Grapes of Wrath American Criticism
Money, the ultimate regarded affair in America, a topic still regarded today. John Steinbeck criticizes America constantly in The Grapes of Wrath. The Dust Bowl hit America hard; money and jobs were nowhere to be found, especially by the Joad family traveling toward California. Syntax, details, and colloquial diction reveal the growing capitalism in America as criticized by Steinbeck.
First, syntax helps to imply the importance of money in America during the Dust Bowl. A reoccurring form of metonymy is the reference to the bank as one entity. Steinbeck constantly refers to the group of people who work under the bank as “The Bank--or the Company—needs—wants—insists—must have—as though the Bank or the
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Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them.” (Steinbeck 43).
This reference to the bank employees to one monster points negatively toward the people who work with money and control the money of America. Metonymy makes negative connotation toward the authority control the money,as does repetition make negative connotation toward the poor Americans. Steinbeck pities the lower class of America by saying “Why, look how they live. Why, look what they eat” (Steinbeck 316). The repetition in these sentences demonstrates a feeling of sympathy for the ones in the country with less money. Having money becomes the largest part of being in America during the Dust Bowl. Capitalism grows to be as an important aspect for not only the poor people, however the landowners too. Sentence structure helps to reveal the growing capitalism in America. Farming becomes less and less …show more content…
convenient for multiple citizens across America. Steinbeck mentions “And as time went on, the business men had the farms, and the farms grew larger, but there were fewer of them.” (Steinbeck 316). This sentence structure emphasizes the passage of time from one state to another. Capitalism is growing, which causes less organized farms and more corporate farms owned by the upper class. Syntax demonstrates growing capitalism in the Dust Bowl. Second, details demonstrate the lowering of wages in America during the Dust Bowl. Details bring up numbers through text to explain the basis of why fewer people are getting well-paying jobs. At one point in the novel, a man is talking about the way employment works “This fella wants eight hunderd men. So he prints up five thousand of them things an' maybe twenty thousan' people sees 'em. An' maybe two-three thousan' folks gets movin'” (Steinbeck 259). These details prove the technique behind how companies use the Dust Bowl to their advantage to receive plentiful employees. The same man is talking when speaks about how many actually receive a job, “he needs two hunderd men, so he talks to five hunderd, an' they tell other folks, an' when you get to the place, they's a thousan' men. This here fella says, 'I'm payin' twenty cents an hour.' An' maybe half a the men walk off. But they's still five hunderd that's so goddamn hungry they'll work for nothin' but biscuits” (Steinbeck 259). These stats reveal the reality behind employment and cruelty by the companies. The companies are taking advantage of people who are desperate and would work for anything. Later in the novel, details are used again by a person from the point of view of an employer. A man who is part of the Farmers' Association mentions “last night the member from the bank told me, he said, 'You're paying thirty cents an hour. You'd better cut it down to twenty-five.' I said, 'I've got good men. They're worth thirty.' And he says, 'It isn't that,' he says. 'The wage is twenty-five now" (Steinbeck 402). The perspective is from the company owner now, and the cruelty is neither induced to be in the owner, yet in the bank. Capitalism continues to grow in America, forcing land owners to lower wages and hire less employees. Third, Steinbeck constantly uses American slang throughout the novel, the colloquial diction also helps to herald how the lower class Americans feel about the growing capitalism.
Money has become an important part of the American lifestyle and a popular topic of conversation. At one point the Joad's are speaking about how sales work “he'd be findin' out how bad you're hung up, an' how jack ya got, an' then he'd—well, say it's eight bucks in the part book—he'd make a price a five bucks. An' if you put up a squawk, you'd get it for three” (Steinbeck 247). “Jack” in this case is used as a term for money, the way it is mentioned almost makes having money appear demeaning. This diction forces the reader to demean those with money, or “Jack”, in a way. Diction also reveals the revolutionists of the time and the cause that they stir up. The Joad's are reading a newspaper and talking about Red agitators and how they make a fuss before a pay cut (Steinbeck 403). Red agitators are known as “political radicals or revolutionaries, especially applied to Communists, who stir up people in support of a cause” ("Study Help Full Glossary for The Grapes of Wrath"). The choice of the words “red agitators” forces the reader to view the radicals negatively. This slang makes the radicals sound foolish or trouble-making, in a belittling fashion. Although, a man is conversing with Timothy Wallace at one point to speak about a “vagrant” who was mistreated due to their appearance by police
(Steinbeck 456). A “vagrant” is used as a term to describe a beggar or a impecunious person. The term is used negatively and even the situation used to describe the “vagrant” is about policemen sending them to jail unjustly. The use of this word emphasizes, not only the negativity on the citizens with money, but the negativity forced upon the citizens without money. All of this colloquial diction reveals the growing capitalism in America. Syntax, details, and colloquial diction demonstrate the American capitalism as criticized by Steinbeck. Syntax implies the importance of money in America during the Dust Bowl. Details demonstrate the lowering of wages in America during the Dust Bowl. Colloquial diction also helps to advocate how the lower class Americans feel about the growing capitalism. The main critical point by Steinbeck, capitalism. Perhaps he gave foreshadow to the future of America.
