Grapes Of Wrath: How It Relates To The Romance Archetype

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Grapes of Wrath

By John Steinbeck

A RETURN TO PARIDISE

How does California seem to modern America? Violent. Crowded. Filled with bad people. People who live in cities and have lost touch with the earth. These people are portrayed in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath as Californians. Yet, people from the Midwest flocked to California seeking prosperity and opportunity. Their land had been taken by the banks and turned into cotton fields. They were left homeless and desperate. These people sought to work in the fields where they could eat a peach or sit under a tree to relax.

But there wasn’t a California as they had imagined. In fact, the world they entered into when they arrived in California was a cold one. The locals excluded the newcomers and forced them to leave. The locals tormented the foreigners, calling them ‘Okies’ and telling them that they are unwanted. There was no work and when there was, the workers were underpaid and forced to work for low wages. California was hell.

But John Steinbeck creates this novel to fit the “romance” archetype. In this archetype, the hero makes a journey, encounters problems in his path which he overcomes, and reaches his final destination. The hero of the novel must be larger than life, strong, and different from others. He must be a natural leader and greatly glorified. The earth resembles the Garden of Eden, or a ‘paradise.’ He must be in touch with the earth.

The Grapes of Wrath has many obvious connections to the romance archetype, and many subtle connections. One of the more obvious connections is the journey. The main characters, the Joads, embark on a journey from Kansas to California. In the 1930’s Kansas was in the ‘Dust Bowl’, a part of the Midwest where the land dried up, causing fierce dust storms that could kill people. California, on the other hand, was the beautiful, fertile valley, where people could pick peaches, become prosperous, and eventually buy a house to settle down. The fact that the Joads traveled from a terrible place to a better place fits the romance archetype. This better place they search for is the connection to the earth that they once had in Kansas. They envision that they can find it in California as well.

The characters show an obvious connection to the archetype. The romantic hero in this novel is Tom Joad. Tom is larger than life.

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