The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

April 14th, 1939, John Steinbeck published the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. The novel became an immediate best seller, with selling over 428,900 copies. Steinbeck, who lived through both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, sought to bring attention to how families of Oklahoma outdid these disasters. Steinbeck focuses on families of Oklahoma, including the Joads family, who reside on a farm. The Joad family is tested with hardship when life for them on their farm takes a corrupt turn. Steinbeck symbolizes the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, as the monster, by focusing on bringing attention to how the families in Oklahoma bypass the disastorous weather, greedy bankers, and also the unreceptive greeting by the

The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinback is a book with the main theme being the oversoul. The oversoul is the idea of an ultimate divine spirit that encompasses all human souls. In order to reach this theme, Steinback uses a variety of metaphors that all lead up to the theme of the oversoul.

The Grapes Of Wrath introduces many real life topics, and difficulties relevant to the people in the 1930s and some still relevant to today. Throughout the book topics like migration, corporate profit, and even environmental impacts of human choices are all present in the book. Steinbeck is shown to makes many claims about each of these topics, but the topic that stands out the most are the issues with the criminal justice system. Steinbeck believes that the police and the criminal justice system are corrupt and generally police have a tendency to abuse their authority against poor people and migrants.

A monopoly is when a firm sells a product that has no substitutes and is the only seller of that product. In the book “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck really portrays the idea of monopoly in the peach picking incident. A firm gains monopoly power when they are able to set prices. This occurred when the Joads were fixing their flat tire, they got offered a job as peach pickers in Hooper Ranch by a well-dressed man. On their first day of the job, the Joads need to be escorted by police because there are people angrily yelling by the entrance. When they began their job as peach pickers their wage was five cents per box. The whole family worked from morning to sundown, only to earn a dollar on their first day of work. However, they were paid in credit and had to go to the company store in order to use that credit. Then that same night, Ma went to the company store to buy something for dinner. She realized that the prices for the goods were much higher than normal and was only able to buy some not so tasteful looking burgers and coffee. Then when she asked why the prices on the goods were higher, the clerk said ““yes, it’s high, an’ same time it ain’t high. Time you go on in town for a couple poun’s of hamburg, it’ll cos’ you ’bout a gallon of gas. So you see it ain’t really high here, ’cause you got no gallon a gas.” (Steinbeck) What he means by this is that since the area is isolated and the company paid only in credit, the only place to buy goods is the company store.

When humans were in their primal state, before they could even comprehend calculus or geometry, they looked at the trees, bushes and plants and grabbed the fruit from their branches. They then looked to the stars and were fascinated the way we are today. Neanderthals reconciled the fact they could not reach these stars with the theory that they were a fruit for a much more powerful and an encompassing being. The point being humanity has a habit of explaining what we cannot fathom, by creating a construct of something greater than themselves, something omnipotent. The prominent religious books of our time, the new and old testament have struggled to explain what exactly the intangible being known as G-d can do as well as explaining the idea

Which is worse; parents placing money before their children, or hdhdhshdhdhdhdhshsj? The clear answer is that both are equally disturbing. Sadly, both these examples are not uncommon. According to Ross, many families are breaking down as parents place work above children and children are more willing to self destruct as they notice they are being placed second. These modern-day examples are connected to The Grapes of Wrath by a common theme, money before people. This is a dangerous but common theme that John Steinbeck endeavors not only to warn but to inform his readers of. Although there are some instances of the Okies aiding one another, money before people is a central theme in The Grapes of Wrath as well as real life because it is the

Anger is one of the strongest driving emotions one could feel. In the novel Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, set in the 1930’s, the Joad family experiences the hardships, fear, and frustration in result of the Great Depression. From the stock market crash to the drought sweeping crops away, the Great Depression destroyed the livelihoods of many farmers and civilians, causing fear and anger to arise from everyone. Although people may view anger as a violent, frightening emotion, it is vital for expression of care, provides self-insight, and is a strong motivating force.

