Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
" That's pretty gross, but in the context of the times, it doesn't seem so severe. On page 178, a man blows his nose into his hand and wipes the discharge on his pants. A man says he hates his boss and "...Some day, by God - some day I'm gonna have a pipe wrench in my pocket...An' I'm gonna, I'm gonna jus' take his head right down off his neck with that wrench, a little piece at a time...right down off'n his neck." Grim language to be sure, but given the desperation of the times and the angst of the people who are out of work and on the move like homeless people, it isn't too surprising or shocking.
On page 255, blatant violence is discussed almost in passing; "Better not fool with him. He killed a fella." "Did? What for?" "Fight. Fella got a knife in Tom. Tom busted 'im with a shovel." Turns out the police let him off of the murder charge since "...it was a fight." That's pretty raw, but again, the times were raw and rough, and death was a daily affair."
Question #4: Ma Joad gets her strength from her family, and ironically, it is Ma Joad who keeps the family together. Yes, Steinbeck has written a novel about the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and what happened to those people who were driven from their homes and took to the road to find a better world. But this book is also at its core about how a family struggles to survive, and about how individuals within a family struggle to assert their strongest personality traits. Ma has a down-to-earth passion to create a better world, and as they move along the road in their...
They do split up physically but they remain a family unit because Ma keeps them bonded in their desire to survive. On page 415, Ma is trying to locate Tom; she shows that she is a skilled person out in the natural world as she crouches absolutely still. "She moved quietly, so quietly that she could hear the murmur of the water above her soft steps on the willow leaves." This is a person who is far more than just a good old mom holding the family together with her charisma and personal power. "Ma saw a dark figure creep into the open and draw near to the culvert" (p. 416). She locates Tom and he warns her, "...if -- well, s'pose somebody seen you with me - whole family'd be in a jam." "I got to, Tom." Tom guides her to the cave where he is hiding out. It is so dark she can't see her son sitting right next to her. That is an image that Steinbeck is using, showing that eyesight alone doesn't matter when your matriarch is willing to take chances to keep the family in tact. "I wanta touch ya again, Tom. it's like I'm blin', it's so dark. I wanta remember, even if it's on'y my fingers that remember..."
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes…
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1939.
For two years prior to the publication of the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck spent his time with a group of migrant workers making their way towards California. Travelling and working with the laborers, Steinbeck found the heartfelt material in which to base his book." (Cordyack, 1) This shows in his gritty but sympathetic portrayal of the American working class. This is an idea which illuminates perhaps the most important of
Grapes of Wrath The Epic in the Grapes of Wrath This paper discusses how the idea of the epic can be found in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The novel itself is an enormous work of approximately 500 pages. And in the words of Howard Levant, it is "an attempted prose epic, a summation of national experience of genre" (Levant 91). Because Steinbeck is depicting more than just a "slice
But the value and meaning of life and love described by Casy is manifested by the outsiders, the Okies, the rejects, the wanderers, the strangers, and the oppressed. They are the socially marginal characters of a self-satisfying culture. They are the ones Steinbeck admires in his novel for they are the ones who "wander through the wilderness of hardships, seeking their own Promised Land" (Shockley 87). They await the
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck's novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," described the economic divide that existed in America during the Great Depression of the 1930's and the tragedies that occurred as a result. A native Californian, Steinbeck used his home state as the backdrop for a story of a family of migrant farm workers; derisively called "Okies" for their area of origin: Oklahoma. Devastated by a natural disaster commonly referred to
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck's novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," described the economic divide that existed in America during the Great Depression of the 1930's and the tragic result that occurred as a result. A native Californian, Steinbeck used his home state as the backdrop for a story of a family of migrant farm workers, derisively called "Okies" for their area of origin, Oklahoma. The troubles the family faced, although originally
Grapes of Wrath Social Welfare The Great Depression affected everyone throughout the United States, but there is no denying the fact that those in the general Midwest were almost destroyed as a result. The complete social and economic consequences to a few years of drought, financial distress, and the growing applications of technology -- which led towards a social change in job placements -- all affected the farmer's plight. Based on John