Throughout all of John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath he shows many characters who were alienated or “different” from other characters, and like it states at the top Tom Joad is the perfect example of this. Right when you meet Tom you can tell he is a little off from the situation and thats why he starts to do things more his way. In this essay I will show with you ways Toms alienation showed how poorly the lower class were treated for the entirety of this book. Firstly, When we first meet Tom we find out he is going to his parents house to work there, because he had just recently been released from Prison. When Tom arrives however he learns that his parents were kicked to the curb from there own home. This definitely shows how poorly the lower class were treated. Considering, the fact that if they …show more content…
Due to the lack of work during the great depression there would be no way that the lower class like the Joad’s would be able to afford to bury Gramma. This proves the way they treated the lower class was terrible. There wasn’t enough jobs to pay every person making there way to California. Even a man said during their journey that there were about 50 jobs and about 2,500 handbills passed out. Everyone knew there wouldn’t be enough jobs and yet they all went to California in hopes for a new life. All In All, John Steinbeck showed lots of ways the lower class was treated terribly unfairly. Including, when The Joad’s farm was taken away, when the man at the gas station was afraid he might get robbed, and lastly when Gramma died and The Joad’s had no way to pay for her burial. All of these things and more showed how bad the lower class were treated. So I thank God for giving me the life in this generation and not having to live through the terrible time like the Great
Al Joad is a fairly skinny guy of medium built who starts out being a
When times get tough, many people turn away from everyone and everything. It must be part of human nature to adopt an independent attitude when faced with troubles. It is understandable because most people do not want to trouble their loved ones when they are going through problems, so it is easier to turn away than stick together. Maybe their family is going through a rough patch and they reason they would be better off on their own. This path of independence and solitude may not always be the best option for them or their family, though. Often times it is more beneficial for everyone to work through the problem together. It is not always the easiest or most desirable option, but most times it is the most efficient and it will get results in the long run. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck makes this point very clear through several characters. Many characters throughout
Most of Steinbeck’s work conveys a deeper meaning or message to the readers, and The Grapes of Wrath presents no exception, as redemption’s prevalence influences the growth of each character. Although the book ends with a tragic flood after the family has faced the loss of Rose of Sharon’s newborn baby, the novel still ends in happiness, since characters such as Jim Casy, Uncle John, Tom Joad, and Rose of Sharon attain redemption and in doing so, become saviors for migrant families. Steinbeck manifests the idea the migration did not necessarily implicate the Joads would find prosperity in the promised land of California, but would instead fulfill the quest for absolution, which results in their heroic
In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck brings to the reader a variety of diverse and greatly significant characters. However, the majority of each characters' individuality happens to lie within what they symbolize in the microcosm of the Joad family and their acquaintances, which itself stands for the entire migrant population of the Great Depression era. One such character is that of Jim Casey, a former preacher and long-time friend of the Joads. In this story, Casey represents a latter-day Christ figure who longs to bring religious stability to the burgeon of migrant families facing West.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck had many comparisons from the movie and the book. In 1939, this story was to have some of the readers against the ones that kept the American people in poverty held responsible for their actions. This unique story was about the Joad’s family, who were migrant workers looking for a good decent job. They were also farmers from Oklahoma that are now striving to find some good work and success for their family in California. This novel was one of Steinbeck’s best work he has ever done. It was in fact an Academy Award movie in 1940. Both the movie and the novel are one of Steinbeck’s greatest masterpieces on both the filmmaking and the novel writing. Both the novel and film are mainly the same in the beginning of the story and towards the end. There were some few main points that Steinbeck took out from the book and didn’t mention them in the movie. “The Grapes of Wrath is a
The trip had proved to much for Grandpa Joad early on and he passed away. As depressing as that was for the remaining Joads, they pressed on. They knew they needed to make it to California to have a better life and that hope empowered them. Vehicle trouble, low food and not much support from people they passed was not enough to make them give up.
