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Communist views in the grapes of wrath
Criticism of the grapes of wrath as socialist propaganda
Communist views in the grapes of wrath
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The men’s recognition of the benefits and strengths of the Weedpatch camp helps establish the theme of Socialism by contrasting this ideal camp with the new camp the Joads are moving to. Steinbeck shows the real difference between the two camps in the quote, “The guard grunted contemptuously. ‘Hot water, for Christ’s sake. Be wantin’ tubs next.’ He stared glumly after the four Joads” (377). Steinbeck illustrates the many differences in the atmosphere and the resources of the two camps. This establishes the Socialist theme because Steinbeck shows that the socialist society benefits the majority of the people. In the Weedpatch camp, the people were apart of a community of people who looked out for each other. Everyone was seen as equal and when
The Grapes of Wrath explicates on the Dust Bowl era as the reader follows the story of the Joads in the narrative chapters, and the migrants in expository chapters. Steinbeck creates an urgent tone by using repetition many times throughout the book. He also tries to focus readers on how the Dust Bowl threatened migrant dreams using powerful imagery. As well as that, he creates symbols to teach the upper class how the Dust Bowl crushed the people’s goals. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck utilizes imagery, symbolism, and repetition to demonstrate how the Dust Bowl threatened the “American Dream.”
They were even allowed the luxury of washing their clothes and attending a dance. Eijiro Yoshizawa explains is as, “Tom insists on the necessity of unity repeatedly and when he lives at the government-managed camp with his family, he praises the self-government” (Yoshizawa 104). Yoshizawa also goes on to explain how Tom thinks it is unfair the many landowners own huge farms and they remain fallow, and Tom wants to fight that imbalanced way of doing things. The government camp shows unity and people standing up for what they believe. People at the camp believe it is unfair that cops can just come into a Hooverville and clear everyone out by force. They do not care about the Okies and their wellbeing. The government camps is the migrant’s stand against the cruelty of the police and local people. The people of the camp run themselves and they are successful and overall peaceful. The government camp illustrates that unity among people is
Steinbeck meets his standard by celebrating the migrant workers’ drive and sense of community in the face of the Great Depression. The Joad family and many others, are dedicated to conquering all odds: “[t]hus they changed their social life–changed as in the whole universe only man can change” (Steinbeck 196). There are no other options available for these tenant families than to take the trek to California in hopes of finding work. The fears they once had about droughts and floods now lingered with
John Steinbeck does not portray migrant farm worker life accurately in Of Mice and Men. Housing, daily wages, and social interaction were very different in reality. This paper will demonstrate those differences by comparing the fictional work of Steinbeck to his non-fictional account of the time, The Harvest Gypsies.
the camp they experience the better part of their journey, While at Camp Weedpatch they receive
...after the war. This is mainly because he was pro-communist when he wrote this story. Due to this fact, it is unlikely that Borowski would compare communism to the labor camp, but highly likely that he would believe that capitalism and the labor camps are similar. However, Borowski portrays the similarities between the labor camps and capitalist society in a negative light, which is most likely done because he may have wanted to promote communist ideas. Borowski compares capitalist society to labor camps through the interactions and imagery presented in the story. Much of the interactions that take place and the imagery described relates to the way society is organized, which is one of the main complaints in The Communist Manifesto. Although there is no proof that Borowski read The Communist Manifesto, much of the story is relatable to what is presented in it.
...however, feels that to solve the plight of the Okies, land should be set aside for them to start their own small farms, since farming is all they know. He also suggests that local committees set wages and labor needs before the harvests to protect the rights of the workers and prevent them from being extorted (Pgs 58-59). While Steinbeck’s ideas made sense and had good intent, the grim reality still remained that the corporations controlled the agriculture industry and that they were going to save every nickel and dime they could, even if it meant a lower standard of living for the Okie. Today, we have unions that attempt to prevent things like this from happening again, but the plight of illegal immigrants demonstrates that the reality of this country’s need for cheap labor remains.
