ipl-logo

The Role Of The Poor In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

968 Words4 Pages

In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck says poor people help poor people. Through is portrayal of the Joad family, as well as the Joads and strangers helping each other, he says people in poverty are the most generous and step the most.
Throughout the book there are many examples of poor helping poor like in chapter thirteen when the Joads first meet the Wilsons when the Grandpa is dying and the Wilsons give a helping hand by offering their tent to this full family strangers, not knowing they could possibly be lying to steal their tent. Another more meaningful example was in the last chapter when Rose of Sharon breast fed a dying man, this part of the book can be looked in many different ways but in this Rose of Sharon has nothing but finds a …show more content…

Timothy and Wilkie offered Tom to eat breakfast with them, and Tom said. “Seems funny. I’ve et your food, an’ I ain’t told you my name-nor you ain’t mentioned yours. I’m Tom Joad.” (Pg. …show more content…

The Wallaces clearly have nothing and they had to sell their car in order to have food, yet they still offer breakfast to Tom, the Wallaces also even said they have a chance to lose their jobs or get a pay cut if they ask to get Tom a job, but they still do all of this when they have arguably less than the Joads. These actions and deeds happen in real life, but that isn't what John Steinbeck mean by poor helping poor, John Steinbeck wanted change with this book, he told us that poor help poor but he wanted the wealthy and higher ranked people to step p and help those in need which this is somewhat happening now. Obama Care is somewhat an example of this, since all taxpayers and businesses have to pay towards this by paying taxes. Sure this isn’t them directing helping the poor and most don’t want to help especially in this way but it is a start towards what John Steinbeck wanted. These type of actions and deeds happen in real, with poor helping poor and being the ones to step up. Throughout the book all of the people hated all of th poor people comn in to take jobs, calling them Okies and treating them like they weren’t even human. The same type treatment happens in real life when the more wealthy and upper class complain about having to help pay for Obama Care, or complain about how the poor can have free healthcare when they don’t know the struggle that people can actually go through. Technically speaking then the

Show More
Related
1639 Words | 7 Pages

In the Grapes of Wrath, the farmers don 't always have the benefit of a helping hand. People sell what little they can to prepare for moving out. As they sell their belongings for really low prices they say “we could saved you, but you cut us down, and soon you will be cut down and there’ll be none of us to save you” (Steinbeck 87). The farmers know others will experience similar circumstances and know that they could have helped one another, showing understanding of another’s troubles even in their desperation. As they descend into destitution, they strive to help one another.

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

(Pg.

Read More
1177 Words | 5 Pages

John Steinbeck has a style of writing unparalleled in history and in the modern world. In the same way, his philosophies are also unparalleled, with his focus in socialism not extending to communism or abnegation of spiritualism. His ideal world is utopian, holding the dust bowl migrant at the same level as the yeoman farmer was held in Jeffersonian times. In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck Steinbeck, who posses impregnable technique, conveys his message of a group working tirelessly for the betterment of the community.

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

Carelessly, the working middle and the high class people always forget about what the poor working class has to do in life to survive. In a passage from the novel, The Working Poor Invisible In America, David Shipler compares the poor working class wages to the amount of food they are able to buy. Shipler is able to creatively inform the audience using description, exemplification, and cause and effect what the life a poor working class citizen does everyday.     David Shipler shapes an image in the minds of all of his readers with his selective word choice. As a result of not having the money to pay for food, parents are forced to let their children starve, and as a result those children start looking “listless”.

Read More
1185 Words | 5 Pages

Readers can infer that poor people were deprived of food and possibilities because of the strong use of pathos and imagery. Also, the substandard jobs were reserved for the poor because they were ineligible of equal opportunities because they were deemed uneducated. Americans still view poor people as being uneducated and wrongfully inferring that as the cause of their poverty. This incorrect thinking leads poor people to have less rights than others because they have to

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.” Bonaparte’s quote illustrates that many of those who fall into the pit of poverty are not there because they live dishonestly, cheat, and exploit others, rather they are there because they did quite the opposite. In fact, it is usually the few at the top of the ladder who acted in such a way. John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is the story of the Joad family, who like many others from that era and region, lost their farm due to drought and economic ruin. They got word that California had plenty of jobs, and therefore, they headed west.

Read More
224 Words | 1 Pages

Being an altruistic person means doing things to help others, or truly being selfless. Human behaviors can be influenced by a altruism or selfishness. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck shows many examples of altruistic behaviors carried out by the characters. Throughout chapters fourteen through seventeen, I think that Steinbeck assumed that altruism is the predominant motivator of human behavior. Steinbeck shows altruistic behaviors in many of his characters.

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

Grapes of Wrath clearly illustrate the class struggle between workers and the upper class. Steinbeck displays the discrimination between the migrant people and landowners. Migrant workers are handled worse than animals, family’s or “Okies” are starving as food is wasted by the wealthy and the landowners maintain control through violence. “What do you want us to do? We can't take less share of the crop – we're half starved now.

Read More
168 Words | 1 Pages

In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck follows the Joad family as they suffer the hardships caused by the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The most important lesson people can learn from the novel is the value of a human life. Although the 1930’s was a low point in American society, the ill-treatment of human beings is still relevant today. Just like Jim Casy’s philosophy, it is important to fight for the rights of the people and their dignity. There are several examples of oppression in The Grapes of wrath.

Read More
1440 Words | 6 Pages

In the novel, Steinbeck uses Mae to demonstrate that generosity shown towards suffering people reveals an individual’s underlying morals. Mae giving discounted bread to a family reveals her needs are less important when helping a suffering family. When Mae is working at her

Read More
1525 Words | 7 Pages

Ava Yannucci Mr. Williams Honors English II 28 February 2023 Conflicts of the Realism Period “If you're in trouble or hurt or need–go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help–the only ones”, a truthful quote declared by John Steinbeck in his famous novel The Grapes of Wrath. The Grapes of Wrath, one of many famous realist novels during the Naturalism movement in American history, tells a gut-wrenching story of a extremely poor family moving to California after their previous life had gotten ruined by the dust bowl.

Read More
433 Words | 2 Pages

In her poem, Brooks wrote about two characters whom, we speculate, weren’t originally poor; yet, throughout the piece, she writes without any ambition or call for change for them. This is Brooks way of displaying the prideful and classist culture of the fifties and sixties. In 1960, being on government assistance was worst than just being poor; in the words of many financial analysis of that time, there is no “free” meal. Henceforth, the prideful and classist culture discouraged many deprived citizens to seek the government for help; ultimately this led to numerous social injustices.

Read More
997 Words | 4 Pages

(pg.

Read More
1960 Words | 8 Pages

The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" describes different classes of people as been rich and poor. People classify themselves differently because some people are in poverty, while some are wealthy. Most wealthy people help the poor, but the main people they help are the Cunningham 's family. They help the Cunningham 's family because they are willing to work and they are hard working. People never help the Ewell 's family because they are rude, lazy, and they waste their money on alcohol.

Read More
2004 Words | 9 Pages

The upper and lower-class have had the longest damaging social divide throughout history which was caused by the upper-class living a lavish lifestyle while their social counterparts went through new struggles every day. The upper-class has ownership and bosses the working class around, while the lower-class is forced to accept the low-paying jobs the owners offer. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the migrants face several hardships on their journey to California, and also struggle to obtain daily necessities as a result of not having jobs. The Joads, the family seen throughout the book, come across numerous difficulties due to the lack of job opportunities. For instance, when the Joads are provided with jobs to pick cotton or jobs

Read More

More about The Role Of The Poor In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

Related Topics

Open Document