From Self-focus to Concern for Mankind in Grapes of Wrath
At one point in the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, it was stated that a farmer lost his farm. As this man’s family picks up their belongings and heads west they meet up with another family dealing with a similar situation. Now these two families share a common bond. A brotherhood is forming. This is the catalyst. No longer is it one farmer saying he lost his land but two farmers united saying they lost their land. The transformation from self-focus to a concern for mankind can be seen in the characters of Ma Joad, Tome and Rose of Sharon.
Ma Joad’s main concern at the beginning of the story is her family. She wants to keep the unit together and works diligently to achieve this goal. However, one by one, family members leave the group for various reasons leading to the slow but sure disintegration of the Joad clan. The first to go is Noah; then Grandpa and Grandma die; Connie walks off and leaves Rose of Sharon; Young Tom leaves because he has gotten into trouble again; and Al becomes engaged and decides to go with his fiancée’s family. Ma deals with each loss as best she can. As the story progresses, we find Ma Joad becoming more and more concerned with people outside the family unit. She feels the need to share whatever meager food and belongings her family has with other families enduring hardships. She saw the needs of her own family at the beginning of the story and by the end of the novel, she sees the needs of her fellow man.
Young Tom appears to be self-centered when he if first introduced. He has just left prison after serving four years for murder. Tom wants to enjoy life to the fullest and to be with his family. He is very disturbed to find the family home deserted and almost destroyed. He, by this time, has reacquainted himself with Jim Casey, an ex-preacher. The more Tom listens to Jim and his views on life, the soul of man, and the fellowship of mankind, the less he focuses on himself and his needs. He then begins to focus on the plight and abuse of the homeless farmers. Tom begins to realize that in order for the migrant workers to survive and succeed they must unite.
Having watched the movie "Grapes of Wrath", I have been given the opportunity to see the troubles that would have befell migrant workers during the Great Depression. Though the Joads were a fictitious family, I was able to identify with many signs of hope that they could hold onto. Some of these families who made the journey in real life carried on when all they had was hope. The three major signs of hope which I discovered were, overcoming adversity, finding jobs, and completing the journey.
Steinbeck's relationship to the transcendentalists [Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman] was pointed out soon after The Grapes of Wrath appeared by Frederick I. Carpenter, and as the thirties fade into history, Jim Casy with his idea of the holiness of all men and the unreality of sin seems less a product of his own narrowly doctrinaire age than a latter-day wanderer from the green village of Concord to the dry plains of the West.
In the biography “William Shakespeare: a Compact Documentary Life”, Samuel Schoenbaum is able to use diction, rhetoric, and authorial intrusion to establish a timeline of Shakespeare’s life in detail despite having so little accurate information of Shakespeare. As one of the most remarkable playwrights in the world, Shakespeare is highly influential in modern literature and in the modern world.
In Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family represents the thousands of migrant families who came to the west with the fantasy of obtaining a peaceful life after the Dust Bowl. Conversely they are faced with something resembling the epitome of human cruelty. Business owners and Californians do what they can to keep the Oklahoma families from breaching the invisible line that divides the privileged and the poor. This line, which only exists in the mind, causes people to loose their sense of humanity. The following quote describes the attitude of the wealthy: “And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger” (Steinbeck 434).
Ramage, John D., and John C. Bean. "Ethos, Pathos, and Logos." Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1998. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
The Strength of Unity A sense of community was a necessity for many Americans during the era of the Great Depression. With the drought in the Dust Bowl and other catastrophes, many were forced to relocate elsewhere in attempt to survive. The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, illustrates the importance of unity during privation through the idea that members of society must work in unison to achieve a common goal. Steinbeck demonstrates this theme through multiple aspects in the book.
Overall no matter male or female if there is someone of the same sex which is interested in the same sex in the same locker room, athletes will feel uncomfortable. Knowing that the same sex person is interested in the same sex as them makes people wonder if they fell something towards them in the locker room. The impact of a gay athlete in the locker room may cause athletes to feel very uncomfortable not knowing if the gay athlete is interested in them. According to S.L. Price in the article “So here we are, at Last” of Sports Illustrated, “There’s a widespread feeling that any players engaging in homophobic acts or dialogue in any sport would face the same—if not worse—abuse the teammates, fans and, certainly, management, as any athlete who comes out.” The locker room is a very sensitive area to have these kinds of issues in, since the locker room is a place mostly for changing clothes, showering and walking around mostly naked. Although the NFL locker rooms are mostly filled with reporters and coaches, people still...
