The Grapes of Wrath remains one of the greatest angry books. Its dominating idea is that of imminent, overwhelming anger. Steinbeck, as a responsible writer, was concerned with exposing a problem in all its complexity instead of arguing a single solution. In writing his novel, he decided to depict for the readers the insult and deprivation suffered by people like the Joads. To present the story of simple human beings while providing at the same time the social documentation. Steibeck's anger of the whole situation turns into a book to show an example of the fate of Joads and their problems while moving with the mass to…
The Great Depression was a hard time for Americans. The time of the depression was a time of recession in the economy. Nobody's life was easy during this time; People tried to make the best of it though. The Great Depression affected people in many different ways.…
I think that the chief reasons for the mass migration to California where based on a few different reasons. The first reason was because everyone was poor. They didn't have enough money to have the most basic necessities in life. They would even go to such lengths as to steal a neighbors house. No body was happy living in Oklahoma. They all had such hard lives that no one had time to do what they wanted to do. It was farm from sun up to sun down. That is what everyone did, and they didn't even get that much compensation for all the devotion that they put into their work day, after day, after day. If I worked at something for twelve hours a day, and just made hardly enough money to keep living, I would get quite frustrated and not be very happy at all.…
In chapter thirty of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck highlights the most destitute moment of the Joad family during their exodus to California and the transformation of many characters. Steinbeck opens the chapter by describing the flood is taking over the boxcar. Pa urges other men to build an embankment because Rose of Sharon begins to experience labor. While the men work on building the embankment, the cotton tree is uprooted, cascades into the embankment and destroys it. Steinbeck continues to show the Joads’ struggle to overcome the hardships as Pa goes back into the box car, and Mrs. Wainwright informs him that Rose Sharon has delivered a stillborn child. The Joads send Uncle John to bury the child. Because the water level keeps increasing,…
Throughout the book, Tom Joad’s philosophy evolves. He made a friend and wanted to follow his path and think the way he does. Tom Joad finds himself following the path of Jim Casy and he takes different types of actions to prove that he is closure to Casy’s beliefs.…
The Dust Bowl that occurred in the 1930’s along with the Great Depression was one of the lowest times in American history. The novel, The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck, takes place during this time period. The Grapes of Wrath is told from the perspective of the Joads, who are coerced to leave their home and farm in Oklahoma. The novel documents their journey traveling from Oklahoma to California. The protagonist in this novel, Tom Joad, is first introduced in Chapter 2 when he has to hitch a ride with a truck driver in order to return to his family. From the moment Tom was introduced till the last time he occurs in the novel, one should notice a significant change in his actions and behaviors. Tom Joad goes through a journey of self-change, which in the end turns him into a better person than he was before.…
“Jesus Christ, one person with their mind made up can shove a lot of folks aroun'! You win, Ma.” This quote originates from Tom Joad after Ma had revolted against the family when they suggested the idea of splitting up. Ma stubbornly picked up a jack handle and waved it at the Joad family, including the normal head of the family, Pa. Ma's outbreak was astonishing to the Joads and marked the beginning of her fierce leadership of the family and the degradation of Pa's role as the head man. Throughout the tale of the Joads' migration to California, Ma had begun as a timid woman without having much say in the family decisions, but steadily took…
In the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Mr. Shelby’s slaves lived together in a cabin. Of these slaves living in the cabin is Shelby’s most reliable, Tom. He aids the slaves in keeping their values. Much of this novel takes place outside of Mr. Shelby’s plantation. Throughout this novel, the cabin travels with Tom. This cabin is a place of faith, hope, love, and forgiveness. Tom’s personality helps recreate the atmosphere originally found in the cabin in the new places to which he is transported. One can see how these valued principles travel with Tom in the events of him finding that he is to be sold, helping a woman with her cotton, and his convincing Cassy of God.…
Today the New York Review of Books comments on social change: the roads are clogged with "retired farmers" who "leave for Florida in their fancy campers." John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath records an earlier time, depression days of Dust Bowl farmers, their farms blown away, heading in jalopies for California's golden groves. If modern America has any idea of Okies and hard times, it is largely due to Steinbeck's greatest work.…
The dust bowl was a tragic time in America for so many families and John Steinbeck does a great job at getting up-close and personal with one family to show these tragedies. In the novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck employed a variety of rhetorical devices, such as asyndeton, personification and simile, in order to persuade his readers to enact positive change from the turmoil of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck tells the fictional narrative of Tom Joad and his family, while exploring social issues and the hardships of families who had to endure the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s purpose was to challenge readers to look at the harsh realities around them for “the purpose of improvement”. The rhetorical strategies used in the “Grapes of Wrath” elicit a deeper understanding from its readers for the hardships these migrants faced and helped them to fight for a better way. (John Steinbeck, "Banquet Speech," Nobel Foundation, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-speech.html, Accessed 30 August 2013.)…
Family is defined as “a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not” (Dictionary.com). The idea of families acting as a unit is explored in the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The novel is focused on a family from Oklahoma, the Joads, as they journey to the West because they are driven off their land. The Joads are tested as a basic social unit as they encounter the difficulty of loss, new people, the search for work, and much more. Steinbeck explains many points about family throughout the novel, including the idea of loyalty. In The Grapes of Wrath, loyalty to the family is demonstrated by Ma and Tom Joad??? and can easily relate to modern families.…
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is a rich man originally from North Dakota. Before fighting in World War I, he meets a young girl named Daisy, and the two fall in love. Daisy says she will wait for him, but marries Tom Buchanan and moves to Long Island, New York. This prompts Gatsby to relocate to West Egg in Long Island to be close to Daisy. The narrator, Nick Carraway, reveals that Gatsby acquired his wealth dishonestly and harbors an unhealthy obsession for Daisy. Gatsby’s upbringing as a poor Midwesterner, along with his teenage love for Daisy, motivates his future actions and shapes his character.…
Chapter seven might as well have turned The Grapes of Wrath into how to force misfortunate people to buy cars. The author’s tone turns invective during this character’s lines, and this must of been how back in the Great Depression people cursed each other. The tone also creates hate toward the car salesmen, and maybe this is where the stereotype of sales people being thieves. Tenant farmers are placed as the prey instead of the predators which is the precedent of what this books is. Steinbeck is the attorney of people whose freedom of speech right is insignificant and suppression by the public who sees them as the problem.…
In reading Conrad’s novel, the character of Captain Brierly is one whose story is minor in role but highly significant in the understanding and development of Jim. Shortly after the inquiry of the events that took place on the Patna, Brierly commits suicide, thus abandoning the ship of life. Even with his small and mysterious incorporation to the novel, I find that Captain Brierly not only helps me understand Jim much better, but more over I see a connection in the actions of Brierly and Jim.…
impossible task to reveal knowledge from the past by performing acts of civil disobedience that…