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Life In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

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Recommended: Passage 'THE GRAPES OF WRATH' by John Steinbeck

Farm life completely transforms in Chapter 19. It is no longer depicted as a way of living, but rather as a way of survival. This change ultimately leads to the themes of greed and fear that are portrayed throughout the rest of the novel. As more families continue to migrate into California, the locals become more alert. Who are these new people coming onto our land; what do they want; how will it affect us all? These questions linger through the Californians’ minds. Okies and migrants are consistently treated with hostility and resentment by the locals. Most of them are shovelled off into Hoovervilles, which are the settling grounds for homeless migrants who were fooled by the “promise” of California. The three great facts of history mentioned in The Grapes of Wrath are: property is taken away …show more content…

Though the boxcars provide the family with shelter, they are forced to share the space with another family named the Wainwrights. Along with shelter, the two families are also given the exciting opportunity to work in the cotton fields. After mulling over Casy’s words of wisdom about spirit, Tom decides to unify his soul with the “great soul.” He plans on doing this by organizing the migrants, and believes it is what Casy would have wanted. Ma tries to convince Tom to stay, but lets Tom go with a goodbye.
In Chapter 29 of The Grapes of Wrath, rain pours down on the land. The rain poses huge inconvenience for the migrants; they cannot work, harvest, and flooding occurs. On the third day of rain, a sick Rose of Sharon goes into labor. The truck is flooded by the rain and they have no choice but to stay in the boxcar. The Joads come together to build a makeshift dam. It is eventually destroyed by the weather conditions, but it still gave them a sense of purpose and teamwork. Ma is the glue that hold the Joads together. She knows that if they stick together and preserve that they will all be

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294 Words | 2 Pages

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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555 Words | 3 Pages

Immigrants in the 1930s all across America struggled with their journeys to hope and redemption. The main purpose for chapter three, which depicted a turtle struggling to cross a highway, was to outline the struggle that the immigrants faced as they took their journey to a new destination where they would spend the rest of their lives, as well as sticking with those who could help them through this long, enduring excursion. Hopefully, when they reached those endpoints, they would have a new job and a life worth living. The Joad family, a family of farmers and the family depicted in The Grapes of Wrath, repeatedly have to go through events that could potentially throw them off course far enough to have no hope for returning to their former glory.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

In between each narrative chapter of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck wrote intercalary chapters to add to the narrative. These sixteen chapters were a very effective way for Steinbeck to make his points, and progress the theme of the novel. The intercalary chapters were a wise way to summarize the entire struggle of the suffering people during the dust bowl. They showed how Joad family was one example of the millions of families who migrated to California during the dust bowl, and the general rage and resistance felt in the innocent farmers, brought on by rich privileged men who gain their power from the unstoppable big banks. These chapters strengthen my knowledge of the struggles of the time, and give me more information of what is not seen from the Joad’s struggles alone.

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182 Words | 1 Pages

In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath the theme of comparing the rich and poor occurs consistently throughout the book. On page 266 when Casy spoke about the rich man with a million acres, he made a statement about even though he owns so much land and has so much money, he may feel poor inside. Steinbeck uses repetition by restating the word “poor” many times allowing the reader to comprehend how the word ‘poor” means more than just the lack of money. He also compares the rich man and Mrs. Wilson. The man being who everyone desired, rich and owning a lot of land.

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961 Words | 4 Pages

(Steinbeck 144) Ma Joad displays the similarity between her and Virgin Mary through her strength and selflessness. At the time the Joads were crossing into California, she keeps quiet about Grandmas death and rides along with her dead body the whole night. This actions suggests that Ma thinks of the family as an unit that must always stick together, her sense of honesty since she tells Grandma directly that she can’t be helped, and her own appreciation of beauty, especially seen in her remarks about burying

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953 Words | 4 Pages

In The Grapes Of Wrath, By John Steinbeck, the ending is very controversial in many ways, the most obvious ways though are fundamentally wrong, morally wrong, and just how depressing it is. Since the book came out in 1939, everyone has had a opinion on the ending to John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Michael Harmon once said, “The ending can be seen two ways, as a tool for people to recognize the poverty and destruction at that time, or as a way to get more citizens to read the book”. It has a very controversial ending, that Steinbeck thought would name the last nail into the coffin, so to speak, on how bad the dust bowl and moving west really was. Ma and Rose of Sharon look at each other and they agree that Rose of Sharon should use her milk, that she doesn’t need because her baby was stillborn, and feed this old man.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

