The Grapes of Wrath is about a family trying to make a better life during the Great Depression. In difficult times, John Steinbeck argues that families need to cooperate and stick together to solve their problems. Throughout the novel, Ma Joad serves as the strength and binding force for the Joad family. She is determined to move her family safely from Oklahoma to California, but she is concerned her family may breakup during their journey. Ma begins her journey with valid concerns, and stresses over the wellbeing of her family. "I ain't got faith. I'm scared sompein ain't so nice about it" (123). Ma’s strong devotion to her family and the determination she has for a better life compels her to make the trip to California and endure an agonizing journey. “That’s all I can do. I can’t do no more. All the rest’d get upset if I done any more’n that. They all depen’ on me jus’ thinkin’ about that” (124). Prior to their journey, Tom warns his mother of his skeptical views of California, which causes disagreement among the family. However, Ma’s faith and confidence is enhanced when Tom stops dwelling on his past hardships and changes his perspective about future in California. “I'm …show more content…
a-gonna tell you somethin about bein' in the pen. You can't go thinkin' when you're gonna be out...Jus' take ever' day” (91). Throughout their journey, Tom reassures his mother that she is very capable of managing herself and her family who both can endure hardships when they come together. Steinbeck uses Ma and Tom’s relationship as an example of how a family can get through adversity when they support each other. During their journey to California, the Joad family endure very difficult times, especially when Grandpa and Grandma die and Noah abandons the family. Every time a loved one left the family, Ma’s spirit would dim. “ They’s a time of change, an’ when that comes, dyin’ is a piece of all dyin’ and bearin’ is a piece of all bearin’ “(209-210). Ma Joad then finds strength in her faith, which allows her to focus on the natural process of life and death. This found strength helps Ma to support the family through their loss. Then, the prospect of a new baby brings hope to the family. “We worked till we dropped an’ a tree---“(444). In the end, the baby is born not fully developed and dies; but the process of the family delivering the baby brought them closer together as a family unit. “They was on’y one thing to do--ever—an’ we done it” (444). Steinbeck supports that through extreme sadness, a family can get closer together through faith and love. The Joad’s family bond is also strengthened when they meet the Wilson family.
The Wilson’s are a selfless couple that showed compassion to Grandpa when he was sick and dying. "How'd you like ta come in our tent? You kin lay down on our mattress an' rest" (184). After Grandpa dies, the two families share an even stronger relationship by giving back to each other when needed and decide to stay together during their journey to California. “You won’t be no burden. Each’ll help each, an’ we’ll git to California. Sairy Wilson he’ped lay Grampa out“ (148). To emphasize his argument about the importance of a strong family unit, Steinbeck introduces this other family and the friendship they share. When these two families work together, they find strength in each other’s
company. To sum it up, Steinbeck clearly uses a great number of rhetorical devices, especially imagery, atmosphere, and repetition to support the importance of a strong family unit during difficult times. “The Bank—or the Company—needs—wants—insists—must have---as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them.” (31-32). Not only does he use these devices to support his argument, but he also alludes to the Bible in several instances throughout the novel. “The land is dead and produces no crops, perhaps a reference to Cain’s punishment for killing Abel when God ordained that nothing will grow upon the crops which he works” (ref: Genesis). Steinbeck's argument can be defined as a forensic argument because it took place in the past, and he relies on evidence and past information to confirm his beliefs. I can surmise that Steinbeck believes in a strong family unit, especially needing each other’s support during extreme hardship.
Al Joad is a fairly skinny guy of medium built who starts out being a
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
Throughout the novel, The Grapes of Wrath there are intercalary chapters. The purpose of these chapters are to give the readers insight and background on the setting, time, place and even history of the novel. They help blend the themes, symbols, motifs of the novel, such as the saving power of family and fellowship, man’s inhumanity to man, and even the multiplying effects of selfishness. These chapters show the social and economic crisis flooding the nation at the time, and the plight of the American farmer becoming difficult. The contrast between these chapters helps readers look at not just the storyline of the Joad family, but farmers during the time and also the condition of America during the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck uses these chapters to show that the story is not only limited to the Joad family,
or fear." Thus, if Ma acts as if everything is all right, then the family
In fact, one principal character who was involved in a difficult situation was Ma Joad. She was a wife and mother whose only occupation in life was a housewife. She lived in an unfair time period; women were forced to do almost everything that the man commanded. However, Ma Joad was different. Ever since the family traveled to California, she slowly began to take charge. This was first seen when Tom, Ma’s son, suggested that the family continue driving while he and Casy, the preacher, stayed behind to fix the Wilson’s (a family the Joads met on their way to California) automobile. Ma Joad was furious with this idea. She brought out a jack handle and said, “ ‘You done this ‘thout thinkin’ much. What we got lef ‘in the world’? Nothin’ but us. Nothin’ but the folks…An’ now, right off, you wanna bust up the folks’ “ (Steinbeck 218). Ma J...
