Plot Summary: Jon Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a very American book. The book shows the movement of thousands upon thousands of men and women in search of work during the Great Depression. It also delves deeper into showing the struggles of a single family, the Joads. Tom Joad, a recently released inmate from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, arrives home to find Pa Joad, Tom's father, packing a truck full of personal items. Tom is filled in by his family that a large corporation bought out their farm, and they were going to move in search for work. Namely to the “promised land”, also known as California. After tying everything down and drugging Grandpa Joad with medicene, the family takes off for California. After leaving their …show more content…
homestead, the Joads find themselves in way over their heads. A few days into the trek Grandpa Joad dies along the road. Next, his wife, Grandma Joad, passes a few days later. Eventually, after losing Grandma and Grandpa to natural causes, the family loses their oldest son also. He does not die, but he instead leaves the family in search of prosperity. When the family finally reaches California, they find there is no work to be done. After spinning their wheels in government camps and Hoovervilles for months, they land a job picking cotton. The family is then driven off of the cotton field after rain floods out their campsite. Their only truck is broken, hopelessly flooded from the water. The family, seeing no other choice, walks to the highway. They find a barn that is not flooded, and they seek refuge in it. There, They find a boy and his dying father huddled in the barn. Instead of ignoring the dying man, Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon helps the man, showing human compassion even in the hardest of times. Vocab: Belligerently – page 246 Belligerent: warlike; givin to waging war; aggressively hostile; bellicose “An old, old man with a bent back came like a badger out of a tent and snooped near, sniffing the air as he came. He laced his arms behind him and joined the children to watch Ma. Ruthie and Winfield stood near to Ma and eyed the strangers belligerently.” The word belligerent insinuates the feeling of hostility or aggression against something else, in this case a stranger.
In the scene where the quote was pulled from, Ma Joad starts cooking the family meal after they arrived at the Hooverville. A Hooverville is a small camp outside of a city that played asylum for the poor folk, like the Joads. The “old, old man” presumably walked out of his tent because of the smell of Ma's food that she was cooking. What the Joads did not realize however, was that most of the familys of the Hooverville did not even have enough resources to make food like Ma was doing. When Ma started cooking, all of the hungry children started gathering around the pot that Ma was making stew in. This make the children (Winfield and Ruthie) “eye the strangers belligerently” as they thought of the strangers 'stealing' their food. This is important because of the lack of trust that is shown by the children, while the adults care for everyone. As an example, Ma Joad shares the leftover stew with the starving …show more content…
children. Worried – page 155 Worried: having or characterized by worry; concerned; anxious “Beside them, little pot-bellied men in light suits and panama hats' clean, pink men with puzzled, worried eyes, with restless eyes.” This word, as simple as it is, defines the basic theme for this book. The Joad family is worried about the work in California before they leave Oklahoma. They worry about making it to California. They worry about having enough food to feed the family. Worry is what drives the family. The example quote however is written from a perspective of the rich people in the story, a rarity in this novel. In later pages it is found out that the “little pot-bellied men” are worried about about the migrants banding together and taking over their land. This insecurity that the rich men have has a snowball effect that causes others to show hate upon the “Okies”. Burden – page 148 Burden: that which is borne with difficulty; obligation; onus “'It's a nice thing,' said Sairy. 'Wouldn' be a burden on you folks?' 'No, by god,' said Pa. 'Wouldn't be no burden at all. You'd be helpin' us.' ” Burden is also a large part of this story.
Since the beginning of the story, burden has always been apart of the Joad family. After the Joads left their family farm, they stopped on the side of the road to sleep during the night. When they stopped they met two more people, the Wilsons. The Wilsons had a vehicle that malfunctioned, and they had to pull off to the side of the road where they met the Joads. Tom and Al Joad, both brothers, were basic mechanics. They offered to fix up the car. After they fixed the car, they decided that they would band together and use both vehicles to get to California. This was another burden on the Joads' half – they had to feed two more mouths. Of course, being kind and courteous as the Joads were, they decided to take them in with stride. This shows how even when the family is struggling to feed their own, they will still help out a complete stranger no matter how much the burden may
weigh. Money – Page 83 Money: any circulating medium of exchange, including coins, paper money, and demand deposits. “'...Quicker we get started, surer it is we get there. Money's a-dribblin' out all the time. You got any money?'” Money is the main driving force of the novel, or lack thereof. Lack of money sent the Joads packing towards California after the Dust Bowl hit. Money limited the amount of food they could eat. Money forced them to live like hermits. Although, money (or lack thereof) caused the family to bond like no other “rich” family can. It showed how far they would go for each others love, and the stretch that is shown to keep the family together. Tar'd (Tired) – page 445 Tired: exhausted, as by exertion; fatigued or sleepy
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.