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
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,
The armed and intoxicated group of men let the Joads know in no uncertain terms that they aren’t allowing any Okies in their town. Steinbeck shows the frustration and anger of Tom Joad as he deals with this internal struggle to strike out against the men, “Tom shivered all over…And Tom tried to restrain his hard smothered sobbing” (382). Furthermore Steinbeck expresses the Joads support of one another with the comforting actions of Ma Joad towards Tom as she tells Tom “You done good,” Ma said tenderly. “You done jus’ good’” (382). Steinbeck concluded this event with the prejudice men with a rather emphatic statement by Ma Joad proclaiming that “...people like us will go on livin’ when all them people is gone…they ain’t gonna wipe us out…” (383).
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'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.
...y as “the root of all evil” would be too simplistic; what she suggests, rather, is that the distribution of wealth in mid-nineteenth-century America was uneven, and that those with money did little to effectively aid the workers whose exploitation made them rich in the first place. In her portrayals of Mitchell and the “Christian reformer” whose sermon Hugh hears (24), she even suggests that reformers, often wealthy themselves, have no useful perspective on the social ills they desire to reform. Money, she seems to suggest, provides for the rich a numbing comfort that distances them from the sufferings of laborers like Hugh: like Kirby, they see such laborers as necessary cogs in the economic machinery, rather than as fellow human beings whose human desires for the comfort, beauty, and kindness that money promises may drive them to destroy their own humanity.
The global appeal of the so-called American dream of happiness and success has drawn many people to the “promised land” for hundreds of years. Although the American government preached equality for all on paper, it was driven primarily by money. Both Upton Sinclair and John Steinbeck recognized this and used literature to convey the flaws of capitalism. Sinclair’s The Jungle satirized America’s wage slavery at the turn of the century and forty years later, Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath criticized the commercialism of American farming. These two books, often viewed as propagandistic, employ similar persuasive strategies: strong imagery, heavy symbolism, biting irony, and a proposal to correct the situation. Despite these parallels, however, the authentic diction and syntax of Steinbeck’s writing deviates from the inconsistent style of Sinclair. After considering how each author manipulates various stylistic elements, The Grapes of Wrath proves to be a more cogent tract.
The theme of the novel "The Grape Of Wrath" is class conflicts and money. John Steinbeck is saying, money is the only thing that people actually care about, society is controlled over pieces of paper and metal that represents a made up thing called currency. Also when poor people are ruthlessly driven away from their land by those who have possessions and who only seek to own more stuff, class conflict becomes a big issue too.
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.
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.
The Grapes of Wrath attempts to show the difference between the groups of people and the characters along the lines of race, class, and religion, which are discussed in this paper. The Okies' racial status as Anglo Americans appeared to distinguish them from other immigrant workers. Steinbeck utilizes their whiteness further bolstering his good fortune. The "Harvest Gypsies" articles underline the migrants' Anglo-Saxon legacy: their names "show that they are of English, German and Scandinavian plunge." To these families living in provincial regions, with names like "Munns, Holbrooks, Hansens, Schmidts," majority rules system "was not just conceivable be that as it may inescapable" (Hicks, 1939). Steinbeck announces that "this new race" is in California for all time, dissimilar to past migrant gatherings who were extradited when they were no more handy; consequently, he predicts, the state will need to adjust its framework to suit them. Since they are Americans, "the old routines for constraint, of starvation wages, of imprisoning, beating and intimidation are not going to work." The Grapes of Wrath offers a challenge to working class readers to unite with the working population subjects of the story, contending that the desolates of capital amassing are felt all around the society, even all the more intensely on the penniless migrant workers.
Steinbeck criticizes capitalism by portraying the banks and companies as insensitive monsters who, for the sake of profit, heartlessly force the farmers off their lands. When the Dust Bowl hits, the small farmers lose profit and could barely survive on the little they have, but since the bank “has to have profit all the time,” it callously forces the farmers off their land (pg 42). Capitalism, built on the idea of making profit, gets rid of anything that hinders financial gain. The bank could have a...
The book The Grapes of Wrath focuses on a particular section of America called the "Dust Bowl" during the early nineteen thirties. During this time, when tenant farming was a way of life for so many Oklahomans, there came a drought which drastically cut down production of crops and forced the bank to evict the tenants in order to cut losses. The problem may seem straightforward at first, and maybe it is, but the cause of the problem should not be simplified. Naturally, the three participants in this disaster, the tenants, the bank and the workers, have their own separate, and logical, points of view. Who is right? In the larger picture, events occurring during this time period involving banks and corporations are primitive examples of the widespread greedy capitalism infused in our modern society.
... here.” (Steinbeck 65) When his wife and kids left, he lost his property, and started living in abandon homes and crooks by the river to stay away from the bankers, he was to proud to leave his home and even when the banks took it away from him, he still stays and fights, causing the men that run the tractors a hard time.