Storytelling has a special importance in culture throughout the African continent; Anansi the spider in Ghana, is one great example of an African fable that teaches children important lessons including respect for elders, the importance of wisdom, and the importance of culture. These stories have been retained and perpetuated by oral tradition, despite the western emphasis on written records; African tribes have preserved history and culture well thorough oral historians. The translator, D.T. Niane, explains the validity of oral history well by stating that written text can contain inaccuracies as well (xv). The importance of the oral aspect of djelis method relays the information in a personal manner, as Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate states, “writing lacks the warmth of the human voice,” therefore by creating a written text of an oral story it “does violence” to it (xvi). I was raised in an African community, here in DC and was lucky enough to attend Djeli performances by family friend, Djimo Kouyate, and later his son Amadou. Although I do not speak Manding, Djeli Djimo Koyate, performed the music in such a way that I was able to relate and...
"Criminal court doesn't care they are kids," said Melissa Sickmund, Chief of Systems Research at the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Once they are there, it's just another case." There have been many debates on whether teens should be tried as adults. There are many exceptions to trying teens as adults. Various factors must be considered such as, how serious is the wrongdoing and if teens aren’t given adult responsibilities, then how can they be tried as an adult?
Ultimately, When it comes to judging whether we should sentence a juvenile to the adult system, let’s not ask the whether they should be lenient because of their age, but ask what the effects of theses juvenile criminals actions have had on the victims. To do any less would be an injustice.
Starting from the 1920’s with women receiving the right to vote women's suffrage has come a long way. Women are more independent now in 2014 than ever before and it's becoming more and more common to see women succeed as doctors, lawyers and CEOs.In fact as of 2011 about 40% of women were the main providers for their family ( reference) Not only that but the gap between pay differences with genders is decreasing in comparison to what previous generations of women have experinced. With that being said, can we say that sexism is a thing of the past?
... at times. There is no evidence that civil disobedience leads to lawlessness (Suber, 1999). The way to translate the acts of civil disobedience is that it's a fail If you disobey because you disapprove but you succeed if you disobey when obedience will cause more harm than disobedience (Suber, 1999). Martin Luther King said that people should use disobedience for unjust laws but just laws must be obeyed. That if the careless imitate civil disobedience then it can not be confined (Suber, 1999).
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that shows a nation when it is at one of its lowest points economically. During the 1930’s the great depression too place and this story is a depiction of what many families who owned farmland during that time went though. The Joads were a average farming family in Oklahoma until the dust bowl hit. During the dust bowls there was always dirt in the air because all of the farm land had dried up and the land was left as a pile of dry dirt. Because they were no longer able to farm the government took many farms right out from under people and left them with nowhere to turn. The Joads were no exception to this. Tom Joad had just gotten out of the penitentiary for killing a man when he found out what had happened to his family in his absence. When he finally found them, they were all packed up to go to California. On the way to California they lost both Grandma and Grandpa. This shows what a sacrifice they were forced to make because they had nowhere else to turn. Once they get to California they find out that all of the handbills had been wrong and there was hardly enough work there for all the immigrants that were coming from all over the Midwest. The Joads certainly see the worst and the best that California has to offer. From locally run farms with bad cops to government run camps with running water and enough of everything to go around. With they had some luck along they way the Joads eventually run out of money and are forced to take refuge in a barn. While in this barn they find a man who is dying and because Rose of Sheran has unused milk she breast feeds the man. The novel ends with this sentence “She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.” This is suc...
Today?s court system is left with many difficult decisions. One of the most controversial being whether to try juveniles as adults or not. With the number of children in adult prisons and jails rising rapidly, questions are being asked as to why children have been committing such heinous crimes and how will they be stopped. The fact of the matter is that it is not always the children's fault for their poor choices and actions; they are merely a victim of their environment or their parents. Another question asked is how young is too young. Children who are too young to see an R rated film unaccompanied are being sent to adult prisons. The only boundaries that seem to matter when it comes to being an adult are laws that restrain kids from things such as alcohol, pornography, and other materials seen as unethical. Children that are sent to adult prison are going to be subjected to even more unprincipled ideas and scenes. When children can be sent to jail for something as minor as a smash and grab burglary, the judicial system has errors. The laws that send juveniles to adult prisons are inhumane, immoral, and unjust. Kids are often incompetent, which leads to unfair trials. Adult prisons are also very dangerous for minors, and in many cases this leads to more juvenile crimes.
Mission schools across South Africa originated from different churches and among Different parts of the country went to work . They began to establish missions and later in schools. The school has classes for children and adults offered formal training and field into several fields . Tersefldetyd the Christian faith among learners by trying to promote them to learn Bible. The Bible was a great way for the students to learn to read because the missionaries had the Bible translated into the learners' native language . The Bible was to such an extent that it is translated in almost every indigenous language ...