Families In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, takes place during the Great Depression, a time when troubled and distressed American men and women lived; a time of poverty and an economic crisis. When change is thought upon, it is to be thought of new life and new experiences. The Great Depression is the kind of change that replaces a part of American living with “ Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ I looked, an’ the houses is all empty, an’ the lan’ is empty, an’ this whole country is empty” ( Steinbeck 94). In his work, Steinbeck presents the hardships that Americans had to go through by being mindful of particular aspects which makes the reader understand the characters’ distress. For example, the landscape of the farm lands. Even though the land has its brutality, it grows to be the scenery for humans to be able to recognize and consider their troubles about work and life in general. With these concerns, there are differences between the people who are accustomed to the landscape and admire it, and those who do not agree with it. In the novel, Steinbeck uses attributes of class conflict and injustice as a way of presenting and socially commenting that the Great Depression brought attention to more problems beyond the idea of poverty.

The Grapes of Wrath is set in the horrible stage of our American history, the Depression. Economic, social, and historical surroundings separate the common man of America into basically the rich and poor. A basic theme is that man turns against one another in a selfish pride to only protect themselves. For example, the landowners create a system in which migrants are treated like animals and pushed along from one roadside camp to the next. They are denied decent wages and forced to turn against their fellow scramblers to simply survive.

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.

In Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, he describes the struggle of the small farmer and farmworker. The principal characters define quiet dignity and courage in their struggle to survive and in the caring for their loved ones. Through this novel, Steinbeck displays his respect for all the poor and oppressed of our world.

John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath realistically portrayed the struggles encountered by a family, the Joads, during this time period. The widely-acclaimed novel chronicled the Joads’ journey from Oklahoma to California, where they came to find work after they lost their farm to dust storms. As the novel progresses,

The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, an era where racial discrimination was far more common than today. The whites of America stood at the front of a great nation with the colored and racially diverse working class sitting beneath them facing threats and physical pain from their pale counterparts. Despite this, John Steinbeck focuses the novel on the prejudices of the white man against their own people. The police and farm owners of California react to the influx of poor workers the way many white people reacted to recently freed slaves during the 1860’s and 70’s. They see no flaw in taking advantage of them, starving them or beating them. One major theme of The Grapes of Wrath is that everyone is connected and contributes to the good of mankind. Coinciding with that idea is that one discriminatory act is identical to any other by the way they are brought to exist.

“The Grapes of Wrath”, a story about love, unity, and survival, is yet another novel set in the Great Depression in America during the years of 1929 through 1939. This story just so happens to be a story with many twists and a protagonist who performs several questionable acts throughout the entirety of this story. The Joad family is the main focus of the story along with the Wilson family. The Joads, in pursuit of a better life, left the farm and set a course for California. Life had been difficult for the Joads and were able to succeed by holding onto each other.

In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck family plays a big part in the book. To the Joads their family is survival. Without each other, they wouldn’t be able to cope with the loose of land or their journey to California. Family is the single most important weapon that the Joads have against the cold, ruthless world around. The Joads learn that they work much stronger and safer when the engage with other migrant families and create a sense of security, shelter, and community.

In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck in 1939, he tell us a story of the struggles of a family during the Dustbowl Era. The Joad family leaves their home in Oklahoma and make the long journey to California, in hopes of finding work and a better life. Along the way the family faces many struggles, hardships and losses. The story begins with Tom Joad recently being released from the State Penitentiary, after serving his term for manslaughter.

John Steinbeck, widely viewed as one of the most finest and powerful American writer, born to a middle-class family in 1902 in the Salinas Valley of California. Steinbeck is a writer who often spoke for the people. The Grapes of Wrath is a great movie, published in 1939, filled with many universal truths and views on human nature and society, especially where class is concerned. In the article, John Steinbeck The Grapes a wrath: A Call to Action says, “Steinbeck’s novel showcased the other side of the coin: the people who remain behind the scenes while the public benefits from the fruits of their labor, literally” (1). Steinbeck was outraged by the socioeconomic system. In particular, he displays the utmost respect for the dignity of the tenant farmer to whom the novel gives voice to. In the early 1930s the Great Depression was not the only tragedy to take place, a massive drought destroyed the agricultural lands of the Great Plains, especially in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. Moreover, reasons where excessive wheat cultivation after the first World War, these lands were already suffering from loose topsoil and, without rain, the crops simply were not able to take root. The novel centers on Tom Joad and the Joad family’s experiences during this hardship. However, the Joad family 's life served as the symbol representing all California migrant workers during the period. Moreover, the novel is also a display of conflict between poverty and wealth, as

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a descriptive story of a family’s struggle to survive during the Great Depression. While the language at times is confusing to me, I truly believe that it is an important yet depressing story that gives a deeper conclusion on how hard the Great Depression was.

There is no doubt that The Grapes of Wrath with its haunting title was a tremendous success by Steinbeck. It combined all the imaginable necessary principle which Steinbeck has always aspired: the potential of the human soul, the meaning of human freedom, and the relationship of the individual to the collective conscious. In addition to the fact that its wrath is raised from the hard situations taking place during the Great Depression and is for searching the unity that could face these

Throughout the book, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the physical transition of the Joad family from a small close-knit group of people living a quiet life on a farm in Oklahoma, corresponds with the internal transition of the concept of family. As the Joads leave their farm and journey westward, they no longer live just within their own isolated unit. Becoming involved with other families as they migrate, changes their focus and by the end of the book, the family members each reach out in their own way to embrace all of mankind as a family.

The Great Depression is well-known as a time period when American's lives were challenged and changed for the worst. During the 1930s, the downturn of the economy caused many people to lose their jobs and lack a steady income. Without a job, families either lost their homes or were forced off of them. This provoked families to roam the country in hopes of coming across a paying job; However, no matter where families explored to, finding a job was difficult, and sometimes impossible. Without a job, it was strenuous to find a place to stay and have food to live off of. The inability to find work and properly take care of one's family, oftentimes caused people to lose hope. In Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath the Joad family was greatly affected by the Great Depression. The events within the novel are evoked to the time period the book was set in. By including events that were influenced by the time period, John is

Through the journey of one migrant family, the novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the obstacles and challenges of life after the Great Depression. Following the Joad family on their quest to find work in California, the novel illustrates the difficulties the family must overcome in order to survive. Author John Steinbeck touches upon social and political attitudes during the time, such as the power of big business, making it clear that hunger and illness were not always the biggest threats to the poor farmers and workers. It is clear through Steinbeck’s writing that he wishes to modify the discriminatory social structures and the oppression faced by the poor during the time. Through literary techniques such as changes in narration and detailed depictions, John Steinbeck advocates against the idea of a prosperous few holding power over the struggling masses and the inhumanity that arises from these circumstances.