In the short story of “The Turtle,” The author John Steinbeck explains that no matter how hard life may be, or the time frame during which it occurs, people still persevere. Steinbeck supports his explanation by hinting at a greater or more detailed meaning, telling the reader about life and everyday struggles through the turtle traveling on the road. The author’s purpose is to point out that life may get tough at times and not all people are generous, but in the end it’s all okay just keep your head up. The author writes in a reflective tone for reader. First, Steinbeck talks about how sad it was to lose their personal belongings due to a traumatizing time. Steinbeck quotes, “And over the grass at the roadside a land turtle crawled, turning aside for nothing, dragging his high-domed shell over the grass.” This has a lot to do with the time frame and it also has a greater or more detailed meaning behind it, pointing out that during the Great Depression people lost everything due to the economy, and whatever the families had left from their homes, they had to carry with them every time they move, exactly like the turtle (study.com). The turtle is represented to be those families during this struggle for all Americans. …show more content…
Front clawed feet reached forward but did not touch. The hind feet kicked his shell along, and scraped on the grass, and on the gravel. As he embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle.” This shows the turtles struggles from the beginning to the end of the story (study.com). Even though the turtle went through struggles during whole story, He still faces his struggles and doesn’t let people take the best of him regardless if they are generous or how their character is towards him. He just keeps his head up and keeps on
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, hardship, and feeling out of place. During the time we learn about the turtle, it faces several hardships. First, the turtle attempts to cross the road, “Pushing hind legs strained and slipped, boosting the shell along, and the horny head protruded as far as the neck could stretch,” (Steinbeck, 21). Second, the turtle had to try to turn over itself after being hit purposely by a car, “Lying on its back.
Overcoming obstacles in one’s life can lead someone along the path of ultimately taking pride in themselves. This is apparent in William Bell’s novel Crabbe, in the case of young Franklin Crabbe. Firstly, Crabbe’s ordeal in nature teaches him to put others before himself. At the beginning of his journey, he is self-centred whilst making decisions, whereas at the end of his journey, he is able to consider others first. Secondly, during Crabbe’s time in the wilderness, he gains self-satisfaction from hard work. Crabbe learns about how good it feels to accomplish something in his waking hours, and continues to realize this after his encounter with nature. Lastly, throughout Crabbe’s time in the wilderness, he learns to take responsibility for his own unhappiness. In his bounty of moments for reflection, Crabbe realizes his parents are not to blame for his every moment of depression. During Crabbe’s journey in the bush, he overcomes frequent obstacles which send him back to civilization as someone he can be proud of.
In chapter three, Steinbeck immaculately describes the long, tedious journey of a land turtle across a desolate highway. From the onset of his journey, the turtle encounters many setbacks. Along the way ants, hills, and oak seeds hinder him under his shell. The turtle’s determination to reach his destination is most apparent when a truck driven by a young man swerves to hit the turtle. The turtle's shell is clipped and he goes flying off the highway, but the turtle does not stop. He struggles back to his belly and keeps driving toward his goal, just as the Joads keep driving toward their goal.
Both awe-inspiring and indescribable is life, the defined “state of being” that historians and scholars alike have been trying to put into words ever since written language was first created. And in the words of one such intellectual, Joshua J. Marine, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”. Essentially, he is comparing life to a bowl of soup. Without challenges or hardship into which we can put forth effort and show our potential, it becomes a dull and flavorless broth. But for characters in novels like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the difficulties and trials that we all must face can transfigure the mundane liquid mixture of existence into a vibrant and fulfilling gumbo. The protagonists of these works are two strong-willed and highly admirable women, who prevail in the face of overwhelming odds stacked in everyone’s favor but theirs. In their trying periods of isolation brought about by cold and unwelcoming peers, particularly men, they give their lives meaning by simply pushing forward, and living to tell the tale.
