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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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