The Grapes of Wrath, chronicles the Joad’s family exodus from Oklahoma to
California in search for a brighter, economic future. The name Joad and the exodus to
California is parallel to the Biblical story of Exodus and the character Job, but at the time
was depicting the Okie Exodus. The Okies were farmers whose topsoil blew away due to
dust storms and were forced to migrate along Route 66 to California in search of work.
The Okies were resented for migrating in large numbers to areas in the West where work
was already hard to find and the sudden multitude of workers caused wages to be
lowered. The Joad’s reside in Oklahoma, referred to as the “Dust Bowl” of the U.S.
because of its lack of rain. The story takes place during the late 1930’s when the country
was in the midst of the Great Depression. The Joad family were sharecroppers evicted
from their homes because they failed to pay the bank their loan payments to the Shawnee
Land and Cattle Company.
On their journey, the Joad’s ran into a returning migrant from California who tells
them that the handbill they have looking for 800 pickers is a bunch of hogwash. He’d
rather starve in Oklahoma then starve in California. The migrant scolds them on their
naivety saying “Now, how many of you all got them handbills?...(The men respond that
they all have them) There you are, same yellow handbill. 800 Pickers Wanted. All right,
the man wants 800 men, so he prints 5,000 handbills and maybe 20,000 people see 'em.
And maybe two or three thousand people start West on account of that handbill. Two or
three thousand people that are crazy with worry headin' out for 800 jobs. Now does that
make sense?” He tells them that the growers are exploiting them, causing a surplus of
workers to drive down labor costs according to supply and demand. The significance of
his role in the movie, is that he let’s the Joad’s know everything they are moving West
for is false. Their journey is based on a lie, and the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
While stopping for gas, Mr. Joad heads into the diner to buy a loaf of bread. Mr.
Joad is a nickel short of the 15 cents that the bread cost, and against the waitresses
opinion the chef tells her to sell it to him for a dime.
In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes of the novel, as well to set the tone of the novel".
Through visiting La Plaza De Culturas Y Artes, I have learned a lot more interesting, yet, surprising new information about the Chicano history in California. For example, in the 1910’s and on the high immigration of Mexicans and other Chicanos, into coal mines and farms by major corporations, made California one of the richest states in the US. I also learned that most of California 's economy was heavily reliant on immigrants. Immigrants were the preferred worker for major corporations because they didn 't have American rights and were given the harder jobs for less pay.
The “Dust Bowl Odyssey” presented an initial perspective of why families migrated from drought-ridden, Dust Bowl, areas to California. Edward Carr cautions, “Interpretation plays a necessary part in establishing the facts of history, and because no existing interpretation is wholly objective, on interpretation is a good as another, and the facts of history are in principle not amendable to objective interpretation” (Carr, 1961, p. 31). Historians had to separate the prejudices, assumptions, and beliefs of the times in order to have a more objective reasoning of the migration. The migration had valid evidence that supported against the theory of the Dust Bowl being the only contributor. Rather there were other historical contributions to
Despite their lack of a cohesive political structure, some of California’s native people actively resisted the imposition of the mission system from the start. The first uprising occurred only six years after the founding of the first mission at San Diego. In the autumn of 1775, several neófitos—disconte...
California represents is not as easy to attain as they once thought. The characters in The Day of the
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
(Worster 105). The droughts caused many unfavorable conditions throughout the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring sections of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Thus, roughly one-third of Texas and Oklahoman farmers left their homes and headed to California in search of migrant work. The droughts during the 1930s are a drastically misrepresented factor in the Dust Bowl considering “the 1930s droughts were, in the words of a Weather Bureau scientist, the worst in the climatological history of the country.” (Worster 232)
In George Orwell’s novel 1984, he illustrates how those who are being oppressed by totalitarian power, soon become isolated and emotionally modified by society, resulting in their loss of individuality and personal expression. Overall, Big Brother was the largest oppressive power of the society, and all of the citizens’ right’s were taken from them, due to this overwhelming government. Orwell’s warning was to alert those that if we are not careful with our decisions of who runs our country, then this terrifying event could have possibly occurred during 1984. War, is not peace, and freedom, is not slavery.
