The differences between selfishness and selflessness are strong throughout The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Everywhere the Joad family goes there is always someone to either push them into the dirt or give them a hand out of the dirt. This happened far and wide, people can be greedy, selfish, and rapacious. It’s in our nature, but even in desperate times when people have a right to be selfish, some will find the will in their heart to aid those who can’t help themselves. On the Joad’s journey to the land of milk and honey, they encounter people that are cruel and brutish. Yet they still find it in themselves to help others as well as some people helping the Joad’s out. At their first official camp, the Joad’s unpack and cook something to eat, stew to be exact. As the stew is cooking, the smell of food attracts a slew of children. They try to help Ma out as she is cooking; doing everything they can to be fed. Ma knows she doesn’t have enough to feed the children seeing that she can barely feed her own family, yet she still decides to do the right thing, “I’m a-gonna set this here kettle out, an’ you’ll all get a little tas’, but it ain’t gonna do you no good,”” but Ma could see the children starve, “I can’t he’p it. Can’t keep it from you.”” (Steinbeck 258) Ma is incapable of leaving children to starve. …show more content…
Despite the fact that Ma can’t not help, some are still trying to bring everyone around them down in the worst way possible. After Ma feeds the children a women comes over to her and screams at her for being selfless. “My little fella come back smellin’ of stew. You give it to ‘im. He tol’ me. Don’ you go a-boastin’ an’ a-braggin’ ‘bout havin’ stew. Don’ you do it. I got ‘nuf troubles ‘thout that. Come ta me, he did, an’ says, “Whyn’t we have stew?’” Her voice shook in fury?” (258-259) The mother yelling at Ma because her son is eating. She should be grateful for the food so her son doesn’t die from starvation. The Joad’s face all these peaks and valleys in their experience in California. While Ma faces inequity all while trying to be valuable in a chaotic world, Mrs.
Wainwright stops to help the Joad family when they are in dire need of it. Mrs. Wainwright is the Joad’s boxcar neighbor at one of the many camps they live in. At this certain time, Rose of Sharon is expecting and is getting weak to the point of where her legs give out from under her. Mrs. Wainwright helps the Joad family in many ways; one being she helped deliver Rose of Sharon’s baby. “I he’ped with lots.” (440) she helped Rose of Sharon and Ma, without her the labor would have been sufficiently more painful. Without the help of others, the Joad’s (FINISH CONCLUDING
SENTENCE) Finally, we have Rose of Sharon. She is a secretive and mysterious women. Throughout the entire trip Rose of Sharon complained and only thought about herself. When Connie leaves her, she fusses and yammer on all the time. “Ef Connie hadn’ went away, we’d a had a little house by now, with him studyin’ an’ all. Would a got milk like I need. Would a had a nice baby. This here baby ain’t gonna be no good. I ought a had milk.”” (Steinbeck 353-354) Also, she never wanted to help out. She always laid around when work needed to be done and thought she deserved to eat the most because she is pregnant and didn’t care too much about the rest of the family.
One of the ironies of Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath was that, as Ma Joad said, "If your in trouble or hurt or need -- go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help -- the only ones."(pg 335) The irony is that if you need something you have to go to the people who have nothing.
When times get tough, many people turn away from everyone and everything. It must be part of human nature to adopt an independent attitude when faced with troubles. It is understandable because most people do not want to trouble their loved ones when they are going through problems, so it is easier to turn away than stick together. Maybe their family is going through a rough patch and they reason they would be better off on their own. This path of independence and solitude may not always be the best option for them or their family, though. Often times it is more beneficial for everyone to work through the problem together. It is not always the easiest or most desirable option, but most times it is the most efficient and it will get results in the long run. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck makes this point very clear through several characters. Many characters throughout
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. Among them are only four women embodying every ages: the Grandma, the Mother and her two daughters, the pregnant Rose of Sharon and the young Ruthie. Appearing in Chapter Eight the mother, who is referred to as “Ma”, holds a decisive role in Steinbeck’s novel. She is, along with her son Tom (the main character of the book), present from the early stage of the story until its very end. We will attempt to trace back her emotional journey (I) as well as to analyze its universal aspects and to deliver an overall impression on the book (II).
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...
Throughout the book Steinbeck uses personification through Charley to create the idea that Charley is more than just a dog but he is a friend to Steinbeck, someone to rely on throughout his journey. Charley is alluded to a French gentleman poodle. He is portrayed as extremely wise and his uses for making connections with the people they encounter on their journey across the US. My understanding from reading the book and seeing how the book is portrayed gives me the idea that Charley has dignity and pride. The book states “Charley was torn three ways—with anger at me for leaving him, with gladness at the sight of Rocinante, and with pure pride in his appearance. For when Charley is groomed and clipped and washed he is as pleased with himself
Steinbeck’s characterization of Ma Joad is a positive characterization of a woman. She embodies the prowess of the sought-after woman, and she is a symbol for positive motherhood. She is strong, and she is never fragile.
Steinbeck strikes at the fear in every man’s soul, with his portrayal of the poverty stricken life of the Joads as they travel from one stage of abandonment and what would seem like a helpless state to a journey of enduring perseverance. The Joads, Steinbeck’s creation in the Novel Grapes of Wrath is a large close-knit family living in Oklahoma during the “Dust Bowl” era. Steinbeck documents their journey beginning with their homelessness due to the crop failures to them surviving in a box car at the end of their journey. I think Steinbeck’ intention is to illustrate to the reader that being poor doesn’t always equate with being helpless. The Joads demonstrate this by their resilience to overcome homelessness, death, and prejudice.
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
Steinbeck's relationship to the transcendentalists [Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman] was pointed out soon after The Grapes of Wrath appeared by Frederick I. Carpenter, and as the thirties fade into history, Jim Casy with his idea of the holiness of all men and the unreality of sin seems less a product of his own narrowly doctrinaire age than a latter-day wanderer from the green village of Concord to the dry plains of the West.
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.
Often in Grapes of Wrath, the affluent people stereotype the migrants as poor and penniless. As the Joads pull into the gas station, the attendant immediately asks, “Got any money?” He views the Joads as one of many poor, migrant families arriving to beg for some gas. But not all people who view migrants as poverty-stricken, hungry people see them in such a way. Mae, a waitress at one of the restaurants pities a family asking for bread and shows her compassion by letting the children have candy for much less than its worth. Instead of the anticipated let-down, the migrants receive pity from those with compassion and sympathy.
The ending of The Grapes of Wrath maintains its historical accuracy by enforcing the idea of the women being the force that holds the family together. From even the beginning of this text we can see that Ma Joad is an incredibly strong ch...
The Weedpatch camp was very friendly and caring towards Joads’ family. In their long Journey, they tried different places. They were searching for work, therefore they had to make a journey during the entire day. The time, they had to assemble in the small place, they pressed each other, and they had to stand on their feet. They faced problems in every place they tried to settle, because their freedom of doing things was blocked by the brutal systems. As stated by John Steinbeck, every place they tried to make camp, the condition was very bad. As Ma mentions, Ma is expressing her sufferings on the road. Her entire family was oppressed by the landowners and by the cops. In Weedpatch camp, her family was accepted as they were, and was viewed
Jealousy and envy, to emotions that are confused into the same meaning. They are related, but it depends on your point of view. Jealousy is the fear of losing something you possess while envy is the longing for something you don’t own. These two emotions are intertwined and can bring out the worst in people and/or the best. These two emotions are key driving factors in the plot of John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” Jealousy is shown in the few that are wealthy and envy is portrayed in the many that are poor. Even with these emotions negatively impacting people, can some rise up and become better people?