Changing Family 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.

Through the roughest times in life, we come across crises that reveal the true character in those around us. Those who are strong are divided from the weak and the followers divide from the leaders. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck presents the character Ma Joad who serves an important role as the rock that keeps the family together. The Joad family, apart from many families in Oklahoma, is forced to leave their homes in search of work and better opportunities; California not only leaves them in poverty but despair. But through it all Ma Joad is the leader of the family that exhibits selflessness in order to protect and secure her family.

Initially, the Joad's focus is on their own immediate family and their struggle to stay together. The

This quote explains how the Joads work. They work each of their jobs as hard as they can and

“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.

You can tell that Casy is having second thoughts about leaving for out west, and it’s almost like he is having a premonition. He tries to convince Tom that something funny is going on, but Tom just ignores him. Casy responds by saying “Oh, what the hell! So goddamn hard to say anything” (Galati 37). Uncle John is also having bad feelings and he expresses this to Casy when he says “I got a feelin’ I’m bringin’ bad luck to my own folks” (Galati 41).  Furthering the family break up, Noah, who was also traveling with the family, found his place when they were at the river. He realized that he could catch fish and never be sad. Noah did not want to leave his family but he knew that it wasn’t going to get any better. While the Joad family was breaking up a shift was happening. After the family looses Connie, Casy and Tom, Ma knew that she is just supposed to go on. When she tells Pa “Man, he lives in a jerk—baby born an’ a man dies, an’ that’s a jerk—gets a farm an’ loses his farm, an’ that’s a jerk.” (Galati 81). Ma is realizing that there is a circle of life, that the death of one may bring life to another, as shown in the end when Rose of Sharon feeds her breast milk for her dead baby to a dying man. Ma’s way of thinking is best illustrated by the quote  "Can't wipe us out. Can't lick us. We'll go on forever. 'Cause we're the people." Ma Joad was going through this shift in thinking.

Moreover, in Chapter Thirteen, as the Joad family continues on their journey, they meet the Wilson family. The two families decide to carry on with their trip together. It is at this point that Steinbeck follows the pattern of the circle of life. Steinbeck begins by writing about the rebirth of Tom Joad. Next, Grampa dies. Following this, there is a birth for the Joads when they add the Wilson family to their own. However, as previously stated, in order to represent the hardships of the journey, many more deaths than births occur in the novel. In Chapter Eighteen alone, Noah leaves the family, the Joads continue on without the Wilson family, and Granma dies. It may seem like these losses would tear the family apart, but Ma Joad understands the concept of family, and tries her hardest to keep the family as one unit. For example, Ma Joad sits up all night with Granma's dead body, jut so the family can cross the border. "'The fambly hadda get acrost'" (312).

The traditional human family represents a necessary transition between self and community. In the difficult era of the 1930's, the family's role shifted to guard against a hostile outside world rather than to provide a link with it. With the drought in the Dust Bowl and other tragedies of the Great Depression, many were forced to look beyond the traditional family unit and embrace their kinship with others of similar necessity. In his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the theme of strength through unity to comment on the relationship between the dissolution of individual families and the unification of the migrant people. The journey of the Joad family

An asset that assisted both of these families was the ability to stay together. Without their personal family, the individuals would not have boded well on a journey in search of food, shelter or work, unless they decided to live and interact with

Tom, though, is a very complicated individual who turns out to be a tremendous asset and burden to the family. His parole causes the family an unneeded worry, but does get work that helps the family. He is the main protagonist for his family and the main follower of Jim Casy's philosophy on human nature. Jim is much more of a talker and idealist, and he actually puts what he preached into action. Jim Casy is frequently compared with Jesus Christ and his lifestyle of preaching and leading people. As well as sacrificing himself for Tom and the Joad family which upholds his common held belief. Tom carries Jim’s message after his death and aids others with it. The Joad family, along with Jim Casy, shows the benefit of people uniting in order to accomplish goals and this is a lesson that the reader can take away from this novel.

One of the themes in this story is the power of the Family. During the enitre journey that the joab family took, it was their perseverence until the end that saved them. It was the entire family that worked in unison to improve their lives and protect one another. This was how many people survived the Depression, by working together.

The details in this passage reveal the people’s plight as one of the poverty and desperation. When the wine was spilled into the street, crowds formed immediately in order to drink it. They used their hands, crude “mugs of mutilated earthenware,” and even handkerchiefs to collect the wine. They could not buy the wine themselves, as they were too poor, but when they see the wine pooling in the “rough, irregular stones of the street,” they will do anything in order to drink it. They cannot even afford cups, so they make them with “mutilated earthenware.” Then people started to celebrate; “A shrill sound of laughter and of amused voices . . . resounded in the street while this wine game lasted.” Because these people had so little, this occasion

I chose Realism because I have always loved read books that have to do with what life is actually about and not everything ending in happily ever after. I read The Grapes of Wrath and it was a different from any other book I have read. Most of the books I read about real life don’t go that in-depth. I also wanted to find out about how things were like during a hardship in this country and realism gave in to me. I was not what I expected it to be.

John Steinbeck’s critically acclaimed novel The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family as their lives are uprooted by the Great Depression and its economic hardships. The Joads join thousands of other families like them on the road, all heading westward to California. The migrants are complete strangers and yet they treat one another as if they are family, bonded by shared experiences. Throughout the novel characters often take huge risks and make sacrifice what little they have in order to help each other and directly oppose the selfishness of the banks and all others who exploit the people.

Most, not all, stories have their happy ending- the ending that fixes all of the problems ever encountered during the story. However, in the historical fiction The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck in 1939, the Joad family travels west to California in search of “a better life”, only to face the true fury of the Great Depression countless times. Steinbeck ends the story on an abruptly stunning note to prove the truth: poor American families were left to survive like animals as the result of a neglectful society.