The Turtle In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the cynosure of Chapter three is a turtle who struggles to cross a highway in the summer heat. Steinbeck gives a detailed description of this turtle because it shows that even the smallest animals struggle with the same struggles as the Joad family and all of the migrants. The turtle has to tackle hardship, life and danger. Just like the turtle, the “oakies” (the offensive nickname given to the migrants who move to California) have to deal with these tribulations come in the form of hostile climate, fate, and the fear of the unknown. The turtle must deal with a deadly drought that poses a threat to its life. In the 1930’s Dust Bowl, the Midwest is crippled by series of dust storms that damage the agricultural production of America’s “Breadbasket.” The farmer families migrated west towards California to flee the dry and desolate region. The turtle symbolically does this by trying to get to the other side of the road and relocate to a new area that has a region with more lush vegetation. This determination to move on to a new home is shown on page 20 where Steinbeck describes the turtle, “As the embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle” (Steinbeck 20). The turtle

The turtle symbolically represents the hardship, fate, and the fear of the unknown within the “oakies.” The turtle’s choice to cross the highway represents the choice that the migrants made to go to a better place. The struggle uphill and the “attack” of the vehicles show that fate tries to stop the turtle. The Joads had their own chance of bad fate by their family splitting up, members dying, and Jim Casey going to jail. Resultantly, the turtle does a very important job for Steinbeck as a “macrocosmic” way to show the plight of the migrant families through a different