After World War One, in the early 1930’s, tractors became available, and farmers started cultivating the land and eventually the overcultivated land dried out in drought. Dust storms, disease, and drought forced thousands of farmers and their families to escape the destruction and travel to find new opportunities and work. In John Steinbecks, The Grapes of Wrath, the novel, based on Steinbeck’s experiences living with the migrants, follows the Joad family and preacher Jim Casy across the country in a quest for a new life. On the Joad family’s journey to escape the Dust Bowl, Jim Casy, the preacher, shows compassion; Tom Joad, the oldest son, shows determination; and Ma Joad, the pillar of the family, shows generosity. Through the examples of …show more content…
He firmly replies “Then I’ll be aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there wherever there’s a cop beating up a guy, I’ll be there. why I’ll be in the way the guys yell when they’re mad an’— I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper is ready” (419). Because Tom is very unable to gain rights for the migrants, he wants to support in every way possible and show his determination to gain something for the migrants. He believes the migrants are a community, where helping in small ways helps everybody. Tom not only says he will help, but also shows this. When they are in Hooverville, he supports the other migrants in fighting a work contractor and a deputy over work conditions. After he experiences his friend being killed by a mob for leading a strike, Tom takes revenge and kills one of the men from the mob to show that he wants change. Despite having very little power, Tom continues to fight for his rights despite hardships he may encounter. Throughout the Joad family's journey, Ma Joad continually shows generosity to everyone she sees or
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most influential books in American History, and is considered to be his best work by many. It tells the story of one family’s hardship during the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Joads were a hard-working family with a strong sense of togetherness and morals; they farmed their land and went about their business without bothering anyone. When the big drought came it forced them to sell the land they had lived on since before anyone can remember. Their oldest son, Tom, has been in jail the past four years and returns to find his childhood home abandoned. He learns his family has moved in with his uncle John and decides to travel a short distance to see them. He arrives only to learn they are packing up their belongings and moving to California, someplace where there is a promise of work and food. This sets the Joad family off on a long and arduous journey with one goal: to survive.
Al Joad is a fairly skinny guy of medium built who starts out being a
John Steinbeck once stated: “If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.” The classic text Grapes of Wrath contains several characters with a considerable amount of depth. Characters like Tom and Ma Joad are usually celebrated for their symbolism and dialogue. I feel as though Grandpa Joad is a highly underrated character in Steinbeck’s text Grapes of Wrath.
Along with Jim Casy and Uncle John, Tom Joad secures redemption by leaving to protect his family, promising to continue Casy’s legacy, and developing into a stronger character who aspires to restore justice to the migrants, despite his previous nonchalant attitude toward his crime. Initially, Tom Joad has no inclination for absolution, remarking, “I’d do what I done again...I killed a guy in a fight, knocked his head to plumb to squash” (Steinbeck 35). His words indicate his feelings about his crime, and reveal his apathetic and uncaring persona. However, Tom’s attitude shifts when he kills another man shortly after Casy’s death, and “did not sleep. The nerves of his wounded face came back to life...to shake him” (Steinbeck 528). This foreshadows
Throughout history man has made many journeys, both far and wide. Moses’ great march through the Red Sea and Columbus's traversing the Atlantic are examples of only a couple of men’s great voyages. Even today, great journeys are being made. Terry Fox's run across Canada while fighting cancer is one of these such journeys. In every one of these instances people have had to rise above themselves and overcome immense odds, similar to a salmon swimming upstream to full fill it's life line. Intense drive and extreme fortitude are qualities they needed to posses during their travels.
Ma Joad in the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought, causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma-based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents both a challenge and their only hope.
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
Floyd Knowles was another character associated with Tom. At one point the police were after Floyd and Tom trips the policeman, resulting in him going to hide in the willows so they don’t find him and catch him. The Joads wanted to leave that camp site soon after that happened, after one of the family members went missing, Tom went to find him. The missing member was drunk by the river and Tom was forced to knock him out to get him back to the truck so they could load up and leave. It’s hard for people to change from their old ways, like Tom is doing and Steinbeck is showing us this, and showing that Tom is the protagonist in this novel.
The Joad’s were facing many conflicts and in the process of losing their house. They heard there was going to be work in California and wanted to take the risk and move out there to find a job to provide. The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression were pretty huge topics in history and the novel about The Grapes of Wrath had some pretty raw details about their journey and similar to both histories. The Joad family pushed each other to have a better life in California and did everything they could to have a job to provide and eat, and mainly survive to live another day. In the novel, the beginning, the Joad family faced and struggled with nature, dust nature, just like the people that experienced this during the Dust Bowl. The people in the Southern plains dealt with a huge dust storm and the Joad family were also faced with this storm but struggled from these dust storms because of no work. No work means you can’t eat and
I’ll Have What She’s Having We live in a time where gender equality is almost a reality. Women can do many of the same jobs men can do and in single families or in times of need take a patriarchal role in their family or the workplace.
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.
In the early 1930s, vast dust storms and droughts in the Midwest region of the United States left homes destroyed and farmlands unfertile. This time period was known as the “Dust Bowl”, which lasted about ten years. This greatly impacted the lives of many who lived in this region, particularly the southwest, who were hit the worst with the storms (Nelson, "About the Dust Bowl."). Those who made a living off of their farmland could no longer support their families due to the lack of income because of the drought. This led to a great migration of families westward toward California in order to find jobs, food, and shelter. The immense hardships faced during this migration caused many families and individuals to work for very little money, reside in unsanitary camps, and face extreme conditions. Those who were unfortunate enough to not find work ended up homeless, jobless, and would ultimately die of starvation. An excellent example of this occurs in John Steinbeck’s international bestseller The Grapes of Wrath, where the Joad family is forced to migrate westward and must face adversity head on after being hit with an enormous dust storm and losing their valuable farmland. In order to illustrate how Steinbeck’s novel represents themes of family commitment and losses of sanity within society during this era, many analysts and literary critics have used characterization, conflict, and the theory of new historicism within the novel to break down these particular themes.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.
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.