American Exodus by James N. Gregory

Oscar Handlin believes, as he explicates in The Uprooted, published in 1951, that American history is best explained by the immigration, specifically European peasants who journeyed to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, that caused the most drastic change and growth to the country’s political, economic, and social factors. Instead of telling this story in a mainstream historical way including specific dates in chronological order, the author narrates the lives of these voyagers using sentimental information about multiple different themes to show how challenging it was for immigrants to face life in the New World. This strong, emotional tone creates a sympathetic feeling in the reader and shows the passion Handlin has for not only history, but also the peasants’ lives displaced during their struggles. The Uprooted was intended for a common audience of educated people interested in the history of America or immigration and is especially useful for students

Where I Was From by Joan Didion is a book written about Didion’s perspective of the history of California. Throughout the novel Didion shares her families past experiences and adventures of moving west. Didion not only shows the readers how California has changed but also how it changed her as a person as well. Particularly in “Part One”, the opening paragraph contains an abridgement history of the eventful westward journey of Didion’s pioneer family unit, focusing particularly on the women in the family and tracing vertebral column six generations the blood of her famous hemicranias. Didion makes a very unpersuasive argument in “Part one” by her ineffective use of organization but effective use of grounds and claims.

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 Road to Patriation To create a constitution is no small feat; that much can be seen by the incredible journey that Canada went through. A span of several years, different governments and tactics (each becoming more and more desperate) working almost in full force to help pursue a patriated constitution. The Road to Patriation, written and directed by Robert Duncan, creates a narrative that discusses the absolute need for a constitution that allowed Canada the right to amend the constitution. The film shins a light on the political importance of locating Canadian politics in Canada, and the government powers that reintroduced the idea of a charter of rights and the methods they used.

In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck effectively uses the rhetorical strategy of pathos to illuminate the dehumanization of migrant workers during the Great Depression. His story revolves around the Joad family, as they travel from Oklahoma to California in search of work. Steinbeck appeals to the reader’s empathy

“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.

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.

According to Oklahoma Historical Society, an “Okie” is an Oklahoma individual who migrated due to work. This term started being used in a derogatory way in the 1930’s towards agriculture workers when they were not welcomed into other states as they tried to escape severe dust storms. This term becomes relevant to Sonora Babb’s novel, Whose Names Are Unknown, due to the fact that the characters would be considered as “Okies”. Throughout the essay, I will be discussing Professor Bruce Ander’s main points regarding the first chapter and add to the things he missed. Along with that, I researched more about the term “Okie” and the beginning of the dust bowl for the Oklahoma residents.

As depicted in John Steinbeck's novel Grapes of Wrath the 1930's was a time when migrant workers like the story's Joad family had to leave their homes, cross a perilous desert, live through the social injustices of the time, and work at jobs with low insufficient pay just to have a better life (Steinbeck). Seventy years later, the situations and experiences stay the same but the people are no longer native-born Americans but illegal immigrants who sacrifice everything to come to the United States to live a better life, as a result of that the 500,000 immigrants that illegally enter the United States through the Mexican border annually and stay in the country are the Joads of today (Aizenman).

The Grapes of Wrath has become one of America’s most popular and influential novel. Throughout the story, Steinbeck's purpose of showing to his audience the struggles people had to go through during the Depression. Steinbeck’s use of rhetorical devices are able to bring in outside information that he learned to make this novel and intertwine it with a story plot that shocked America. Steinbeck shows us his purpose throughout the novel Steinbeck used the devices of juxtaposition, pathos, and a variety of prose styles to emphasize his purpose and to bring the story of a family moving west to life. One technique used to separate the parts of the novel is juxtaposition.

The unconventionally written intercalary chapters of Steinbeck's novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, are designed to show the readers a view of economic depression and social aspects of America during this time period. Steinbeck tells the reader about the situation through a macroscopic point of view, when he writes the intercalary chapters. It is through these intercalary chapters that Steinbeck tells us about the struggle of many migrant farmers who are pushed out of their homes and start to live their lives on the road, while trying to find places for them to work. Between each of these intercalary chapters are narrative chapters where Steinbeck gives the readers a microscopic view of the situation, by giving us an example of one of the migrant

The 1930’s were a decade of great change politically, economically, and socially. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl wore raw the nerves of the people, and our true strength was shown. From it arose John Steinbeck, a storyteller of the Okies and their hardships. His books, especially The Grapes of Wrath, are reflections of what really went on in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck did not write about what he had previously read, he instead wrote what he experienced through his travels with the migrant workers. “His method was not to present himself notebook in hand and interview people. Instead he worked and traveled with the migrants as one of them, living as they did and arousing no suspicion from employers militantly alert against

During the early 20th century, the United States was going through various changes in a short period of time that molded into this modern America we know today. The United States was swept away by an economic boom in the 1920's that was filled with promises of abundance and prosperity. The mass-production and mass-consumption flourished during this time and as a result, the United States went through a process known as Urbanization . However, this economic growth came to an end in 1929 when the stock market crashed, resulting in billions of dollars to evaporate. This led to the infamous Great Depression. The 1930's was a challenging time in American history. Not only was America going through this economic crisis but the 1930's was also met with one of the worst environmental disaster in the Central Plain known as the Dust Bowl . Large numbers of Americans had to evacuate and many of these of refugees moved to California to look for work. The book The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, illuminates on the social injustices and the struggles many of these refugees had to face in western agriculture. He provides detailed articles of descriptions of the workers daily lives which he observed personally and argues that migrant workers are American citizens who deserve equal treatment and rights just like any other natural born citizen and discusses various ways to end the migrants' poverty and suffering.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck uses numerous literary techniques to advocate for change in the social and political attitudes of the Dust Bowl era. Simile, personification, and imagery are among the many devices that add to the novel’s ability to influence the audience’s views. Moreover, through his use of detail, Steinbeck is able to develop a strong bond between the reader and the Joad clan. This bond that is created evokes empathy from the audience towards the Joads as they face numerous challenges along their journey. The chapters go between the Joad’s story and a broad perspective of the Dust Bowl’s effect on the lives of Mid-western farmers in which Steinbeck illustrates dust storms devastating the land, banks evicting tenant

In John Steinbeck’s tragic, mangled novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the reader is shipped off into the heart of the great Dust Bowl in the American Midwest in the peak of American hardship. Through his use of realism in the era of the modern age, Steinbeck reveals the hardships that were faced by common American citizens during the Great Depression, and utilizes the Joad family in an effort to depict the lives of the farmers who had to flee to new land in the high hopes of a new and better life. The obstacles the family faces are similar to what countless other families had to face, with very little of the population able to successful thrive at the time. By utilizing the empowering endeavors unforeseen by these poor families and the meteorological catastrophes overlooking the Midwest, Steinbeck illustrates the nationwide panic faced by many Americans in an effort to delineate their confusion and uncertainty.