Every novel contains a distinct feature within its pages that distinguishes it from other books. Whether it be a variation in tone, writing style, format or theme, this component impacts the audience and the novel itself in a special way. One of the stand out features in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath are the descriptive, sometimes political, interchapters where the reader is given a snapshot of life in the Great Depression. Due to the context and realism the interchapters bring to the novel, they are crucial for the reader’s understanding of the time setting and storyline of the novel. Chapter five brings the most heartbreak of all interchapters, because it illustrates the poignant moment when farmers are told to leave their land.

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291 Words | 2 Pages

The Grapes of Wrath, which was published in 1939, reflected on hardships many people had recently faced throughout the country. The novel was a great representation of an important period in American history and in the forming of the American West. The connection it served with many migrant families across the country was felt and many people felt impacted by the book as they realized the struggles that many of these families endeavored. Throughout the novel, the privileged are constantly being divided by from the poor.

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1880 Words | 8 Pages

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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1492 Words | 6 Pages

It is not like day dreaming, but a hope for future. This dream is fuel for every one’s survival during this wilderness, their hope for ‘new land’ here new land refer for new life and a fresh start. Because, “because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a new mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared their lives, their food, and the things they hoped for in the new country” (Grapes of Wrath 202).Steinbeck says, the family togetherness seemed twenty family is one family and the children were the children of all they all share one dream. Togetherness gives new technique, and leader, and laws and codes, building themself for future, “the rules become laws, although no one told the families” (Grapes of Wrath 203). Cars moved westward each members of the family grew into their proper place, and to their duties, “when the car pulled into the camping place, each member had his duty and went to it without instruction” (Grapes of Wrath

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1655 Words | 7 Pages

Near the end of the excerpt in The Grapes of Wrath, it is seen that the family is going to have to face a catastrophic event. The family is told that they “have to get off the land.” or, “The plows go through the dooryard” (33). At this point, the family is left to question what they are going to have to do. They will no longer have a home to protect them from the elements, they will not have a place to sleep, and they will not have any job. They are facing the worst part of their lives, and they do not know what is to come next.

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845 Words | 4 Pages

In many of his novels and short stories Steinbeck evokes the spirit of the place dearest to his heart to tell the stories of the men and women of the American West. Steinbeck, born in 1902 to a middle class family, shared a passion for reading and writing with his mother who was a school teacher. He spent his summers working on nearby ranches in what is today officially known as “the Salad Bowl of the World”. During that time Steinbeck noticed the difficult living situations of the migrant workers. In 1929 the U.S. stock market crashed sparking the Great Depression and inspiring Steinbeck’s series of articles for the San Francisco News called The Harvest Gypsies focusing on the lives and hardships of migrant workers in California’s Central Valley.

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487 Words | 2 Pages

Through John Steinbeck's plot in The Grapes of Wrath,  the struggle of the typical American dreamer is depicted in the Joad’s attempt to move to California for a better life. While attempting this dream, the Joad family had to make multiple sacrifices. The first sacrifice occurs early on in their journey, the abandoning of their property (Steinbeck 59). This was extremely difficult for the Joads because they had lived on this land for a long time and they had many memories that had been created there.

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1604 Words | 7 Pages

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath was published just as the Great Depression ended. His novel is set during the 1930’s, specifically in the dust bowl of the Midwest. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family makes the perilous journey out West to find new jobs after their family farm was shut down by the company that owned their land. When they reach California, they realize it was not the oasis they had once imagined it to be, as they were met with no jobs left in the state, poor living conditions, brutal police, and low amounts of food. However, the obstacles they face all hold one thing in common: they are the product of man’s cruelty.

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800 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history there have been many people and families that have been alienated from their cultures and lifestyles because of components such as age, race, social class, creed, etc. These behaviors are mostly exhibited by those who want to feel superior to others by suppressing them and making them suffer. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, it is shown how the Joads were forced out of their property, because the wealthier people wanted to take control over it, this action shows how society believes that poor people are inferior and that they should be treated as such. One way in which John Steinbeck shows this assumption about society is by demonstrating how the landowners treat the tenants, or better said how the owners pay people to treat the tenants. For example, “One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families” (22).

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