The Grapes Of Wrath

1041 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The great depression hardships essay

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that shows a nation when it is at one of its lowest points economically. During the 1930’s the great depression too place and this story is a depiction of what many families who owned farmland during that time went though. The Joads were a average farming family in Oklahoma until the dust bowl hit. During the dust bowls there was always dirt in the air because all of the farm land had dried up and the land was left as a pile of dry dirt. Because they were no longer able to farm the government took many farms right out from under people and left them with nowhere to turn. The Joads were no exception to this. Tom Joad had just gotten out of the penitentiary for killing a man when he found out what had happened to his family in his absence. When he finally found them, they were all packed up to go to California. On the way to California they lost both Grandma and Grandpa. This shows what a sacrifice they were forced to make because they had nowhere else to turn. Once they get to California they find out that all of the handbills had been wrong and there was hardly enough work there for all the immigrants that were coming from all over the Midwest. The Joads certainly see the worst and the best that California has to offer. From locally run farms with bad cops to government run camps with running water and enough of everything to go around. With they had some luck along they way the Joads eventually run out of money and are forced to take refuge in a barn. While in this barn they find a man who is dying and because Rose of Sheran has unused milk she breast feeds the man. The novel ends with this sentence “She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.” This is suc...

... middle of paper ...

... they are only looking out for themselves. I think that in the end of the novel he is really just restating what he showed readers throughout the rest of the novel through little scenes like this one. While there are many bad critiques of Steinbeck’s ending, there are also some positive ones as well. By putting this strange scene in the novel I think that Steinbeck is trying to show that even when some people’s worlds are turned upside down they can come out of it and still be willing to put the lives of others before themselves. While the ending of this novel is without a doubt a sign that the Joads do not make it out together in the end Steinbeck still gives readers some hope by showing the good nature of Rose of Sharon and Ma.

Work Cited

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Web. 25 September 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Intercalary Themes In 'The Grapes Of Wrath'

    354 Words  | 1 Pages

    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".

    Read More

  • The Grapes Of Wrath Chapter Analysis

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Grapes Of Wrath Compare And Contrast Essay

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Grapes of Wrath

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    California in search for a brighter, economic future. The name Joad and the exodus to

    Read More

  • Steinbeck's Social Commentary in The Grapes of Wrath

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting the Novel and Movie Version of The Grapes of Wrath

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although both the novel and movie form of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath are considered to be American classics, the novel provides a deeper understanding of the story's time and meaning. Absent from the film, the novel's interchapters provide a greater understanding of the time in which The Grapes of Wrath takes place. First, in the movie it is unclear why the Joads are forced to abandon their farm. It is described very briefly by Muley Graves, leaving the audience in a state of confusion. However, in the novel, Chapter 5 explains exactly why the farmers are forced to leave. In this interchapter, Steinbeck uses a dialogue between a farmer and a representative from a bank; the farmer is forced to leave because the bank, or the"Monster" as Steinbeck says, needs to make a profit, and if the farmer cannot produce any goods to pay off debts, then the bank forecloses the land. This happened to many farmers in the 1930's due to a dr...

    Read More

  • Another Ending to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a novel that does not end with any sort of hope, but does end with the reader learning about how real this novel really was. You do not put this book down after you read it and smile and wish that you could have been living in this era. This is why he ended the novel the way that he does and not 40 pages earlier where he could have made it a happy ending. Steinbeck is just like his novel and he wants you to know what happened, and why it happened. All of this happened because people were forced out of their homes and the only place they had to go was west and almost all of the families ended up like the Jones; with no money, nowhere to go and nothing to look forward to. Even though this is not the way that you wanted the ending of this novel to go, there was no other way that it could have ended.

    Read More

  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Powerful Ending of The Grapes of Wrath

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

    541 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Steinbeck, a loyal and hardworking author, took upon himself the task of writing a novel that would change the lives of many American citizens. Steinbeck’s controversial novel, The Grapes of Wrath, sparked a state of terror that would soon affect his reputational status. Published in 1939, the novel told the story of a young family, the Joads, who took a journey across the country to find decent work in California. Steinbeck, being the author he is, included inter-chapters, which told the stories of many different people during that time. These people, as well as the Joads, struggled horribly. Before the creation of the novel, Steinbeck stated: “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]. I’ve done my damnedest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”) Accomplishing his goal, “many Americans were disgusted by how Steinbeck described the poor and accused him of exaggerating the conditions to make a political point.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”) The government of the United States began to accuse Steinbeck of communism, and attacked his social and political views. Most importantly, the Associated Farmers of California began to label The Grapes of Wrath as “communist propaganda.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”)

    Read More

  • The Theme of Man vs. Environment in The Grapes of Wrath

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Contrast of Humanity in Suffering and Exploitation: The Grapes of Wrath

    2517 Words  | 6 Pages

    The “Grapes of Wrath” is an American allegory of human suffering that takes place in a dark period of the history of our nation, brought on by the Dust Bowl migration from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, during the 1930s and the depression. People experience this tragedy in different ways. The landowner who had to remove the families was torn in turmoil; Steinbeck writes, “ Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.” Others found ways to be apathe...

    Read More

  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, two of the main characters, Tom Joad and Jim Casy, are very similar in how they react to things. Their characters personalities are alike in the fact of how they view the world, and the journey they are going on. Because of the time they spend together they form a relationship and they have a certain effect on each other.

    Read More

  • Grapes Of Wrath

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Dust Bowl, hundreds of thousands of southerners faced many hardships, which is the basis of the novel called The Grapes of Wrath. John Steinback wrote this fiction novel to portray the harsh conditions during the Dust Bowl. However, is the portrayal of the Dust Bowl in The Grapes of Wrath valid? When one considers the merit of this novel, one thinks, how can Americans treat other Americans so horribly. After reviewing American History, the mistreatment of the "Okies" in The Grapes of Wrath can be concluded as being valid. After slavery, blacks were terribly treated. During the Civil War, Americans were divided. During the Red Scare, Americans mistrusted other Americans. These three different periods of U.S. history display how Americans can treat fellow Americans so cruelly.

    Read More

  • Grapes Of Wrath Thesis

    3285 Words  | 7 Pages

    “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, tells a story about a family in American history during the great depression in the late 1920’s. The Grapes of Wrath reflected the hardship during the period of American history how a family and people alike endure sorrow, famishment, and repositioning. John Steinbeck put in the small details in describing the characters how they responded to each other in desperate situation. I believe that John Steinbeck’s intention in writing the Grapes of Wrath is to show the reader what a difficult and dark time the great depression was in American history, and how one family was able to endure relocation, suffering and starvation in spite the odds against them during their travels.

    Read More

More about The Grapes Of Wrath

Open Document