How Is Injustice Shown 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.

Change in this novel is brought about in a very insensitive approach because it is imposed upon thousands of farmers and families who have lost their jobs and their land. This process proves to be overwhelming as the Joads learn to cope with the great changes in their life by sticking together and by reaching out to other families. Family is a means of survival in the novel. Without each other the Joads would have no way of coping with the loss of their land and finding a way to California. They, along with many other migrant workers, learn that they are stronger and

Steinbeck provides this anecdote in order to foreshadow events in future chapters. In this chapter, Steinbeck describes a situation in which a group of people in Akron, Ohio formed a union and revolted against the authorities. While Steinbeck demonstrates the migrant workers as innocent people looking for peaceful solutions to their

Social protest is defined as a strong reaction to another human’s actions. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, there are many instances of social protest that are shown in many different ways, whether they be blatantly obvious or extremely subtle, and John Steinbeck introduces many different characters to spark these reactions from the lower class through unfair practices. In particular, Steinbeck displays the differences in social classes to point out that institutions are responsible for the suffering that the Okies, the lower class, must go through.

The next section of chapter 21 offers an explanation of the hostility that the migrants meet upon arrival in California. Steinbeck describes:

John Steinbeck is the renowned author of novels such as Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, and The Pearl. In his novel The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck expounds on the theme of the cruelty people inflict on one another as well as how they can overcome the inhumanity of others. Steinbeck’s artfully demonstrates that this cruelty is often born out of the human tendency to think of oneself first; others, if they are thought of at all, come second.

Interchapter 21 describes the flood of migrants coming into California and the locals reaction to it. The migrants, forced out of their homes by the dust storms, banks, and tractors, are coming to California to find jobs and rebuild their families. The locals take up arms against the “dirty and ignorant” (Steinbeck 283) Okies “with clubs, with gas, with guns.” (283) The diction of “dirty and ignorant” shows the brewing hostility of the locals, prompting them to beat them back with clubs, gas, and guns. Despite the Californians best attempts to push the migrants

Steinbeck and Thoreau both recognize the responsibility the citizen has in influencing the government to create the society he or she wants to live in. Far too often, this duty is neglected because of how vulnerable one man can seem against the government. In The Grapes of Wrath, the migrant workers are constantly being taken advantage of while they struggle to remember their roots. They can only find solace in each other as they learn the “technique of building worlds” within their communities because it is the only way they can survive (Steinbeck 131). The solidarity that these migrant workers possess is the spirit of Steinbeck’s philosophy on how much impact citizens have. If just one man can realize the potential within himself, this spark will spread until there is a movement. Steinbeck underscores how crucial the role of the individual in creating a better society through displaying the close relations between these migrant workers. It goes to display the victory

Steinbeck utilizes the novel as a form of social protest by enunciating the brutal and inhumane way the wealthier class treat the migrant workers. For instance, in order to not loose any profit from the fields, the affluent bankers decide to forcefully drive the families off the fields using tractors to “bite into the house corner, crumble the wall, wrench the little houses from its foundation”(39). However, the working class does not have the opportunity to refuse this decision because of the desperate

The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is a novel which demonstrates the lives of families during the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and the struggles they faced on their route to California. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck applies his writing style in order to convey the theme and general plot of the novel.

As depicted in John Steinbeck's novel Grapes of Wrath the 1930's was a time when migrant workers like the story's Joad family had to leave their homes, cross a perilous desert, live through the social injustices of the time, and work at jobs with low insufficient pay just to have a better life (Steinbeck). Seventy years later, the situations and experiences stay the same but the people are no longer native-born Americans but illegal immigrants who sacrifice everything to come to the United States to live a better life, as a result of that the 500,000 immigrants that illegally enter the United States through the Mexican border annually and stay in the country are the Joads of today (Aizenman).

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,

In Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the theme of “hope and humanity in the face of extreme adversity’ is shown through passage one. The novel opens with a depressing description of the setting, describing “the ruined corn” and how the men would go stand and watch their corn, with the women watching them “to feel whether this time [they] would break” (Steinbeck 3). Since men were the primary providers of material things such as food, money, and shelter during the time period the novel is set in, the women are making sure that their men stay strong for the family, because they know that if the men break, the family will quickly follow. Since the men are seen, by the family itself, to be the glue that keeps them together, the ideology of the

Steinbeck describes how whenever there is a mass migration of people, there will be pity and fear from those

However, this anger presented in the novel is not a negative one. The characters are about to burst out of it and as result they will seek improving their conditions and fighting against this inhumane treatment. Many people agree on the fact that the novel is greatly about anger. For instance, Malcolm Cowely believes that the novel is one among the “great angry books that have the power to spur readers on to protest and action.” ( Cowely, American Tragedy p.382-383)