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The Land In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

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The Grapes of Wrath Essay
The Land
Story begins with the description of land. After early May, no more rain came to the red and gray country of Oklahoma. Soon the earth crusted and clouds of dust surrounded all moving objects. It’s the beginning of the dust bowl. “The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the gray country” (Steinbeck 1).
Technologies change how people work on the land. “The tenant system won't work any more. One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families.” (Steinbeck 5)
When the banks come for the land, the tenant farmers protest. “Sure, cried the tenant men,but it’s our land…We were born on it, and …show more content…

However, she always calm, and collected, even when her house got tractored out and she lost her land. She has to be solid as a rock, so that her family doesn't fall apart. She keeps Joads all together. She is the leader. “Besides, us folks takes a pride holdin' in. My pa used to say, 'Anybody can break down. It takes a man not to. We always try to hold” (Steinbeck 141). She stays positive even when worst things happens. “We're going' to California, ain't we? All right then let's go to California.” (Movie The Grapes of Wrath).

When we first meet Ma Joad, she is a strong woman. When we see her at the end, she is still a strong woman. Her strength only grows throughout the course of the novel. As the family continues to meet obstacle after obstacle, it seems like Pa Joad doesn't quite know how to keep it together. But Ma Joad does.

Jim Casy
Casy was the preacher in Tom’s church when Tom was a boy. He tells tom that he want to stop preaching. “I ain't preachin' no more much. The sperit ain't in the people much no more; and worse'n that, the sperit ain't in me no more. 'Course now an' again the sperit gets movin' an' I rip out a meetin', or when folks sets out food I give 'em a grace, but my heart ain't in it. I on'y do it 'cause they expect it” (Steinbeck 20). Casy decides that he will travel with Joads to California. When Wilsons’ car breaks down, Casy and Tom offer to stay behind to repair

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