In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, a novel about the hardships of an Oklahoma family, the Joads, migrating to California in hopes for a better life during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl after the bank stripped them from their home. Steinbeck uses narrative description and symbolisms of a land turtle, through contextual and cultural content; the turtle being hit by a truck, and the turtle’s hard shell and his ability to withstand the damage and proceed with his life. The turtle symbolizes the new life and struggles of the journey to the west, the promise land. The turtle appears throughout giving the contextual symbolism of the struggles of the Joad family’s survival during the family’s travels to the west and new life. The turtle’s travels alongside the highway on the hot pavement and survives an attack by a driver who purposely swerved to hit the turtle, “And …show more content…
Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright.”(Steinbeck, John, the Grapes of Wrath. 1939. 544. Print.15), the turtle endures the pain of being stripped from his connections to it whole self and almost his life, much like the Joad family. The turtle is described as being old and wise; humorous old eyes, horny head, and yellowed toenails, “the humorous eyes looked ahead, and the horny beak opened a little. His yellow toe nails slipped a fraction in the dust”, (Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath. 1939. 544. Print. 16) much like the state of the Joad’s home, the farm the family has lived on for many generations. The connection of the turtle lies between his body and rest of the world, his shell. On the contrary, the Joad’s “shell” lies within the land and the past lives that have lived on it. On the Joad’s journey to the West, California, they figure out that their true shell is