Society In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

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). This shows how the landowners were paying men to destroy the homes of dozens of families so that they could free up the space, claiming that they couldn't “afford to keep no tenants” (32). The

One example of this is when the Joads were in a Hooverville and one landowner went over offering jobs to the people in the Hooverville and telling them that he was going to pay them “about thirty cents”; however, when one of the fellows in the Hooverville protested telling the landowner, “you jus’ show your license, an’ then you give us an order to go to work, an’ where, an’ when, an’ how much we'll get, an’ you sign that, an’ we'll all go” (178). The landowner knowing that he could not do that because by the time all the people got there he was going to pay less, got angry and ordered his men to burn the place the next morning so that the people could not stay there anymore. This forced the Joads and every other family in the Hooverville to keep going and try to find somewhere else to