The Power Of The Joad In The Grapes Of Wrath

How does a mere individual compare to the strength and power of an institution? In John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck illustrates the struggles of the migrant population during the era of the Dust Bowl migration in America. As the novel follows the family of the Joads, it depicts the many societal and economic challenges these migrants face as they leave their land in Oklahoma seeking out new opportunities in California. Steinbeck’s novel demonstrates the struggle that the Joads and other Okies, migrant families from Oklahoma, face as the resulting economic and cultural changes from the Great Depression affect American society. Like many others, the Joads are forced off their infertile Oklahoma land, being unable to

In addition to this, the contrast of the individual to that of the larger institutions of the time is also given emphasis, shedding light on how these two groups compare in the context of these struggles. With heavy religious overtones, the journey reveals much of the characters’ relation to their religion, and how these values have an impact on their individual self and their community as they journey westward. This journey and the novel as a whole tells a story of injustice and desperation, but also one of dreams and hope for a new life. In Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes Of Wrath, Steinbeck explores the ideas of the cultural and economic migrant oppression through the destructive forces and injustices of society. Through his rejection of the typical reliance on the institution of religion, Steinbeck demonstrates how the only true way to overcome such societal injustice is through the individual based spirit and in turn the human unity of these

As the novel opens with the Joads leaving their Oklahoma land for California, Steinbeck illustrates the condition of America through a chapter of dialogue. This chapter focuses not on the Joads, but the anonymous discussion of two men regarding the state of the American economy and its banks: “The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it” (Steinbeck 33). Through the description of the American bank as a monster, Steinbeck shows how this system taking control of the economy is both sub-human and beyond human control. This monster, being fueled by capitalism and its greedy owners, is one directed by wealth and profits, naturally resulting in the oppression and injustices towards those like the Joads that will ensuefollow. In his critical essay on the novel, Andrew Spencer elaboratesfurther expands upon the system’s effectseffects of this system, explaining how because of “their ignorance of the darker motivations behind advertising, the Joads willingly allow themselves to be exploited by capitalism and the system's lieutenants that use them up and then cast them aside as disposable commodities” (Spencer 313). Spencer, regarding the corrupt handbill advertising for jobs Westward that the Joads fall victim to, explains how