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.
Tom Joad experiences many struggles in The Grapes of Wrath. Due to his struggles, he undergoes an immense change that causes him from being unconcerned and impassive to being contemplative and expressive. The journey with Casy and his family affects how he achieves success to become a true, strong character. With his responsibility of taking care of the family, he carries great burden and doubtful decisions of leading them to California. Throughout the journey, he faces trials and sufferings that lead him to have an inner conflict with himself in order for his family to have the golden opportunity to live prosperously in the scarce but hopeful land. His moments of feeling helplessness and vulnerability in the position of a deterred migrant,
The Great Depression was brought about through various radical economic practices and greatly affected the common man of America. Although all Americans were faced with the same fiscal disparity, a small minority began to exploit those in distress. Along the trek westward from Oklahoma, the Joad family met a grand multitude of adversity. However, this adversity was counteracted with a significant amount of endurance exhibited by the Joads and by generalized citizens of America.
The Grapes Of Wrath is a book full of troubles and tragedy that a family from Oklahoma face on their journey to California to find work to support themselves. Forced to leave their home and the place they grew up the Joads encounter corrupt people who exploit them, horrible living conditions, death, unsuitable weather conditions and situations that truly tests them. This book shows just how much a family can maintain their dignity by defying corruption, authority, and Mother Nature herself.
...ld be compared to the story of Moses and the Hebrews. The Californians and the wealthy business owners symbolize the Pharaohs while the migrants symbolize the enslaved Hebrews. However the happy ending to Moses’ story doesn’t correspond with the ending of the Joads or other families. In the end, they are still impoverished, homeless, and hungry. While Egypt suffered plagues, the Californians and business owners suffer none. There isn’t any reason for the vindictiveness of the Californians and wealthy business owners to cease. Steinbeck uses the story of one family to ultimately cry out to everyone that “food must rot, must be forced to rot” (Steinbeck 349). The ones forcing poverty upon the migrants are the same ones sitting comfortably in their chair reading The Grapes of Wrath.
In John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, the American cultural mainsteam ideas on capitalism, religion. During the great depression, as the dust bowl struck the Midwest, many people fell on extreme hard times and began to question cultural assumptions in America. Tom Joad represents the socialist counter-culture emerging in America, while Casy represents the movement away from a more traditionalistic religious identity, expressing his belief that there is no heaven or hell, and discussing the concept of a shared soul.
The novel focuses on the negative aspects of capitalism and sheds a positive light on communism. Steinbeck proves that there are many problems in capitalism with the way the migrants suffered during the era of the Great Depression. The economic slump, which many people assume affected the urban populations, was even harsher on the migrants. Steinbeck, throughout his novel, reveals the plight of the migrant workers during the Depression and how capitalism has crushed them. He reaches out to his readers and plants the idea that the glorified capitalism in America is not what it seems, and that any path, even communism, is preferable.
The Grapes of Wrath is a classic piece of American literature that provides an in depth analysis of the great dust bowl. The author, John Steinbeck, illustrated the everyday life of a migrant farmer from the perspective of the Joad family. By describing many important motifs, Steinbeck illustrates the many social and economic transformations that America experienced in the 1930’s. These themes include race, religion, gender, and class. The changes that occurred during this time period forever changed the American way of life.
In the great depression many people suffered from hunger and poverty can you imagine not being able to eat for days and days and not only that but imagine having to suffer from sands blowing away all your crops and destroying your home. That’s how it was back then, people suffered from hunger and sandstorms destroyed everything in their paths. John Steinbeck a very well know writer and the creator of “The Grapes of Wrath” is very well known for writing books during the great depression in which he liked to write about the poor, homeless and misfit people. Humility is very well described in the book “The Grapes of Wrath” because it tells about a man trying to take care of his children with the little money he has while also trying to get to California. In the story the man’s humility changes the waitress’s behavior because she feels sympathy towards the man even though she was being a stereotype at the beginning.