Character Analysis: The Grapes Of Wrath

The first part of this theme; a hard past forces people to learn to rely on themselves, focuses on the self reliance theme. One important example of self reliance was how “when [the kids] wanted money, [they] walked along the roadside picking up beer cans and bottles that [they] redeemed for two cents each” (Walls 62), they had to rely

This quote demonstrates the book’s theme of perseverance because of its powerful motivation to overcome the pain and give it your all.

circumstances I have not had enough time to do a complete rough draft. My plan

During a time of crisis, a person reveals their true colors. The weak are divided

As he stopped listening to the white noise of advice he started to realize it was the reason for his struggles. The nonsense stopped and “the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds” (line 25-26) and “there was a new voice” (line 27). This voice was a voice of power and dignity. It gave him all of the best advice he could ask for. Nothing was going to stop him from his journey rising to the top.

"Life was very hard; we never hardly had enough to eat; we didn't have clothes to wear. We had to work real hard, because I started working when I was six years old. I didn't have a chance to go to school too much, because school would only last about four months at the time when I was a kid going to school. Most of the time we didn't have clothes to wear to that (school); and then if any work would come up that we would have to do, the parents would take us out of the school to cut stalks and burn stalks or work in dead lands or things like that. It was just really tough as a kid when I was a child".

One can easily detect that Sarty is somewhat a prisoner to his father, Abner's, abusive and sadistic behavior. No matter how hard Sarty tried, nothing he did ever seemed to make his father proud. For instance, in the opening scene – after Abner's hearing – a teenage boy shouted, “[b]arn burner!”, as Abner and Sarty were leaving the makeshift courtroom/convenient store. Sarty, in response, sprung at the boy to defend his father's honor; however, Abner is quite ungrateful for his son's reaction, for he pulled Sarty back and spoke to him in a harsh, cold voice to “[g]o get in the wagon”, as if he were almost embarrassed of Sarty's behavior (pg. 516). Regardless of Sarty's efforts to make his father happy and prove his loyalty, later that evening, Abner struck him "on the side of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules at the store, exactly as he would strike either of them with any stick in order to kill a horse fly" because he sensed that Sarty was “fixing” to tell the truth to the Justice of the Peace during the hearing (pg.

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most influential books in American History, and is considered to be his best work by many. It tells the story of one family’s hardship during the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Joads were a hard-working family with a strong sense of togetherness and morals; they farmed their land and went about their business without bothering anyone. When the big drought came it forced them to sell the land they had lived on since before anyone can remember. Their oldest son, Tom, has been in jail the past four years and returns to find his childhood home abandoned. He learns his family has moved in with his uncle John and decides to travel a short distance to see them. He

The Dust Bowl, a series of severe dust storms in the 1930’s, left the southern plains of the United States as a wasteland. The storms occurred due to the lack of use of dryland farming techniques to prevent wind erosion. Powerful winds would pick up loose soil and carry the sediment around the countryside. Called “black blizzard” or “black rollers”, these storms had the potential to black out the sky completely. Due to the inability to grow and sell crops, banks evicted families and foreclosed their properties, leaving them homeless and without an income. 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

"no learning to accept life the way it was meant to be and acting on it is going to bring change."

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

“At the heart of every immigrant’s experience is a dream- a vision of hope that is embodied in his or her destination” (Gladstein 685). In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath the migrants imagined the absolute aspects of living care free to the west. However, everything changed once they traveled to the west, realizing the simple concept turned into hazardous problems. John Steinback emphasized the American dream of economic stability and truculent situations towards the Joads family's point of view. Throughout the immigration, the Joads family goes through constant and unpredictable changes in employment, and their eventual failure to find success in California. The novel has been called by critics "a celebration of the human spirit", in several ways it is true due to the aspects of human nature. Despite the hazardous actions people can do, it is important to realize everything around us.

"How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it" By asking "How" and ending in question in these two questions, Steinback conveys how hopeless the Joad family and many other families felt when they left their

“But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,

“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for