Comparing Civil Disobedience And The Grapes Of Wrath

In Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath, a farming family must overcome the great depression by earning their way to finding jobs in California. However, the government is one of the major obstacles the Joads must face. In Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience he mainly talks about the avoidance of paying taxes to the government. Thoreau’s essay and Steinbeck’s novel both have things in common and ideals that are different such as the government, revolution, and the people’s rights towards the government.
The major topic on both authors talk about is the government. They both refer to the American government. In Steinbeck’s case they manipulate the farmers to go away for their own profit while the farmers receive nothing. For instance, the government is described as a, “monster,” to the people for evicting the families for enough profit out of them (Steinbeck 43). Here the

The people in The Grapes of Wrath were prevented their rights to protest as they were prohibited power from the government. For instance, the farmers had no choice but to leave their farms since the government ordered tractors that, “came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects,” (Steinbeck 47). In this case, the people are prevented their rights and are forced to move. A similarity can be seen by the way Thoreau describes how the government treats people’s rights. Thoreau exaggerates his point when he states, “If one honest man, in this state of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership,” to relate the taxpayers as slaves to the government (Thoreau 7). The taxpayers are forced by the government to pay and are manipulated like slaves. Those who do not pay taxes are punished by going to jail. The only difference between the two is that the government basically controls the life and death of the farmers in Grapes of