The Grapes Of Wrath

In the novel, Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, depicts the struggles between upper class, middle class, and poor, migrant workers which show how natural human greed and selfishness amongst those with sustainable income increases tension between the separate classes. Steinbeck also uses the empathetic views shared amongst those in the same situations and how it gives them a want to help each other survive. The rich are wasteful with things they are unable to profit from; they cannot stand the poor nor the thought of the stagnation of their company. They are unable to accept a large consistent profit; the business itself is not the monster that begins to die from a constant profit but the greedy humans behind it.

The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinback is a book with the main theme being the oversoul. The oversoul is the idea of an ultimate divine spirit that encompasses all human souls. In order to reach this theme, Steinback uses a variety of metaphors that all lead up to the theme of the oversoul.

April 14th, 1939, John Steinbeck published the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. The novel became an immediate best seller, with selling over 428,900 copies. Steinbeck, who lived through both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, sought to bring attention to how families of Oklahoma outdid these disasters. Steinbeck focuses on families of Oklahoma, including the Joads family, who reside on a farm. The Joad family is tested with hardship when life for them on their farm takes a corrupt turn. Steinbeck symbolizes the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, as the monster, by focusing on bringing attention to how the families in Oklahoma bypass the disastorous weather, greedy bankers, and also the unreceptive greeting by the

In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck depicts the stories of migrant families during the Dust Bowl, where dust covered plantations, resulting in barren fields with incapabilities to grow crops. Due to barren lands, landowners forced the farmers off the fields, which causes the farmers to lose all of the reasons to stay. Therefore, the farmers set out onto a new journey that will hopefully lead them to a place where life can restart. However, this journey is not a perfectly smooth path; on the journey, the farmers face various adversities. Out of the countless families, John Steinbeck highlights the Joad family, who suffers through numerous misfortunes on the way West, toward California. Through the Joad family, Steinbeck portrays the novel as a form of social protest by emphasizing the unjust treatments the families receive , the deterioration of the false allusions the families hold of the American Dream, and by suggesting a future revolt of the working class.

To begin, migrant farmers are not paid fair wages. In Source D, the graph demonstrates that a farm worker will earn only $.30 for every $100. of produce that he harvests. The majority of the earnings are split between the manufacturers and the retailers. This does not leave the farm worker with an adequate salary to feed and clothe his family. Furthermore, with such measly wages, the farm workers cannot live “The American Dream.”

The novel, “The Working Poor” by David K. Shipler gives us an inside look into the lives of the lower class and he explores exactly what it means to do hard, exhausting but honest work in America. The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below the poverty line. While poverty is often associated with joblessness, a significant proportion of the poor are actually employed. Shipler teaches us that just because you have finally become employed does not mean that most or all of your worries are over, often times they are increased. Largely because they are earning such low wages, the working poor face numerous obstacles that make it difficult for many of them to find and keep a job, save up money, and maintain a sense of self-worth. Shipler did an amazing job bringing light to the “forgotten America”.

In John Steinbeck 's The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad and his family are forced from their home during the 1930’s Oklahoma Dust Bowl and set out for California along with thousands of others in search of jobs, land, and hope for a brighter future. The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck’s way to expound about the injustice and hardship of real migrants during the Depression-era. He utilizes accurate factual information, somber imagery, and creates pathos, allowing readers connections to the Joad’s plight

Seventy-five years later, John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, and the film adaptation, are still relevant to life now, because there are several relatable themes running through the book and movie. The novel depicts the about the economic inequality of the 1840s and 1930s. Yet still today, there is economic inequality. The wealthier people with jobs also look down on the poorer, unemployed people. Perhaps there is a fear that the jobless will come in and steal jobs. However, the American dream is clearly present in the novel and has been throughout history.

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, takes place during the Great Depression, a time when troubled and distressed American men and women lived; a time of poverty and an economic crisis. When change is thought upon, it is to be thought of new life and new experiences. The Great Depression is the kind of change that replaces a part of American living with “ Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ I looked, an’ the houses is all empty, an’ the lan’ is empty, an’ this whole country is empty” ( Steinbeck 94). In his work, Steinbeck presents the hardships that Americans had to go through by being mindful of particular aspects which makes the reader understand the characters’ distress. For example, the landscape of the farm lands. Even though the land has its brutality, it grows to be the scenery for humans to be able to recognize and consider their troubles about work and life in general. With these concerns, there are differences between the people who are accustomed to the landscape and admire it, and those who do not agree with it. In the novel, Steinbeck uses attributes of class conflict and injustice as a way of presenting and socially commenting that the Great Depression brought attention to more problems beyond the idea of poverty.