In The Grapes of Wrath the chapters go off from vignettes to regular chapters. The vignettes describe how the dust bowl and the workers migrating to California affect other people and surroundings. They also foreshadow the events of the Joads and migrant workers on their journey. In chapter 3, Steinbeck describes a turtle crossing a road and getting hit by a car. “And over the grass at the roadside a land turtle crawled…at last he started to climb the embankment…the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it,” (Steinbeck, 20-22). In later chapters, Steinbeck describes the turtle as he gets picked up by Tom Joad and tries to sneakily crawl away. The turtle represents the migrant workers and their journey to California through determination, hardships, and feeling out of place.
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
Successful heroes in literature must overcome plenty of obstacles in order to finish their journey. In fact, the journey of a hero in literature is characterized by 12 specific stages: ordinary world, call to adventure, refusal of the call, meeting with the mentor, crossing the first threshold, tests and allies, approach, ordeal, reward, the road back, resurrection hero, and return with elixir.1 The Grapes of Wrath is an allegory for the hero’s journey because the Joads experience each of these stages on their trek from Oklahoma to California.
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,
The opening scene’s setting gives a premise to the overall gloomy and dusty lifestyles of the Okies. The whole time period is already gloomy from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, but the description of the bland Oklahoma landscape is sad. Steinbeck even wrote about dust like it was an ominous homewrecker. Dust and the wind and the elements in general are given all of the power in this chapter and in future chapters. Such dominant influence of nature suggests the family structure of the Joads and other Okies to be unstable. The environment governs the family, making them move, causing them to seek jobs due to poor land and subsequent lack of work.
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.
John Steinbeck wrote a book, The Grapes of Wrath, which would change forever the way Americans, thought about their social classes and even their own families. The novel was completed in 1938 and then published in 1939. When this novel was released the critics saw it as being very controversial. Some critics called it a master piece, while others called it pornography. Steinbeck's attack of the upper-class and the readers' inability to distinguish the fictitiousness of the book often left his readers disgruntled. The time period in which this book was written was the 1930's while there was a horrible drought going on in the Oklahoma pan handle and during the Great Depression. Thousands of Oklahoma families were forced off their land because of their failure to farm and as a result they were unable to pay their bills so the banks were foreclosing on their houses. This resulted in a huge population of people all migrating west to California, because they were promised work by big fruit plantations. Unfortunately, when this mass of people showed up the jobs with high wages advertised on the pamphlets were not there. This left them homeless and in deep poverty with no where to go. The families would stay in California though either in hoovervilles or government camps. Steinbeck brings you along with the Joads on their journey to California. Although Steinbeck shows some comparisons between the Joads and the greater migrant community, the Joads do not serve as a microcosm of that culture because they differ in regards to leadership of the family and also the Joads' willingness to give to anyone.
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
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck the author uses excessive profanity, religion, and migrants to show the hard times family’s had to go through in the 1930’s. Most people believe that Steinbeck novel is too inappropriate for high school students because of its content. This novel should be banned from the high school curriculum.
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.
“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.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, shows a whole family and their struggles. The grapes of Wrath is modeled after a biblical reference to the Israelites, god¹s chosen people. They also left their land, Egypt, and wandered into the desert for many years,searching in vain for a promised land, the land of milk and honey. A lot like the Israelites, many farmers in the middle of the country began migrating to California. The Joads I believe had no choice but to leave the dust bowl to find work. They also had to cross the desert and lost the life of Grandma Joad in the process.
Later, the Joads stop by a river where Tom and his Father find a spot to go swimming. Two men, a man and his son, who asked if they might also join them in swimming, promptly join them. The men start talking and it turns out that the other two men have just come from California. They tell a story describing the conditions as very unsafe and uncomfortable and mention the prejudice against the workers. Subsequently the Joads paid no head to this warning either. Hence, they traveled on, only to meet up with a very dispassionate police officer.