not split up the family, Ma Joad drugs Grampa in order for the family to place him on the tru...
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...by that Rose of Sharon delivers in Chapter Thirty. One would believe that when Rose of Sharon delivers her dead baby, it is a sign that all hope is lost because it breaks the circle of life. However, Steinbeck ends The Grapes of Wrath on a somewhat uplifting note by incorporating one last birth. At the end of the novel, Rose of Sharon gives life to a dying old man by letting him drink the breast milk that she would have used in order to feed her own baby. "She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously" (619).
In conclusion, The Grapes of Wrath may appear, on surface level, to be a novel about an Oklahoma family's trip to California during the Dust Bowl. Instead, when looked at more deeply, The Grapes of Wrath is found to be a story about the circle of life and the way that a family stays together through this cycle.
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 early 1930s, vast dust storms and droughts in the Midwest region of the United States left homes destroyed and farmlands unfertile. This time period was known as the “Dust Bowl”, which lasted about ten years. This greatly impacted the lives of many who lived in this region, particularly the southwest, who were hit the worst with the storms (Nelson, "About the Dust Bowl."). Those who made a living off of their farmland could no longer support their families due to the lack of income because of the drought. This led to a great migration of families westward toward California in order to find jobs, food, and shelter. The immense hardships faced during this migration caused many families and individuals to work for very little money, reside in unsanitary camps, and face extreme conditions. Those who were unfortunate enough to not find work ended up homeless, jobless, and would ultimately die of starvation. An excellent example of this occurs in John Steinbeck’s international bestseller The Grapes of Wrath, where the Joad family is forced to migrate westward and must face adversity head on after being hit with an enormous dust storm and losing their valuable farmland. In order to illustrate how Steinbeck’s novel represents themes of family commitment and losses of sanity within society during this era, many analysts and literary critics have used characterization, conflict, and the theory of new historicism within the novel to break down these particular themes.
What is CARNIVORE? According to the FBI, CARNIVORE is a program used in conjunction with a suspect’s ISP (and ordered by the court) to collect internet and email information on specific suspects in active crime investigations. It is a filtering tool to collect information to be used in the conviction of criminals. The FBI reports that the program is not used to randomly spy on individuals, nor does it record all of the traffic from an ISP. Similar to how a wiretap records phone calls, CARNIVORE captures email messages and all network traffic from an individual’s IP address by filtering all of the data at an ISP.
The traditional human family represents a necessary transition between self and community. In the difficult era of the 1930's, the family's role shifted to guard against a hostile outside world rather than to provide a link with it. With the drought in the Dust Bowl and other tragedies of the Great Depression, many were forced to look beyond the traditional family unit and embrace their kinship with others of similar necessity. In his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the theme of strength through unity to comment on the relationship between the dissolution of individual families and the unification of the migrant people. The journey of the Joad family west illustrates this as they depart a parched Oklahoma, arrive in a hostile California, and eventually settle in amongst others as unwelcome there as they are.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
“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.
Before the 1990’s, if people want to listen to music, they just visit a music store and pick up a CD and then put it into a stereo equipment. However, the development of MP3 file format gradually changed the way people listen to music. This format lets everyone download music easily and it can be converted to CD as well. But, there is still a problem: searching MP3 files on the internet is maddening and people seldom can find the music they want. Therefore, the birth of Napster solved this problem, creating a virtual music community in which music fans could use the Web as a “swap meet” for music files. More importantly, Napster is easy to use and it’s free, which expands the range of audience in age. Bandwidth also contributed to Napster’s success. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the file can be transferred. So, Napster really changed the way people listen to music, discover music and interact with music.
The process of implementing the Carnivore system begins with a court order for a full content-wiretap (Tyson 2). Once a court order has been issued the FBI is required to request that the suspects Internet Service Provider (ISP) is willing/able to copy all of the e-mails to and from the suspects address. The initial request made by the FBI to allow the ISP to copy the suspect’s e-mails is to ensure that the FBI has tried to meet the “best evidence” rule (Graham 8). The “best evidence” rule simply states that the FBI has to obtain evidence in the best way possible. If the ISP is able to copy the suspect’s e-mails directly, it is considered better evidence. If the ISP declines the FBI’s request then the FBI is allowed to install the Carnivore system onto the suspect’s ISP (Graham 6). Why would an ISP decline assistance? ISPs are concerned about the privacy of their customers. For example, Earthlink testified before the Carnivore Committee saying that what the FBI was asking them to do “.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a novel depicting the struggle and distraught brought towards migrant workers during the Great Depression. The Grapes of Wrath follows one Oklahoma family, the Joads, as they journey down Route 66 towards the earthly paradise of California. While on route to California, the Joads interact with fellow besieged families, non-hospitable farmers, and common struggles due to the Depression. Steinbeck uses these events to show strong brotherhood through biblical allusion, character development, and inter chapters.