Through the characters in the book, Steinbeck shows how he feels about police misconduct towards those living in poverty. Steinbeck uses his characters not just as entertainment for his readers, but as symbols so people are aware and conscious of what 's really going on not just in the book but in the country they live in. He uses many examples in the book to show how cruel the police can be. One example of this is on p.292 a woman is accidently shot in her hand, as the officer who shot her fell to the floor and tripped Tom took his gun and said: “Fella like that ain 't got no right to a gun.” It 's clear that the officer wasn’t considering the fact that no one was armed but him and didn’t show any remorse for the women mistakenly shot. Through this incident, Steinbeck is showing the abuse of authority and power against poor migrants who have little to nothing. He believes

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, was first written and later published in the 1939. From the time of its publication to date, the exemplary yet a simple book has seen Steinbeck win a number of highly coveted awards including Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and later on Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. Set at the time of the Great Depression, the book most remarkably gives a descriptive account of the Oklahoma based sharecropper Joad’ poor family in the light of economic hardship, homelessness, and the impacts of worst changing agricultural and financial sectors to the poor in America then. Throughout the chapters, the book brings into sharp focus the dehumanizing individual lives of the lower class during the time of Great Depression

Steinbeck had been aware of the labor problems in his state of California, but for these articles he wanted to experience it firsthand. For inspiration for his articles, and also what would turn out to be the inspiration for "Grapes of Wrath", he visited the farms outside his native Salinas and also visited the squatter camps near Bakersfield (Lisca 12-14). These visits to the squatter camps led to his creation of the Weedpatch camp in "Grapes of Wrath".

Which is worse; parents placing money before their children, or hdhdhshdhdhdhdhshsj? The clear answer is that both are equally disturbing. Sadly, both these examples are not uncommon. According to Ross, many families are breaking down as parents place work above children and children are more willing to self destruct as they notice they are being placed second. These modern-day examples are connected to The Grapes of Wrath by a common theme, money before people. This is a dangerous but common theme that John Steinbeck endeavors not only to warn but to inform his readers of. Although there are some instances of the Okies aiding one another, money before people is a central theme in The Grapes of Wrath as well as real life because it is the

“At the heart of every immigrant’s experience is a dream- a vision of hope that is embodied in his or her destination” (Gladstein, p. 685). In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, it is portrayed that the migrant’s thoughts of an American Dream is/was a simple and straightforward notion: go west (California), get employment and become rich. Little did they that know that an ideal and perfect life was difficult to accomplish and it corrupted the minds of those pursuing it. The author, John Steinberg, placed a lot of emphasis on the unachievable nature of the American Dream regarding economic stability in the novel through the cross-country migration of the Joads, their continuous and unpredictable changes in employment and eventually, their failure to find the success they so desired in California (Aghosh, Allentown, PA).

When families like the Joads began on their treacherous journey to California, along with the thousands of other families, they were not socially accepted or taken care of along the way. Farmers traveling were given the derogatory nickname of “Okies”, stereotyping that they all came from Oklahoma (Schleeter). Everyone disliked Okies, especially those in California, and when they arrived they were stuck living in cardboard boxes in filthy camps (Schleeter). These squalid camps of thousands were called “Hoovervilles”, and the Joad family spent a fair amount of time in one (Marchand). Steinbeck depicted the horror these camps so fantastically, that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt called to reform laws governing migrant camps (Schleeter). Those in poverty could only rely on one another, Ma Joad describes this beautifully in saying,” If you’re in trouble go to the poor people. They’re the only one who will help” (Steinbeck). The camps were often burned, and when the Joad’s burned, they managed to get into a government-funded, self-managed camp (Marchand). Steinbeck structured the plot of his story to move from one family, to many families, to the human experience, in order to speak for the social issues of the masses (Schleeter). He also had effect of speaking for thousands who are suffering with the same prejudices as the Joad family by speaking in third-person plural to turn