The poem continues to talk about how weak the turtle is, saying that the turtle is “barely mobile” (2). However, Ryan’s metaphors argue the opposite: the turtle is actually a mentally and physically strong creature. First, Ryan calls
Steinbeck upon creating the novel in the 1930’s seen and was experiencing some of the things he wrote on. In the beginning he introduced to us a friendship between two opposite men. One man, George Wilson, is a little man compared to his companion. His friend, on the other hand, was a giant who was naïve as a new born baby. His name was Lennie Smalls. Lennie Smalls was a character that Steinbeck used to allow his audience to see that although he had a good heart and was seemingly helpless, that one day his strength would be the cause of his downfall. Questions on whether or not Steinbeck’s readers should believe in the image in which it is given or primarily based it on the novel being written in a bad environment from the first of the novel. Steinbeck knew upon writing that readers tend to cling and fall for the caring, loving, and misunderstood bad guy trying to prove his innocence against all evil brought to him. So Steinbeck created Lennie to try and portray this character to his audience. Steinbeck had to be sure that all elements presented in the novel were able flow good and complete the recipe (Krutch 29-30).
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
We all have that one story that we tend to take a liking to, but mainly because it’s almost painfully relatable. Well, this is the one. The most heartstring pulling story that was full of misery and trial and error was the story “The Turtle”, written by author John Steinbeck. It portrays a turtle having to hold its own weight, and pull through daily tasks that are constantly counteracted. He has a willpower that is just as strong as the fortress he holds high upon his back.
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
Steinbeck dedicates the entire third chapter to illustrate the journey of a turtle crossing a road.A woman drives down the highway swerves around the turtle so she does not hit it. However, unlike the woman a man in a truck heads straight for the turtle as if it had a target on its back. The man does slightly hit the turtle, but only enough to knock the turtle over onto his shell, he struggles to get up, but eventually does and finishes his journey across the highway. The turtle symbolizes the Joad family and the other migrant worker families. Just like the turtle, they overcome someone who has more power than them that tries to ruin their lives. ( Turtle almost gets run over by a truck, farmer families getting kicked off their farms.) Just like the turtle, these people accept the cards they are given in life and use what they have to improve their situation, Even when Tom took the turtle and wrapped it up, the turtle consistently worked towards getting out of that coat to continue in the direction in which it was headed. Similarly, the turtle the migrant families never forgot where they were headed in spite of all their troubles. This use of symbolism causes the reader to root for and become an advocate for the migrant workers not only in the book but in real life. Through the
I. John Steinbeck used his personal experiences as a laborer to write many of his novels like Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.
John Steinbeck was perhaps the best author of all time. He was the winner of a Nobel Prize, and among other accomplishments, Steinbeck published nineteen novels and made many movies during his lifetime. All of his experience and knowledge are shown through his novels. A reader can tell, just in reading a novel by Steinbeck, that he had been through a lot throughout his life. Also, Steinbeck worked very hard to accomplish everything that he did during his lifetime. Nothing came very easily to him, and he had to earn everything he owned. This helped him in his writing, because he was able to write about real people and real experiences. John Steinbeck got his inspiration from life experiences, people he knew, and places he had gone.
John Steinbeck was inspired by the line "The best schemes o' mice an' men [often go awry]" by Robert Burns in one of his poems. This line refers to ambitions that went off track during the process. There are multiple examples in the novel that refers to the line in the poem, that inspired John Steinbeck. Those examples are Curley's boxing career coming to an end, Curley's wife not becoming a actress, and Lennie's plans of tending the rabbits, but messed everything up.
Americans strive to obtain the American dream, but they fail to realize that it is our own dissatisfaction and anger that get in our way of keeping the American dream alive. John Steinbeck’s, “Paradox and Dream”, describes these paradoxes that linger in almost all Americans lives. Steinbeck shows how Americans believe in these things, but they contradict them by the actions they take or the words we say. He describes how Americans are dissatisfied, angry and intemperate. John Steinbeck portrayed a negative attitude towards Americans and their ideals by displaying how most are dissatisfied and angry, intemperate and opinionated, and believe in these certain things about ourselves that are not always true.
People don't truly accept life for what it is until they've actually tasted adversity and went through those misfortunes and suffering. We are put through many hardships in life, and we learn to understand and deal with those issues along the way. We find that life isn't just about finding one's self, but about creating and learning from our experiences and background. Adversity shapes what we are and who we become as individuals. Yann Martel's Life of Pi shows us that adverse situations help shape a person's identity and play a significant role in one's lief by determining one's capabilities and potential, shaping one's beliefs and values, and defining the importance and meaning of one's self.