Currency in The Grape Of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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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. Life becomes a battle between the haves and have-nots. The conflict spreads when the migrants were seeking a better life in California, landowners find the migrants a cheap source of labor and a means to maximize profit. Steinbeck writes "The woman will sniff as though she smelled rotting meat and they will go out again and tell forever afterward that the people in the west are sullen" (Steinbeck 212). This quotation shows how disrespectful people with money are to the lower class and how they thing they are better than them just because of money. Mae can tell just by how they act and the car that they drive, that they will act like that, that is how most if ...

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