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Theme Of Segregation In The Grapes Of Wrath

1165 Words5 Pages

A Time of Struggle for All
In the book, Grapes of Wrath, a book written by John Steinbeck, segregation is a common theme that is seen throughout the book. All the way from segregation to women, to segregation for race or color and segregation to people just from different states. People interpret and respond to this segregation ambiguously, meaning they act differently to it. Back then, in the 1930s, there was a lot of segregation towards diverse kinds of people. In that time, people acted and did things differently. The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression were occurring, which made the 1930s even worse. On account of desperation, people acted peculiar. Many people moved from states like Oklahoma and Kansas to California to get this better life because of the hard times they were going through. Some people even sold their, belongings and possessions just to get the money they needed for a long journey that …show more content…

People took advantage of their desperation, struggles and of their high hopes and dreams of a better life. In this book, you can see how problematic all the situations they dealt with were and how desperation affected people’s behaviour in peculiar ways.
In Grapes of Wrath, money is a very important theme, that shows up in important moments in the book. The economic downfall, also known as the Great Depression, was a huge bellwether for how people acted in the 1930s. The fear of the inability to provide for oneself and his/her family drove the families to this struggle. In a significant moment, where the theme of money is brought up, a man states that he “can’t help what happens to [everyone else]. [He has] to think what happens to [him]” (Pg. 120). This man is being selfish, because he has to be, not because he

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