The opening chapter paints a vivid picture of the situation facing the drought-stricken farmers of Oklahoma. Dust is described a covering everything, smothering the life out of anything that wants to grow. The dust is symbolic of the erosion of the lives of the people. The dust is synonymous with "deadness". The land is ruined ^way of life (farming) gone, people ^uprooted and forced to leave. Secondly, the dust stands for ^profiteering banks in the background that squeeze the life out the land by forcing the people off the land. The soil, the people (farmers) have been drained of life and are exploited:
In the book 1984, Orwell uses the ominous Big Brother to depict what a government with all control would feel like; giving the reader a real sense of how powerless a population would really be under an all-controlling regime. Winston, the main character in the novel, sees posters throughout London with a man gazing down underneath contains the words “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Even though Big Brother is virtually everywhere, Winston secretly questions whether or not he actually exists. Orwell uses Big Brother to symbolize the vagueness of a totalitarian government, what it is like to leave all power in the hands of government officials, and then just simply take their word for what they say or what they do. Although the term Big Brother can in one way be considered as a reassurance of protection, the following words “big brother is watching you” also insinuates that he is an open threat. Although this story takes place after Big Brother has risen to power, Orwell does not fail to emphasize that this power was not taken; it was given, as power always will be. The only way Big Brother, or a totalitarian government can truly work, is only after we give them the power to take that kind of control. When looking back at history, we can see similar situations as with Adolf Hitler...
George Orwell’s book, “1984,” has influenced its’ readers from the time it was written even until now. The book has presented a future different from that of the scientific future of flying cars and hovercrafts that society has presented to us. Instead, it tells of rotten political future. Today some people refer to our society as “Orwellian”. They believe Orwell’s story is realistic and compares to our present society. However, there are many people that believe “1984” is satirical nonsense. Orwell was not aware of the impact that his book would have on the world. Even people that have never read “1984” know who Big Brother is and use the term Orwellian. I agree with the realistic half of George Orwell’s audience. The book can be compared to today’s society in many ways. We are even beginning to see some characteristics of an Orwellian society in our social classes, laws, and wars.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s powerful story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is about a woman who was driven to madness by her depression and controlling husband. The story is told by the wife, in first person, and is based on Gilman’s own life experience. Gilman suffered from post-partum depression after her daughter was born and was prescribed the “resting cure” which is resting and isolation. In the story, the narrator’s husband puts her in isolation because he believes that will cure her of her depression and breakdowns. He won’t let her do anything, so she turns to writing in her secret journal to try and cure her depression. Since she has nothing to do all day, she turns her attention to the yellow wallpaper in the room. She becomes obsessed with it and begins to see a woman trapped inside the pattern. The wallpaper dominates the narrator’s imagination and she becomes possessed and secretive about hiding her obsession with it. The narrator suspects the her husband and sister are aware of her obsession so she starts to destroy the wallpaper and goes into a frenzy trying to free the caged woman in the pattern of the wallpaper. The narrator becomes insane, thinking that she also came out of the wallpaper, and creeps around the room, and when her husband checks on her, he faints because of what she has become, and she continues to creep around the room, stepping over body.
that were seeking work found jobs in farming, mining, and railroad construction work this help
Jekyll was originally more evil than good because when he created the potion he was concerned about pleasing himself than actually thinking the consequences that would happen by the creation of his experiment. The argument of reputation dealing with the novel of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde it is able to bring pros to it because would be able to describe the characters and show what they are good at. Based on the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centers upon a conception of humanity as the deal of nature. Later on, Dr. Jekyll states that "men is not the truly one, but truly two", he also imagines that the human soul as the battleground for an angel and the fiend struggling for their own mastery. (Sparknotes Editors "Sparknote on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Sparknotes.com LLL.2003 Web 03 May 2016) Maria M Struzziero states that Dr. Jekyll is hiding a dark mysterious for emerging for the first time in Enfield 's words. It also shows that he admits that is not easy to describe adding that there is something wrong with his appearance something displeasing, downright and detestable. (Struzziero, Maria M "Dualism and Dualities- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Themes." Dualism and Dualities – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Themes N.P ND wed 04 May 2016) Another description could be that Mike Arnzen said A lot of emphases was put on "credit" or the reputation of the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Also said that "If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all the unbearable, and the unjust might go away" (Arnzen, Mike "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Swe nightingale. N.P...11 Aug 2009. Web 04 May 2016) The analysis of data its ability to describe how the reputation of Jekyll and Hyde is. Shows that it 's allowing the readers to understand the insides of what they as being the protagonist and the antagonist. They are differing opinions that say that the angel gives ways permanently to Dr. Jekyll 's
...at Dr. Jekyll had started drinking the potion so often that he couldn’t control his urges to keep turning into Hyde. Until one day he wasn’t able to turn back into Dr. Jekyll. This shows that to some extent, our evil thoughts and negative attitude overpowers our minds and leaves us to only think about ourselves and no one else, even if someone is good-natured and has great qualities.