John Steinbeck 's The Grapes Of Wrath

During the Great Depression, many citizens faced an arduous lifestyle of unemployment. However, many people managed to entertain themselves by reading literature such as The Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck witnessed an injustice towards farmers during the Great Depression, and this inspired Steinbeck to present his perspective of the maltreatment to the open through The Grapes of Wrath. The fictional novel describes how unfortunate conditions, during the Great Depression, force an Oklahoma farmer family to travel to California in search for an easy life, job opportunities, and a bright future. John Steinbeck represented and connected his tones through his trope, making it an excellent read. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinback is a book with the main theme being the oversoul. The oversoul is the idea of an ultimate divine spirit that encompasses all human souls. In order to reach this theme, Steinback uses a variety of metaphors that all lead up to the theme of the oversoul.

In the novel, Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, depicts the struggles between upper class, middle class, and poor, migrant workers which show how natural human greed and selfishness amongst those with sustainable income increases tension between the separate classes. Steinbeck also uses the empathetic views shared amongst those in the same situations and how it gives them a want to help each other survive. The rich are wasteful with things they are unable to profit from; they cannot stand the poor nor the thought of the stagnation of their company. They are unable to accept a large consistent profit; the business itself is not the monster that begins to die from a constant profit but the greedy humans behind it.

Seventy-five years later, John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, and the film adaptation, are still relevant to life now, because there are several relatable themes running through the book and movie. The novel depicts the about the economic inequality of the 1840s and 1930s. Yet still today, there is economic inequality. The wealthier people with jobs also look down on the poorer, unemployed people. Perhaps there is a fear that the jobless will come in and steal jobs. However, the American dream is clearly present in the novel and has been throughout history.

The Grapes Of Wrath introduces many real life topics, and difficulties relevant to the people in the 1930s and some still relevant to today. Throughout the book topics like migration, corporate profit, and even environmental impacts of human choices are all present in the book. Steinbeck is shown to makes many claims about each of these topics, but the topic that stands out the most are the issues with the criminal justice system. Steinbeck believes that the police and the criminal justice system are corrupt and generally police have a tendency to abuse their authority against poor people and migrants.

A monopoly is when a firm sells a product that has no substitutes and is the only seller of that product. In the book “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck really portrays the idea of monopoly in the peach picking incident. A firm gains monopoly power when they are able to set prices. This occurred when the Joads were fixing their flat tire, they got offered a job as peach pickers in Hooper Ranch by a well-dressed man. On their first day of the job, the Joads need to be escorted by police because there are people angrily yelling by the entrance. When they began their job as peach pickers their wage was five cents per box. The whole family worked from morning to sundown, only to earn a dollar on their first day of work. However, they were paid in credit and had to go to the company store in order to use that credit. Then that same night, Ma went to the company store to buy something for dinner. She realized that the prices for the goods were much higher than normal and was only able to buy some not so tasteful looking burgers and coffee. Then when she asked why the prices on the goods were higher, the clerk said ““yes, it’s high, an’ same time it ain’t high. Time you go on in town for a couple poun’s of hamburg, it’ll cos’ you ’bout a gallon of gas. So you see it ain’t really high here, ’cause you got no gallon a gas.” (Steinbeck) What he means by this is that since the area is isolated and the company paid only in credit, the only place to buy goods is the company store.

When humans were in their primal state, before they could even comprehend calculus or geometry, they looked at the trees, bushes and plants and grabbed the fruit from their branches. They then looked to the stars and were fascinated the way we are today. Neanderthals reconciled the fact they could not reach these stars with the theory that they were a fruit for a much more powerful and an encompassing being. The point being humanity has a habit of explaining what we cannot fathom, by creating a construct of something greater than themselves, something omnipotent. The prominent religious books of our time, the new and old testament have struggled to explain what exactly the intangible being known as G-d can do as well as explaining the idea

Which is worse; parents placing money before their children, or hdhdhshdhdhdhdhshsj? The clear answer is that both are equally disturbing. Sadly, both these examples are not uncommon. According to Ross, many families are breaking down as parents place work above children and children are more willing to self destruct as they notice they are being placed second. These modern-day examples are connected to The Grapes of Wrath by a common theme, money before people. This is a dangerous but common theme that John Steinbeck endeavors not only to warn but to inform his readers of. Although there are some instances of the Okies aiding one another, money before people is a central theme in The Grapes of Wrath as well as real life because it is the

