The Role Of Serving Others In The Grapes Of Wrath

Reflective practice will make us more self aware, this will raise our own awareness of others and increase

In my lifetime, many experiences have changed my character, with the most memorable being the mission trip I took to Parmelee, South Dakota. This endeavor showed me how to be caring and love everyone, despite their circumstances. Although it took time, I learned to show kindness to everyone and not just the people I feel comfortable around. During my missions work, one child revealed to me how to be compassionate to people who may not deserve it, and to give to other unconditionally.

Life is a constant learning experience. I believe that if we are able to recognize the good and bad qualities within ourselves, we will become truly better human beings. Whether we are using the positive skills and abilities that help us obtain our goal, or knowing the negative individual weaknesses that need work, understanding ourselves and what we can do, can benefit us not only in our future career field we choose to purse, but in our everyday life as well.

During the Great Depression, many people lost their jobs or took pay cuts which created challenging circumstances for many families. The majority of these challenging circumstances generated from selfishness. Self-interest consumed landowners and businesses to the point that it caused thousands of families to sink into poverty. Due to the the Dust Bowl, many families had to migrate West, especially to California where there was a high demand for workers. Migrants learned that their survival depends on their devotion to the collective good. Therefore the migrant families united and shared anything they could give. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the migrants are constantly committing selfless and altruistic acts which shows the reader that in order to survive, people have to create a devotion to a community.

Over centuries, mankind’s intention has always been to make change or evolve. As in The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck, an emphasization of the capability of humans to create change and to progress has been demonstrated throughout the novel. Despite many challenges, the main characters, the Joad family faces, it has been highlighted that man obtains the ability to adapt to changes of circumstances and has the power of cooperating together and unifies together, as well, to execute change. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck capsizes religious symbols to roll out the boldness of the human spirit. Steinbeck also displays the powers of mankind to create change and feuds that the human experience should be the physical foundation of one's moral code, rather than being dependent upon religious principle.

The book The Grapes of Wrath has introduced many themes but one that stands out, especially at the end, is the importance of people uniting and supporting each other around an issue. The book starts with a clear importance of family support and togetherness that continues to extend as the book goes on. One of the first examples of this is when the Joad family meets the Wilson couple on the side of the road. They hardly know each other before making the decision to continue making the trip west together. They don’t spend much time together but there is a deeper understanding of one another because they understand the struggles and hardships both families face. In the chapters that follow the story and the intercalary chapters there are many examples like this one but some are more subtle.

In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, we are shown many social issues within the story. Social issues are displayed through homelessness, adaptation, prejudice and more. The social issues bring the novel together as one, and they have a great effect on the Okies in the book. Also, adaptation plays a big part in the social issues. Steinbeck captures great struggles in migrant work on the farm and shows how workers needed to come together as one.

On the other hand, it has also made me less of the selfish person who I was before into an increasingly caring person. For an example, I put people before myself now because in El Salvador the people go beyond for their loved ones and friends. They go home with very little and still manage to have something and be happy. I do not hesitate to help more as well. When I had seen how much the kids do for their parents, I realized on how lazy and ungrateful I was to my mother. It made me want to get a job and help my mom with bills, which I did so exactly. Years later, what I have done to help the people out there is sending a huge box full of anything my family and I did not need every six months and filling it up with as much as we could.

People live their lives with many transitions, good or bad they provide us with experiences and knowledge. The life experiences we endure provide insight and wisdom to share with others. In life we are continuously looking for fulfilling experiences such as happiness, success, love or contentment. The thing people tend to forget is that these experiences that bring happiness is a basic mood or emotion not a purpose or an endpoint. Reflection provides self-awareness by improving oneself can present a sense of purpose that provides direction to how we live our life. There are moments of reflection that focus on the

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is a perfect example of alienation from a culture or society due to gender, race, class, or creed. Throughout the novel there are three main characters who experience alienation first hand. Ma Joad , Noah Joad, and Jim Casy play significant roles in the novel because they experience alienation from society due to gender, disabilities, and creed. Although some of these characters do not have such a significant role in the novel, they play a huge role in a society trying to bring them down.

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)

Travis troubles with relationships with others around him, and finally that situation ruins him, like attempts to assassinate a politician and massacre of pimps. Travis gradually gets his mental disorder, because of not only himself, but relationships with others around him. Although Travis thinks himself as a lonely man, he lives in New York, a metropolitan city, where filled with many others. Travis sometimes has communication with others around him, but such his awkward communication doesn’t useful to relieve his anxiety.

land by the bank, which owned it because the drought from the Dust Bowl had

The 1930s were a time of hardship for many across the United States. Not only was the Great Depression making it difficult for families to eat every day, but the Dust Bowl swept through the plains states making it nearly impossible to farm the land in which they relied. John Steinbeck saw how the Dust Bowl affected farmers, primarily the tenant farmers, and journeyed to California after droves of families. These families were dispossessed from the farms they had worked for years, if not generations (Mills 388). Steinbeck was guided by Tom Collins, the real-life model for the Weedpatch camp’s manager Jim Rawley, through one of the federal migrant worker camps. He was able to see for himself,

The true purpose of self-reflection is to correct our mistaken thoughts and actions, and learn from them, thereby creating a more constructive life. Self-reflection is not just the simple act of discovering past mistakes and making up for these mistakes, like resetting a negative to zero. The ultimate objective of self-reflection is the development of a more positive self and the realization of a utopia on earth as the fulfilment of God’s will."