How did Steinbeck use his unique writing in The Grapes of Wrath to provide a brutally frank and realistic memoir of migrants in America during the Great Depression? Introduction: In 1939 John Steinbeck forever made an impact on the way The Great Depression is widely thought of by publishing The Grapes of Wrath. Within the book Steinbeck gives two perspectives on the Great Depression, one deeply personal about a family, the Joads and how they are affected, and at the same time that of the people they interacted with, the larger historical perspective, an economic perspective. The novel is largely a commentary on the American system, and takes a complicated look at capitalism. One reason Steinbeck’s book made an impact is …show more content…
The name, The Grapes of Wrath, is directly quoted from Julia Ward Howe’s song “The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and while the song has been a widely known and patriotic song in America that has inspired thousands of people, grapes themselves symbolize a lot in the books. Several times throughout the book, grapes have been mentioned and used as a symbol of hope. In one instance, Grandpa Joad envisions his life in California and expresses how he will never go hungry again, and says “...I'll have a big bunch a grapes in my han' all the time, a-nibblin' off it all the time…”(Steinbeck, 141). The grapes represented the hope, the dream, the fantasy that the Southwest was to the millions of people that left their homes during the dust bowl migration, and that California was to the Joads. Details in the book are consistently repeated between the Joad family chapters and the more general chapters. The elements that Steinbeck repeated were often symbolic metaphors. The first example is carried from chapter three to four and then reoccurs in six. In chapter three Steinbeck describes a turtle making its way southwest across a highway that encounters a female driver that avoids hurting the turtle and a male truck driver that attempts to hit the turtle. The turtle also suffers an injury from a fire ant crawling into its shell. While the significance of the turtle can be argued, turtle can be seen as a symbolic metaphor for both the masses of farmers, as well as the Joads and their plight struggling to survive during the economic crash during the 30’s in the United States. Much like the Joads, the turtle in the road encounters both mercy and kindness at times and aggression at others, and works hard to stay alive. The turtle was described to be working so hard to get to where it wanted that it’s legs were “...straining like elephant legs...”(Steinbeck, 21). In addition, just like the
But, Steinbeck delivers a very strong message with just two pages. Steinbeck uses the juxtaposition to show the danger of capitalism and how this process have destroyed the love and humanization of man. ` In this chapter, Steinbeck introduces two general characters, a machine man (corporate farmer) and a regular farmer. The machine man does his days work, puts the tractor away, and then goes
“The Grapes of Wrath” takes place during the great depression: which was a substantial economic downside in United States history. At the same time, racism continues in the United States. The Okies are very talented farmers and most of them travel along route 66 to hope for a better life, but something was waiting for them that was unexpected to these people. They did not receive any governmental supports they were ignorant, and this makes native people easier to realize Okies as an outsider also they found menial and low paying jobs. Steinbeck implies that man turns against another human for the survival of the fittest; therefore, they do not mind to put another human in a situation that is challenging to survive.
Intercalary Chapter Literary Analysis During the Great Depression, the nation as a whole was stripped of financial security and forced into a survivalist way of living. This changed the ways that people interacted with one another and the overall mentality of society. In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is torn from their land and find themselves with nothing, a common story for migrant farmers of that time, derogatorily called “Okies” by Californians. But this is not the only group that is struggling, the entire county was in a state of panic and bruteness, no matter how “well off” they seemed to be.
In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck follows the Joad family as they suffer the hardships caused by the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The most important lesson people can learn from the novel is the value of a human life. Although the 1930’s was a low point in American society, the ill-treatment of human beings is still relevant today. Just like Jim Casy’s philosophy, it is important to fight for the rights of the people and their dignity. There are several examples of oppression in The Grapes of wrath.
It’s difficult to get kicked out of a land you have lived in for so long and end up having nowhere to go. In this novel, Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, shows Tom Joad’s journey with his family to a new place where they've never been. They travel from Oklahoma to California and encounter a lot of hardship. Tom Joad is the main character in the story and is portrayed in the beginning as someone who can’t control their anger. He shows development in managing his anger issues as a result of his family’s unwavering emotional support.
The author of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, wrote his American realist novel to allow readers to understand the experiences of the migrants from the Dust Bowl era. Not many people
The spirit of unity emerges as the one unfailing source of strength in Steinbeck’s novel. He tries and accomplishes in conveying it to the reader, through imagery. On multiple accounts,
The tone of chapter 11 in John Steinbeck's, “The Grapes of Wrath,” is sympathetic, sad and hopeless. His word choice and syntax show how the sad houses were left to decay in the weather. His use of descriptive words paints a picture in the reader's mind. As each paragraph unfolds, new details come to life and adds to the imagery. While it may seem unimportant, this intercalary chapter shows how the effects of the great depression affected common households.
Through this, the characters eventually seek help and companionship from family and friends. In The Grapes of Wrath migrants are forced out of their homes and move West in hopes of attaining a better life. When “a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the screaming fact that sounds through history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history.
John Steinbeck has a style of writing unparalleled in history and in the modern world. In the same way, his philosophies are also unparalleled, with his focus in socialism not extending to communism or abnegation of spiritualism. His ideal world is utopian, holding the dust bowl migrant at the same level as the yeoman farmer was held in Jeffersonian times. In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck Steinbeck, who posses impregnable technique, conveys his message of a group working tirelessly for the betterment of the community.
Through John Steinbeck's plot in The Grapes of Wrath, the struggle of the typical American dreamer is depicted in the Joad’s attempt to move to California for a better life. While attempting this dream, the Joad family had to make multiple sacrifices. The first sacrifice occurs early on in their journey, the abandoning of their property (Steinbeck 59). This was extremely difficult for the Joads because they had lived on this land for a long time and they had many memories that had been created there.
The Joads find their motivation by helping each other through tough situations. Steinbeck shows the determination of the human spirit
Realism and authenticity is very evident throughout The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck uses things such as real events; setting, symbolism, foreshadowing of future events that actually happened, and many other things help ascertain this sense. With the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, Steinbeck has factual statements all throughout the novel. Intercalary chapters or nonfiction chapters, are gives the novel it’s most powerful sense of realism and authenticity. “The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects” (Steinbeck, 35).
In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the chapters alternate between two perspectives of a story. One chapter focuses on the tenants as a whole, while the other chapter focuses specifically of a family of tenants, the Joads, and their journey to California. Chapter 5 is the former and Steinbeck does an excellent job of omniscient third person point of view to describe the situation. Chapter 5’s main idea is to set the conflict and let the readers make connections between Steinbeck’s alternating chapters with foreshadowing. Steinbeck is effectual in letting readers make connections both to the world and the text itself with the use of exposition, and symbolism.
In Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the emotions that wrecked the nation in the 1930s are eloquently expressed through his distinct writing style. The struggles faced by many Americans in this time period, provided Steinbeck with ample material to create his characters who battle daily for socio-economic survival. Their animalistic qualities and residence in the lower class, contribute to the novel’s naturalistic flair. Steinbeck’s emphasis on the control the environment has over its inhabitants, and their instinctive, survivalistic nature are what qualify The Grapes of Wrath as a naturalistic novel.