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a novel set during the mid-1930s drought and the fall of the American stock market. It depicts the plight of migrant workers throughout this time period, and follows the life of the protagonist, recently-released Oklahoma state convict, Tom Joad. He met up with former preacher Jim Casy, who renounced his ministerial calling due to his newfound belief that all life is holy, even the aspects that were categorized by others as sinful. After serving four years in prison on a manslaughter charge, Tom found Jim and together they returned to Tom’s family’s farm only to find it deserted, much like all the surrounding farms. The next day, the two men traveled to Tom’s uncle’s home, where he discovered the rest of his family packing to move to California in the hopes of finding a better life. This migration leads to death, abandonment, disappointment, and a new dream of organizing migrant workers to aid the depleted job market. The novel helped me to understand the struggle of the times, and what it means to lose everything and everyone in such a short period. Throughout these things, however grim they may seem, there is always a glimmer of hope.

The 1930’s era was an incredibly tumultuous time for the United States. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Dust Bowl exacerbated the already high tensions between the rich and the poor. These tensions were also present and becoming a growing problem within the justice system of this era. As the country plunged into the depths of the Depression, the poor treatment of men and women imprisoned within the country’s jails deteriorated as well. The Dust Bowl along with the economic conditions the country, at the time led to the disparate treatment of prisoners at this time. Prejudices against certain groups of people during this time were very strong. This prejudice was demonstrated in John Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath, especially

Anger is one of the strongest driving emotions one could feel. In the novel Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, set in the 1930’s, the Joad family experiences the hardships, fear, and frustration in result of the Great Depression. From the stock market crash to the drought sweeping crops away, the Great Depression destroyed the livelihoods of many farmers and civilians, causing fear and anger to arise from everyone. Although people may view anger as a violent, frightening emotion, it is vital for expression of care, provides self-insight, and is a strong motivating force.

The Grapes of Wrath, originated from a John Steinbeck’s book, a legendary film that focus on a major point of American history. The story follows the Joad family on their journey to California trying to survive the hardships. This film, focus on the social problems of America like the Dust bowl, The Great Depression, and industrialism. The Grapes of Wrath was filmed in a journalistic-documentary style, which displayed the realism of the epidemic in the thirties. The thirties the period The Grapes of Wrath was set was considered the worst time of America.

Steinbeck’s novel portrays the plight of the Joad family, natives of Oklahoma. The Joads, a family of dispossessed farmers, travel to California searching for work after the forces of large-scale banking capitalism remove them from their land. They chase the promise of a new beginning and the opportunity to find wealth because of the California dream. Steinbeck narrates the journey of an underclass family achieving the Marxist construction of class-consciousness. Class conflict between wage “slaves” and the owners of the means of production, social alienation through the separation of labor and profit, and dehumanization of workers through the mass commodification of labor all appear in the novel. Class-consciousness defines the novel and is the method by which the Joad family is able to rise against the bourgeois and capitalism.

In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, he used many clashes of tradition to imply socialism as the cure to California’s economic mess in the 1930s. Socialism started early in Europe and several experiments of it were done in America. To anyone who knows history at all, it always seems to repeat itself, and this philosophy of government style has always failed. Socialism tries to hide behind the concept of "fairness” to suck the blood and freedom from people.

Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the United States of America is known as a capitalist society. This is a society in which capitalism behavior results in the sole objective of manufacturing capital. Though this is advantageous to the ones making the money, the most destruction is recognized in the lower class where each week’s pay is how the families sustain. The novel, The Grapes of Wrath reveals the story of the Joad family traveling to California during the Dust Bowl searching for labor. The concept of how they are able to overcome the challenges presented, as well as the effect that the capitalist ideals comprised on society’s people are presented within the novel. This contrast shows that the upper-class is not able to put the blame for events that occur throughout the story in the lower class on any sole event or person. This results in the frustration of many “Okies” who have their farms taken away from them as well as any decent paying job. For the duration of the novel, the wealth of individuals is valued more greatly than the expense of human decency or lives.