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Juxtaposition In The Grapes Of Wrath

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Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath follows the difficult journey of the Joad family as the attempt to move to California. Interwoven into this story is small paragraphs that deliver smaller, individual messages. One such paragraph is paragraph 11. In this paragraph Steinbeck speaks of how the farms have changed over time. This juxtaposition of times seems insignificant and unrelatable to those who don’t look deeply into this short, quick story. But, Steinbeck delivers a very strong message with just two pages. Steinbeck uses the juxtaposition to show the danger of capitalism and how this process have destroyed the love and humanization of man. ` In this chapter, Steinbeck introduces two general characters, a machine man (corporate farmer) and a regular farmer. The machine man does his days work, puts the tractor away, and then goes …show more content…

The machine man becomes distant from the land, there is no connection, there is no love. The machine man sees the land as nothing more than what it is, land. On the other hand, the farmer cares for the land. He sees the land for everything it's capable of and its deeper purpose. The farmer is connected to the land because it is his home. The farmer loves, the machine man does not. The two farmers are not given names for a specific reason. This is so Steinbeck can use the story as an analogy about capitalism. The machine man represents people in a capitalist society and the regular farmer represents those who aren’t. In a capitalist society most members work for under another person just like the machine man. This causes the worker to not feel the satisfaction a producer like the regular farmer feels when he is able

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In this despondent selection of “The Grapes of Wrath”, Steinbeck uses simple and morose euphemisms to cover the awful truths that the “owner men” must deliver to the unfortunate tenants. Steinbeck illustrates that the owner men do all that they can within logic to separate themselves from the fact that these innocent people’s lives are ruined simply because they need a bigger profit margin. “And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves … These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time” (Steinbeck 21). Steinbeck describes the owner men as being in a situation beyond their control, where in reality they absolutely could have refused to ruin innocent people’s lives,

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The tractor driver responds with “can 't think of that, got to think of my own kids” (Steinbeck 37). Due to the possession of a job with a tractor, the farmer can 't sympathize easily with the farmer with nothing. He knows he can feed his family and so refuses to consider the hardships of the poor farmer or share his earnings due to the small amount it is. This selfishness separates the employed and the poor socially. Another aspect of the employed interactions with the poor includes

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The tone of chapter 11 in John Steinbeck's, “The Grapes of Wrath,” is sympathetic, sad and hopeless. His word choice and syntax show how the sad houses were left to decay in the weather. His use of descriptive words paints a picture in the reader's mind. As each paragraph unfolds, new details come to life and adds to the imagery. While it may seem unimportant, this intercalary chapter shows how the effects of the great depression affected common households.

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Chapters 1-3: The author uses the call to arms and cry of death, on page 11, as her narrative hook. When Reva requests Zerah’s help with the laboring women, an internal conflict takes place inside of Shira—deciding whether to help or not. The indirect characterization of Shira’s strength amazed me. How strong Shira must have been to hold up herself and a woman in labor! Chapters 4-6: The point of view switches to Dvorah’s point of view before switching back to Shira.

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John Steinbeck has a style of writing unparalleled in history and in the modern world. In the same way, his philosophies are also unparalleled, with his focus in socialism not extending to communism or abnegation of spiritualism. His ideal world is utopian, holding the dust bowl migrant at the same level as the yeoman farmer was held in Jeffersonian times. In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck Steinbeck, who posses impregnable technique, conveys his message of a group working tirelessly for the betterment of the community.

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John Steinbeck, in the novel, Grapes of Wrath, identifies the hardships and struggle to portray the positive aspects of the human spirit amongst the struggle of the migrant farmers and the devastation of the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck supports his defense by providing the reader with imagery, symbolism and intense biblical allusions. The author’s purpose is to illustrate the migrant farmers in order to fully exploit their positive aspects in the midst of hardships. Steinbeck writes in a passionate tone for an audience that requires further understanding of the situation.