The Joad family members were facing hardships from the beginning. Before the journey, Tom Joad had been in prison and that was a downer to everyone. In the scenes of overcoming this problem, Tom was released and his family was so excited and full of joy to see him. Before they could celebrate too much, they found themselves having to leave the land that most of them were born on, raised on and labored for. They decided that as shady as it was to be forced off their own land, the drought had shattered any hopes of prospering from it anyway. With the hope of a better life out in California and a flyer that said pickers needed, they set out for the proclaimed promised land.
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 is an ex-convict that was only into his own self-interest and lived by a mantra of live your life day by day and not concerned with the future, to becoming a man who thinks about the future and someone with morals and an obligation to help others. Ma Joad is a typical woman of the early 1900’s whose main role was a mother only with a role of caring and nurturing. Later in the novel, she becomes an important figure for the family and is responsible for making decisions in keeping the family together and emphasizes the importance of unity. Another important transition in the book is the family starting off as a single close knit unit to depending on other families to survive. This common interest and struggle bonded the community of individual families to a single one. Steinbeck wrote this novel very well, by having great character dynamics and development that displays the characters strengths and also their
John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath in response to the Great Depression. Steinbeck's intentions were to publicize the movements of a fictional family affected by the Dust Bowl that was forced to move from their homestead. Also a purpose of Steinbeck's was to criticize the hard realities of a dichotomized American society.
From a more romantic perspective one might be inclined to say the main theme behind this story is choices made by man as a unit when obstacles and circumstances arise, perhaps perseverance through hardship. But this book rarely displays romantic or idealistic interactions among the characters or moments in the plot. Although there is one example of slight romantisicm at end, the book for the most part is an excellent illustration of naturalism in a piece of literature. To shine this main theme under a naturalistic light, the reader must be allowed to examine the deep psychological, emotional and physical connection between man and his land so often demonstrated and greatly emphaisized throughout the book. The cliffsnotes state that this connection is a basic fundament to the Jeffersonian agrarian theory. A great example of when Steinbeck incorporates this philosophy is when the representatives of the bank are telling the tenant farmers that they need to get off the land. They feel that since they lived and died on the land, it is rightfully theirs. "Funny thing how it is. If a man owns a little property, that property is in him, it's part of him, and it's like him (37)." Since the bond between the farmer and his property is so strong, once it is broken the people loose their self-respect, dignity, and meaning. Steinbeck uses this idea to foreshadow and help explain the events of Grandpa's death and to further drive the ideas Casy preaches. Casy suggests at the funeral that Granpa died the moment he was torn from his land. He also speculates that only if the band together and make sacrifices for the unit, the Joads and the Wilsons can they survive. "We on'y got a hundred an' fifty dollars. They take forty to bury Grampa an' we won't get to California (140)." They decide that for the family the best thing to do is to bury him on the road.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
“Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but its jus' in their head.” (Steinbeck) The Grapes of Wrath is most often categorized as an American Realist novel. It was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. As a result of this novel, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and prominently cited the novel when he won the Nobel Prize a little over twenty years after the text’s publication. This text follows the Joad family through the Great Depression. It begins in Oklahoma, watching as the family is driven from their home by drought and economic changes. Within the introduction of the novel the living conditions is described, “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: The walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it.” (Grapes, 1) This novel is and will remain one of the most significant novels of the Great Depression. Despite its controversial nature it is timeless. In fact, the ending of this text is one of the most controversial pieces of literature written during the time period, and has never accurately made its way into film. The ending to John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is the most significant portion of the novel due to its historical accuracy as well as its message about the American spirit.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.
There are several different themes in The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Here I will go into depth on those. The three main themes in the story are free will versus necessity, the holiness of every man, and the kinship of all man.
The following morning, Tom and his new friend Jim go on a journey to Uncle John’s, which is Tom’s Uncle. They head out to find Uncle John because Muley is almost positive that they will find the whole Joad family. When they finally arrived Tom finds Pa and Ma Joad getting together the last of the families belongings. In California there was advertisements for fruit picking jobs and they all wanted to travel to California in hope that the fruit picking would get their lives back together.