Throughout the book, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the physical transition of the Joad family from a small close-knit group of people living a quiet life on a farm in Oklahoma, corresponds with the internal transition of the concept of family. As the Joads leave their farm and journey westward, they no longer live just within their own isolated unit. Becoming involved with other families as they migrate, changes their focus and by the end of the book, the family members each reach out in their own way to embrace all of mankind as a family.
Grapes of Wrath is the true American novel about the migration of the people in the Midwest during the dust bowl. It is full of hope that is built up by the characters, the Joades, and how they deal with the problems they dealt with on their travels to California. Throughout the novel there are multiple scenes that show that people like the Joades can make it through almost any situation. The book is full of scenes that bring a sense of hope, however, the conclusion scene of the book takes all of this hope away. Steinbeck’s chose for the conclusion of his novel has been criticized numerous times. It was even excluded from the film, but that was partially because Rose of Sharon allowed a stranger to drink from her breast. Three criticisms of the ending of Grapes of Wrath are as following, the idea of Rose of Sharon’s baby being born as a stillborn, the rising floodwaters, and the image of the breastfeeding being the end of the novel.
The story really begins with Napster and its free software that allowed users to swap music across the Internet for free using peer-to-peer networks. While Shawn Fanning was attending Northeastern University in Boston, he wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, struck an agreement which gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. Napster began to build an office and executive team in San Mateo, California, in September of 1999. Napster was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-peer since it used central servers to maintain lists of connected systems and the files they provideddirectories, effectivelywhile actual transactions were conducted directly between machines. Although there were already media which facilitated the sharing of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and USENET, Napster specialized exclusively in music in the form of MP3 files and presented a user-friendly interface. The result was a system whose popularity generated an enormous selection of music to download. Napster became the launching pad for the explosive growth of the MP3 format and the proliferation of unlicensed copyrights.
The first online peer to peer file-sharing application was Napster. Napster allowed people to copy music from their CDs onto their computers in mp3 format. They then allowed other members of Napster to download these songs onto their computers. Once this caught on, millions of people were downloading thousands of songs a day. And as you can imagine, this did not make the record companies happy with the idea that people were getting their music for free instead of buying the CD. It also caused a problem with some of the recording artists. Most notably Metallica.
One important change that has occurred is the distribution of music digitally. Music now in our society is purchased through the Internet. The simplicity of having an entire library of music on one device has been adopted versus having stacks of CD’s or tapes. The emergence of the Mp3 file has changed how we listen to music. Mp3 are digital songs that are portable, provide high quality sound, and are less expensive. Essentially by eliminating middlemen, digital music took control of music away from the major record companies and put the power in the listener’s hands. Major companies such as Apple’s iTunes created the distribution of digital music. CNNMoney mentions, “iTunes is currently responsible for 63% of all digital music sales” (CNNMoney). They set the standard of 99 cents for a single song, which was quickly adopted by major music companies. Selling songs by singles provided more control ...
...P, 2005, p 23) Around 2005 cell phones and PDAs were referred to as Swiss army knives of gadgets due to the fact they had many functions in one device. All the big phone companies at the time were premiering phones with more mp3 storage than mp3 player, essentially foreshadowing the future. (Dempsey, P, 2005, pg. 23)An average smart phone in the year 2014 can hold around 8-16 gigabytes of data, and if storage is allotted correctly, the phone can hold thousands of mp3s. Any mp3 player trying to have a foothold in the consumer market cannot compete with a device that is an essential part of an average person’s daily life, and a music player. “Smartphones with increasingly high-quality audio and video capabilities have become popular and therefore hamper demand for products in the Audio and Video Equipment Manufacturing industry.” (Krabeepetcharat, T. 2013. p. 8)