Rhetorical Devices Used In The Grapes Of Wrath

Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, many concepts appear that were noted in How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. However, the three chapters of Foster’s how-to guide that most apply to Steinbeck’s novel were “It’s All About Sex…,” “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not),” and “It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow.” On more than one occasion these concepts are hidden within the book, and two of them actually seem somewhat linked together. After reading between the lines, The Grapes of Wrath has an extremely intricate plot and many ulterior meanings. Foster’s book helps to solve these meanings and make it so that the novel can be completely understood.

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

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

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.

The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is considered by many to be the hallmark of American literature. It covers the journey of the Joad family as they stick together through one of the harshest eras in American history, the Great Depression. The structure of the Joad’s narrative is interspersed by smaller, highly descriptive interchapters, which sets the novel apart from other classics in its ability to make the reader understand and relate to the Joads and everything they went through. The detailed, impactful vignettes foreshadow problems the Joads have to overcome and the overview descriptions in the vignettes contrast with the specificities of the Joad’s story. They contain Biblical allusions, colorful descriptions, and objects that can interact with the main characters later in the narrative. Through the use of imagery and diction, the vignettes make Steinbeck’s message more impactful and meaningful.

“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.

When examining John Steinbeck’s, Grapes of Wrath’” he details the story of the Joads an Oklahoma family on their way to California in the midsts of the Dust Bowl. As he discusses their journey towards the american dream he inserts several intercalary chapters that break up the discussion of the Joads and shifts the focus towards the things that symbolizes them. In the novel there are several intercalary chapters that are used to depict the lies and deceit that occurs to the Joads right under their nose.

Characters in The Grapes of Wrath are often contrasted to emphasize certain qualities in their relationships, the most notable being a lack of empathy versus a caring and generous nature. Steinbeck’s use of juxtaposition is key to understanding the significance of the contrast involving the landowners and the migrants and why they cannot share sympathies and opinions. These two groups are both rivals and continuously reinforce differences in their lifestyles, and such is the case for the landowners and migrants, which are two drastically different classes that will not cooperate. The migrants are searching for job opportunities and safe places, but are often cheated by the landowners, who are corrupted by their drive for cheap labor and, ultimately, riches,

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

In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses many of the literary devices to emphasize the conditions of the people migrating to California. One that I found obvious and recurring in the novel was repetition. There are many instances in the novel where words, images, or phrases are repeated to bring the condition of certain situations to life.In the quote above Steinbeck uses repetition to create an ethereal trance and stress the desperate times of the Dust Bowl era. The overuse of “listen” has a sense of movement. The reader also gets to feel that he is apart of the story feeling the increase of reality. Also the use of “you” by Tom, the narrator makes the reader feel amid with the Joad family who have sold everything they owned

Not only does the land suffer from a break in the sacred connection between farmer and crops, the men lose a part of their humanity to the machine. Those "men" who run the tractors are described in the novel as being "part of the monster (Steinbeck, 48)." They have given their humanity to the company in return for money to buy food that was produced by machines, not by men. Chapter eleven describes the slow degrading of the spirits of the tractor men and the migrants who no longer know the land. The slow deterioration of the houses, with no people to care for and be sheltered by them, is symbolic of the death of the land and the people when they are not connected. (Steinbeck 158-159)

The Oversoul by Ralph Waldo Emerson ideas directly tie into The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The main idea in the Oversoul is that everyone and everything are connected in a certain way. Emerson also stresses the fact that people need to switch from the I to the we mentality. This along with unity come out a great deal in The Grapes of Wrath. A persons individual efforts cannot secede the work of a group of people that all have the same end means in mind.

4. The part of the story that shocked me was when the Masked Man would drain all of his sons blood and kill him just to get his magic back! I know he’s evil but in one of the chapters when he said (in his brain) he could get back everything that was ever taken from him. I thought that he wanted his son back not to take his magic and kill him!!! 8.

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

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.