Grapes of Wrath

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Grapes of Wrath:

In the beginning of the novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads are faced with the challenge of traveling rout 66 all the way to California. This is their solution for being tractored off their land and having no way to support the large family. This challenge is similar to the depression in 1929, when many people lost their jobs, home, and their whole life. The last of the family, the few left in end of the book represent the survivors of the depression. I don’t believe that the ending was adequate because it could have stated the struggle much more dramatically to prove a stronger point.

In the beginning of the Joads journey they have their arms ready with hope of a

brighter life and a little over a hundred bucks. Their journey truly begins when they are tractored off the land by a man on a machine. “ The man was an extension of the

machine.” This quote demonstrates the loss of individuality; the man was nothing but a pawn in industrial game. Throughout the journey to California they run across many

other people just like them, aiming for the same goal, California. This parallels to the depression again in how the large amounts of people, that were broke, hungry, and

homeless, were all looking for the same goal, a better life.

Ma’s quote, “ Use’ ta be the fambly was fust. It ain’t so now. It’s anybody worse off we get, the more we got to do.” ,shows how the family lost it’s “fire” or strive. Ma is saying that even when the “fambly” was fussing about things they still were lively, unlike now, they have no motivation and they are in a dead state of overwhelmed foresight. Ma is doing all that she can to not only keep the family together, but also keep the family going in the right direction while dealing with her own issues of constant overwhelming defeat.

The novel closes with Rosa of Sharon offering her dead baby’s breast milk to a

stranger, the father of a boy the Joads found leaning over him. While committing the

gesture a “mysterious” smile crosses her lips. These closing lines signify the Christian belief that Jesus gave holy communion, his own flesh and blood, like Rosa of Sharon gave her milk.

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