Justice In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

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In many modern court systems, like the one in The United States today, final verdicts are based on the judgements of a group of people. These people ideally are impartial mediators that have no bias one way or the other. In theory, this type of setup should deliver the most accurate results for all involved. Like the court systems, it is up to many individuals to deliver and maintain justice either by the change or enforcement of established laws.
What does “justice” even mean? According to Webster, justice is “the process or result of using laws to fairly judge and punish crimes and criminals.” Even going off of that, what does “fair” mean? Fairness and justice ultimately come down to a person’s morals and ideals, which is why many people can have many opinions about a single idea. In chapter five of the “The Grapes of Wrath”, the landowners confiscate the land from the tenant farmers, due to the combination of the dust bowl and poor economic conditions. The owners are well within their rights to take the land back and boot the farmers off (the land is theirs after all), so by all means this should be considered fair. It’s fair that the farmers were born in some no name town that lives entirely on farming. It’s fair that they lived in a time where the …show more content…

They are forced to sell anything that’s not essential and destroy what can’t be sold. “How can we live without our lives?”, they ask. “How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it(TGOW)." The farmers and their lives are both literally and figuratively uprooted and forced into an exodus west. Their children, through no fault of their own, are forced to abandon nearly everything they have ever owned. The children, the book brings attention to, are able to adapt. The parents have no such luxury, their entire lives are contained within that small plot of land and they are connected to