John Steinbeck grew up in Salinas California, and came into contact with many migrant workers throughout his life. Steinbeck worked on many ranches as a ranch hand, and lived through the 1930’s observing the social inequalities towards the migrant workers. There were so many migrant workers in California due to the Dust Bowl, which completely tarnished the farming lands of the Great Plains. Along with bringing in a low amount of food to support their families, the national bank kicked many farmers off of their lands because of the stock market crash and the plummet of the economy. The government saw an opportunity to regain themselves in the Great Plains, so they moved everyone out and gave it all to large industrial companies. The families that had been kicked out of their homes had no place to go, and large farm owners in California wanted to take advantage of them. They sent out thousands of handbills making false promises of financial and job security, so

The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is a story of the Joad family, as they move out west from the Dust Bowl. Tom Joad has recently been let out of prison for a drunken stabbing and sees his family for the first time in years. As the family moves out west, they find the challenges and hardships to be worse as they had first expected. The book shines a light on expectations, and how people set stereotypes based on false assumptions. As humans, people have their own ideas about how minorities should act, behave, and live their lives. We make assumptions and cage people into a stereotype. Throughout the story, every character is unknowingly assigned a stereotype they are meant to hold onto. Wandering out of that boundary is shocking, and even deadly. Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to further emphasize the theme. An intercalary chapter is inserted into writing between chapters to shine a light on the theme, that relates to the original story. As Steinbeck 's story of the Joad family progresses, the chapters bring forth the assumptions often made about people are sometimes, but very often not true. In The Grapes of Wrath, the intercalary chapters bring forth the set of assumptions and mistakes that are made by the characters. The different stereotypes that are assumed and expectations set for one another, and to see the truth when blinded by expected scenarios are common throughout the story, and are woven into the intercalary chapters to expose

The main character in this story seemed to think that his life was rough and terrifying, yet it wasn’t the worst it could ever be, and he still chose to endure throughout the torture. Some examples are: “Dread swept over Markus. If he got into that truck, he knew he would become a slave at best, or at worst a prisoner marked for death. He wanted to run but he knew if he bolted, he would get a bullet in his back.” along with “One scorching-hot day, Markus got so dizzy that he stumbled and fell while carrying a 100-pound sack of cement. He was too worn out to get up. The guard threw water in Markus’s face and then kept kicking him until he struggled to his feet...Markus and the others were slaves, not prisoners, although it was hard to tell the difference in the way they were treated.

In a time where women were considered inferior, The Grapes of Wrath uses secondary characters, specifically Ma Joad, to demonstrate a woman taking charge in a family setting, and the relationships of such a woman with others. Ma helps amplify the theme of feminism and women’s rights in different scenarios. Her relationships with Pa, her daughter Rose of Sharon, and even herself all convey different elements of an extraordinary leader and an amazing mother.

A common theme in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is the social commentary in promoting the norm gender stereotypes. In Steinbeck’s novel the typical stereotype that has been played throughout history is of women’s obedience to men. The setting in the novel takes place in the 1930’s on a farmers’ ranch in Oklahoma. During this time was the Great Depression, this caused many families to move westward to California. The men, as head of their households were the ones to make the decisions for the family or also known as the norm gender stereotypes. The more specific examples are how women do housework while the men make family decisions. It is soon later addressed by Steinbeck’s social commentary how the women now make decisions in the family and take charge.

A United Kingdoms survey found that child-parent relationships are breaking down as parents put work before their children, especially in middle class families (Ross). This statistic can explain many of the darker portions of our culture, from the lack of complete families to the increase of drug abuse. Yet one may wonder how this is in any way connected to the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. However, both the statistic and the novel have a similar theme- Money being placed before people. John Steinbeck endeavors to teach us how dangerous and common this mindset can be through his novel. Although there are some instances of the Okies aiding one another, money before people is a central theme in The Grapes of Wrath because it is the main source of motivation for the antagonism displayed towards the Okies.

United States in the 30s. In full economic Depression, many families of farmers, who have lost

The Grapes of Wrath is a great example of the historical events that have happened in America. The book focused of the things that took place in the 1930s when the book was written. Steinbeck focuses on three main events that took place and they were the Depression, Dust Bowl, and the New Deal. All of these things have had a great impact on everyone’s life that have survived through the great ordeals. This book let you in on what the people went through in the 1930s and how they moved on from it.