The story is told through the eyes of seven year old Luke Chandler. Luke lives with his parents and grandparents on their rented farmland in the lowlands of Arkansas. It takes place during the harvest season for cotton in 1952. Like other cotton growers, these were hard times for the Chandlers. Their simple lives reached their zenith each year with the task of picking cotton. It’s more than any family can complete by themselves. In order to harvest the crops and get paid, the Chandlers must find cotton pickers to help get the crops to the cotton gin. In order to persevere, they must depend on others. They find two sets of migrant farm workers to assist them with their efforts: the Mexicans, and the Spruills - a family from the Arkansas hills that pick cotton for others each year. In reading the book, the reader learns quickly that l...
Firstly, John Steinbeck represents the lives of migrant workers in his novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’. The lives of migrant workers were hard, challenging and unrewarding. Migrant workers suffered from poverty because they were low-wage workers performing manual labour in the agricultural field. They were forced to travel between American states in search of seasonal work .In the novel, John Steinbeck shows the harsh realit...
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, uses dehumanized "Okies" and personified cars to aid in the explanation of hardships of making it in a new society and how in order to survive, change must take place. Steinbeck’s novel portrays a family as they struggle in the heartless world. Both the usage of dehumanized workers and personified cars helps portray the deep fear and uncertainty the migrant workers began facing. By using figurative language, Steinbeck captures the general endeavor all the Okies who were unwillingly labeled as one class: scum. Ultimately, each willing family tossed aside their past, surrendering to their new foreign life.
Born 1902 in California, John Steinbeck grew up in a hard time for America. The Great Depression hit in 1929, leaving thousands of American people jobless, homeless, and poor. Along with this, the Dust Bowl occurred in 1931, which also killed and starved thousands. During this time period, many people did not have a home, and moved from farm to farm in order to feed themselves. John Steinbeck was one of the hundreds of thousands of migrant farm workers during this time. All of Steinbeck’s books are based off of American history, and migrant farm workers in the eyes of the people. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the characters Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to contribute to the overall theme of loneliness.
Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, attempt to reach their version of the American Dream or “the ability of all Americans to attain a better standard of living, including owning a home” (“American Dream” 96). The two men are most concerned with owning “a little house and a couple of acres” and their ability to “live off the fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck 14). Their journey, however, is presented as more challenging than most as Lennie struggles with a mental deficiency and relies heavily on George for both structure and guidance. Each time George and Lennie begin to settle into a job, Lennie makes a mistake causing George to uproot his life and yell at Lennie for how he “Jus’ keep[s] [him] shovin’ all over the country all the time” (Steinbeck 11). Although their quest for happiness and success along with Lennie’s difficulties appear to be the main conflicts of the novel, there is much more below the surface as the two big relocations discussed in the novella come about because of a woman’s
Steinbeck's strong point is the contrast between Weedpatch and other camps that is depicting the dehumanization through the harsh working conditions and starvation. Weedpatch makes the Joad’s feel human and everyone begins to look out for each other, unlike the camps the Joads went to before. The work camps they arrive at before Weedpatch have harsh conditions and starve the workers. Although, Weedpatch gives the Joads hope for a better lifestyle. The other families arriving at Weedpatch look out for everyone and do not make them feel dehumanized. For example, Ma decides to give her scraps of food to people who are starving. Besides the working condition, the loss of family members throughout the journey to get to these camps start to make
The economic status of the main characters is poor, without hope of improving their condition, and at the mercy of a quasi-feudal system in North America during the late 1800's. Being a sharecropper, Ab and his family had to share half or two-thirds of the harvest with the landowner and out of their share pay for the necessities of life. As a result of this status, Ab and his family know from the start what the future will hold -- hard work for their landlord and mere survival for them.
"The heaps grow. Suitcases, bundles, blankets, coats, handbags that open as they fall, spilling coins, gold, watches; mountains of bread pile up at the exits, heaps of marmalade, jams, masses of meat, sausages; sugar spills on the gravel. Trucks, loaded with people, start up with a deafening roar and drive off amidst the wailing and screaming of the women separated from their children, and the stupefied silence of the men left behind. They are the ones who had been ordered to step to the right--the healthy and the young who will go to the camp. In the end, they too will not escape death, but first they must work.... “ -Borowski