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Steinbeck uses machines to serve as a physical representation of sin/devil and demonstrates how capitalism is the driving force behind it. Capitalism is the purest form of individually that a society can have from a governmental standpoint, and Steinbeck shows this by putting the Joad family in Camp Hooverville. Camp Hooverville is seen as capitalistic, for it's an every man for himself oriented camp. Capitalism is the driving force behind the machines, that evicts families off their land and instead gives it to big industrial firms. The cops at the camp are the physical makeup and the driving force for capitalism and the over wrenching power it has over the people.

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John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men follows George Milton and Lennie Small as they attempt to survive the destitution of the Great Depression. The two travel together, making them different from the rest of the ranch workers, who are alone in their hardships. However, their relationship is more complex than the surface: it presents a power struggle with the ulterior motive to help oneself. Through the characterization of the ranch workers, Steinbeck makes a claim about human’s innate characteristics: people in power will use their status in order to solidify their position over the weak. Through George and Lennie’s relationship, Steinbeck exemplifies a power struggle in which the stronger of the two, George, prevails over the other.

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Intercalary Chapter Literary Analysis During the Great Depression, the nation as a whole was stripped of financial security and forced into a survivalist way of living. This changed the ways that people interacted with one another and the overall mentality of society. In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is torn from their land and find themselves with nothing, a common story for migrant farmers of that time, derogatorily called “Okies” by Californians. But this is not the only group that is struggling, the entire county was in a state of panic and bruteness, no matter how “well off” they seemed to be.

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows the destructive imbalance of social power structures in American society. The importance of idealized relationships between men, or the social structure, is proven by the many characters that live on the farm. Some are at the top, while others are so far below the bottom, they are not necessarily considered within the structure. While the American Dream is real for most people, there are people that will not be able to obtain in, like Lennie, and perhaps even George because of his relationship with Lennie. Like George said in chapter one, "guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.

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By portraying Elisa as a gardener and Henry as the businessman, Steinbeck shows that the male often had the role of the “breadwinner” in his time, even though Elisa is depicted as far more capable in the story, written as being able to plant and grow anything (2). Steinbeck included these seemingly minor details to outline the injustice that strained the relationship between men and women. Lastly, in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman writes the Narrator as saying, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (1).

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In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the era of the Great Depression in the 1930’s is revealed through a simple story of ranch workers who hope to improve their lives. Migrant workers, George and Lennie, have a friendship that is based on trust and protection. The other workers lack the companionship and bond that these two men have. In the novel, the absence and presence of friendship is the motivation for the characters’ actions.

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In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the chapters alternate between two perspectives of a story. One chapter focuses on the tenants as a whole, while the other chapter focuses specifically of a family of tenants, the Joads, and their journey to California. Chapter 5 is the former and Steinbeck does an excellent job of omniscient third person point of view to describe the situation. Chapter 5’s main idea is to set the conflict and let the readers make connections between Steinbeck’s alternating chapters with foreshadowing. Steinbeck is effectual in letting readers make connections both to the world and the text itself with the use of exposition, and symbolism.

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Initially, Steinbeck stated that a change has begun, resulting in the Western States becoming nervous, due to taxes are changing and an enormous amount of people are migrating over to work. Subsequently, Steinbeck declares that the function of the man is essentially to work using his hands, not by controlling any machinery, specifically a tractor which is eliminating a vast majority of jobs. Lastly, Steinbeck states that even though people, despite the use of tractors it is a necessity for some to survive, even more in the end Steinbeck foreshadows the beginning of a war by mentioning tanks, and bombs.

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The farm represents a sanctuary of independence and stability, a place where individuals like George and Lennie can escape the oppressive conditions of their itinerant lifestyle. By imbuing the farm with symbolic meaning, Steinbeck elevates the American Dream beyond mere material wealth, portraying it as a symbol of hope, freedom, and self-determination. Dialogue: Dialogue serves as a primary vehicle through which Steinbeck explores the characters' aspirations and attitudes towards the American Dream. George and Lennie's conversations are replete with references to their dream of owning a farm, illustrating their unwavering commitment and belief in the possibility of a better future.

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