The Grapes Of Wrath Chapter 8 Analysis

He claims she is aging and losing her power when he is the one who is truly getting older (Hurston 79). The reader is able to see Jody’s aging quickly as he gets sick and begins to die. When Janie comes to his death bed to confront him, Joe dies (Hurston 86). This shows how Janie gaining power causes Joe to lose his power. This power shift ultimately leads to Joe’s death. After his death, Janie has a newfound freedom. She takes off the kerchief Joe made her wear and burns it (Hurston 89). This symbolizes Janie burning patriarchy and taking control of her life. Janie is now able to live the life that she wants. She “jus’ loves dis freedom” (Hurston 93). The patriarchal woman inside of Janie is dead. Janie no longer wears her hair up when she works in the store (Hurston 89) and participates in activities Joe would have never approved of, such as fishing (Hurston 93). Janie knows that she does not need a man in order to protect her and in order to feel

When you think of the word end you think of the end of a book or movie when the true definition is “a final part of something, esp. a period of time, an activity, or a story” or “

Janie’s outward appearance and her inward thoughts contrast following Joe’s death. She finally frees herself from his control only after he dies as she, “…tore off the kerchief…and let down her plentiful hair” (87). In freeing her hair, Janie begins to free herself from others’ control and social norms. However, she chooses to keep it tied up until after Jody’s funeral in order to keep appearances that she is grieving his passing in front of the townspeople. However, on the inside, Janie doesn’t really feel any sorrow and “sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world” (88). It is only after Joe’s elaborate funeral that Janie shows her first act of freedom by burning “every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (89). She chose to let her hair be free from his domination, thus freeing herself from him overall and allowing herself to move onto the next journey in her life.

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.

The Grapes of Wrath introduces new characters in chapter four. The characters can easily be related to every day lives, including our own. The character that can be connected most with myself is the turtle. Constantly, I feel I am never noticed and I am just kicked around by people every day. Some people notice me, but only get out of my way instead of offering their help. Some people target me as a way to prove they are larger than me. They swerve towards me to injure me or scare me. Steinbeck's ultimate goal is to make the reader sympathize with the turtle. The turtle is a helpless creature who is abandoned on the road, and the most care he gets from any passing drive is just an attempt to not hit the turtle. Tom Joad comes along

As I started to read chapter one I was thinking “This is going to be so boring” but I just kinda had to get more into. And as I was in the middle of chapter one I was expecting Jody to come home from school and everything was going to be all happy and joyful, of course that wasn’t going to happen it’s too easy. So when Gabilan died, I think Jody over reacted, I mean, yeah I get it he’s sad and everything but he didn’t need to kill other animals. And I was kinda shocked when the chapter ended like that. I was hoping that something else would happen.

The cold, soaked earth, which was a source of life not too long ago, abducts a young child while the mother can only watch hopelessly as the husband shovels mounds of dirt. This event is not too different than most that citizens living during the Dust Bowl had to deal with. The self-destructive nature caused the American people to keep expanding and shaping the land as they saw fit. Because of this they overworked the land which, combined with drought, caused the Dust Bowl. The big corporations soon bought out most of the land in the Mid-West and many families were soon forced to make their living by other means. The shift of these families out west to a limited number of jobs

Joe ends up becoming the Mayor, Post Master, storekeeper, and the biggest landlord in the town. Although this is all fine for him, Janie in the mean time is not happy with the relationship and struggles to deal with it. Over the years Janie places all of her old dreams into the corner of her soul. She submits to Jody's need for control on the outside but on the inside she hides her real feelings and her real self. At one of the town meetings someone asks for a “few words uh encouragement from Mrs. Mayor Starks” and Joe replies buy saying, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”(41) After hearing this from Joe, Janie feels as though, “that took the bloom off of things”(41). She is no longer truly in love with him anymore. After Joe dies, Janie feels free for the first time in years. Janie is in the room when Joe dies and soon after, she walks across the room to the mirror and tells herself that she, “The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place”(83). Janie becomes a more independently thinking woman after his death because she doesn’t have the restriction that Joe forced on her. She is free from Joes dominant self and can now do what she pleases, which ends up being a very good thing for her.

1-1. “Before me and Neeka started asking D about her life, we were erasers too—she got to step into our world, with all the trees and mamas calling from windows and kids playing on the block, and forget.” (18)

“… Dick saw a man, who was his own age- twenty- eight or thirty. He could have been ‘a gambler or lawyer or maybe a gangster from Chicago.’ Whatever he was he looked as though he knew the glories of money and power… All that belonged to him, Dick, but he would never have it. Why should that sonofabitch have everything, while he had nothing? … With a knife in his hand, he, Dick, had the power. Big shots… like that better be careful or he might ‘open them up and let their luck spill on the floor’” (201).

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 the American novel The Grapes of Wrath, throughout intercalary chapter 17, John Steinbeck discusses the “worlds” created by migrant families at night; bonded by one intent, and by the same trials. “Because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, they huddled together…the twenty families became one family, and the children became the children of all” (192). Chapter 16 is the first time the Joads experience one of these migrant families’ worlds. Along with the Wilsons, the Joads travel for two days, and on the third, “they settled into a new technique of living; the highway became their home and movement their medium of expression” (163).

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