How Does Steinbeck Use Power In The Grapes Of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a story that details the life of a poor Oklahoma family during the dust bowl. Before almost every chapter about the Joads, there is a vignette about an unnamed group of people that symbolize something that will happen to the Joads in the next chapter. This symbolism helps to demonstrate the Joads’ story and shows why the Joads’ story happened the way it did. In Chapter 21, Steinbeck shows the lack of decisions and individual thought by the migrants as well as the natives. He demonstrates the people in power using both these groups as puppets to keep them fighting with each other, as opposed to fighting the real enemy, the people in power. This is a distraction from what is really going on but as

Tom’s criminal record had gotten leaked which made Ma concerned that the police would find out and send Tom back to prison for violating his parole. She did not know whether to leave Tom behind or stay together as a family. Tom then realized what the Preacher had been thinking all along, that people do not have individual souls, rather they are all part of one big one soul Steinbeck writes, “Me neither," said Tom. "It's jus' stuff I been thinkin' about. Get thinkin' a lot when you ain't movin' aroun'. You got to get back, Ma..” (Steinbeck 419). This demonstrates Steinbeck’s idea of thinking individually, as Tom thought of a new concept about the soul. This idea was not common throughout society. Most people around him followed what the bible said and it said that everyone has their own soul. This new thought allowed Tom to examine the situation and help Ma. Had he not done this, he would have kept doing what he was doing and would not have been able to help Ma. Steinbeck shows that mindless agreement with everyone else’s ideas, like the idea that everyone has an individual soul, does not help characters, like Tom, fix problems. He shows that what does solve problems is new ideas that are different from everyone else’s. When one is able to think for oneself, hard decisions can be