The Upper Class In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

The 1940 film Grapes of Wrath accurately describes the working conditions of migrating families during the Depression. The Joad’s family was a fictional family that depicted the low wages and poor living conditions of the migrant workers during the Depression. The Grapes of Wrath was historically accurate for the entire film. The family’s during the Depression would pack everything across country and sleep wherever they could find a space to rest their tired bodies.

During the 1930s, the Great Depression severely affected the economy of the United States as well as the majority of its citizens. This catastrophe, along with the Dust Bowl, resulted in people having their land and homes stripped away from them, their families becoming deathly ill, and having a huge lack of basic necessities for survival. In John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, he strategically structured his chapters in order to correctly portray what was going on during this period in American history. Steinbeck argued that the Great Depression was a widespread struggle, and through the unification of people, it would help ease the adversities brought about by this period, and he advanced these arguments through the use of interchapters.

Family has been an integral and valued part of Western culture for centuries. The reason for this can be traced back to times when food was not easily accessible to a people, unless they worked for. Families found that it was necessary to stick together in order ensure that everyone had sufficient rations. This idea, drawn from common sense, became a wonderful tradition, which today is called the family nucleus.

From its first publication in 1939, John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath has become a classic in American history and literature. Yet Steinbeck’s use of intercalary chapters has always faced criticism. Because they depict stories separate from the main plot, many readers think that they detract from the story of the Joad family. Steinbeck defends his choice, arguing that they only add to the story. He also argues that the intercalary chapters provide insight into the society for which the narrative chapters do not allow.

Throughout the novel she emphasizes of the family being together and helping others. For example, she worried that Tom would never find them if they moved without him knowing “ ‘Well!’ she cried we come mighty near to going without ya. An’ we was wonderin’ how in the worl’ you could ever find us” (96).As the reader can clearly see Ma Joad Was worried about Tom not being able to see them which shows that she has a sense of the family being together. Which enforces Steinbeck’s idea of a family being united and working together.

John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is a story that follows a poor family searching for work. Societies unwritten rules known as the Social Contract theory influence them and the people around them. Family is a common theme throughout the novel. The bond of the Joad family is so strong that Tom Joad hitchhikes all the way home after being released from prison on good behavior. As him and his family travel they prioritize each other and take care of each other.

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression are two, pure examples of America’s weakest moments. American citizens struggle to find jobs and maintain hope from the 1920s and 1930s, causing them to sacrifice personal belongings in order to survive. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, exhibits the impact of greed, money, and power has on economic corruption, making it nearly impossible to recover. Greed is one of the major components of the Dust Bowl.

In today’s society there has been an ongoing struggle between the higher class and the lower class, which is portrayed in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, with the struggle for survival of the Joad family during the Great Depression also expressed in the idea of Marxism. The theory of Marxism involved a system containing the upper, middle, and lower class that analyzes ways capitalism can be used against the people. Throughout the novel there are many factors that ties into the struggles during the Great Depression including the sectionalism between classes, and the effects of this on the Joads, migrants as well as the landowners.

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel about a family living in Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the era of the Great Depression. They are driven off their land and decided to travel to California in search of jobs, land, and a better life. However California was not what they excepted it to be. Ma Joad is the most resilient and strongest character in the story.

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 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.

In the history of America, Americans have had to drastically change their livelihood several times. In the 1930s, John Steinbeck became a writer of the struggles Americans faced at the time. Steinbeck’s writing style was quite particular, detailing many aspects of the times and what people were going through. He focused on the lives of average American families and their struggle to make it through the times. The Grapes of Wrath is one of several novels he wrote to express this.

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr wrote the novel The Grapes of Wrath which was a realistic novel based on trouble and hardships during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The novel set during the Great Depression; the novel focuses on the Joads a low-income family of tenant farmers who was forced from their home in Oklahoma by drought economic hardship, technical changes, and the bank forecloses. The novel does not only show the trouble of the Great Depression, but it makes a connection which helps the audience understand Steinbeck's views on life. The novel and the speech helps us understand Steinbeck's view on the mistreatment of humanity to each other, selfishness, and religion. Steinbeck expressed his opinion on religion through the characters and throughout the novel.

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.

In “The Grapes of Wrath”, Steinbeck uses many literary devices to get the audience to empathize with the tenant family. By choosing to use an intercalary chapter for the fifth chapter, Steinbeck breaks away from the main story in order to delve into the emotions of all parties involved. With a feeling of hopelessness as the audience reads on, the author makes sure to captivate and pull at heart strings while telling the tale from the Great Depression. A common device used throughout the chapter is parallelism. Parallelism is a style of writing where phrases are similar in structure, or echoing one another.