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The Grapes Of Wrath

            
             As the novel The Grapes of Wrath progresses, the Joads progress from a concern only for themselves and their own personal welfare to a concern for all the people in the world. This is accompanied by the disintergration of the smaller family unit which is replaced by the larger world family of the migrant people.
             This shift from individual thinking to wide spread thinking is most directly seen in the actions of Tom Joad. When we first see him at the beginning of the novel he is mainly concerned for his own welfare. He wants to make up for all the things he missed when in prison. Later on in the novel he is more concerned with the welfare of the family. When we last see him he has shifted to trying to do what is best for all the migrant people by trying to organize them into striking.
             That shift in thinking is also accompanied with the replacement of the individual family by the world family. The thing that started the breakup of the individual family was the loss of their land. The family had lived there for many generations and had strong ties to the land. Getting thrown off the land was sort of like losing their family history. This is shown by the things that Ma Joad burns before they left. Next Grampa Joad died because he couldn't take leaving his home. He is the first family member to leave the family. At the same time though, the joining with the Wilsons shows that the individual family is being replaced by the larger world family of the migrant society. Chapter seventeen is one of the general chapters that shows the growth of the new migrant society that has it's own laws and leaders. At the boarder of California, they loose Noah when he refuses to leave the river, and have to leave the Wilsons behind because of Sairy's illness. Then Granma dies on the way across the desert. The Joads have to leave her for a pauper's burial. This shows the disintergration of the families standards. Previous to this the Joads had always paid their own way and never asked for charity.


Essays Related to The Grapes Of Wrath

1. grapes of wrath

... experience (O'Connor, p16). The description of the Joads' travels in The Grapes of Wrath parallels the Hebrew migration from the plagues of Egypt, across the desert, and into Canaan - in the Joads' case, California (O'Connor, p67). A quote from Chapter Seventeen in The Grapes of Wrath provides another example of how Steinbeck alluded to Bible stories: "The families learned what rights must be observed - the right of privacy in the tent; the right to keep the past black hidden in the heart; the right to talk ... and to listen; the right ... ...

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2. The Grapes of Wrath and Marxism

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3. John Steinbeck and the Great Depression (Research Paper)

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  • Word Count: 1752
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... of symbols in the telling of his story which parallel stories from the bible. Some of the biblical symbols he uses are in his characters which have qualities similar to people from the bible, and in parts of the Joad family s travels. The tractors (cats) that plow over the farmers' land and the actual animal are used a few times in the novel to represent the merciless banks. The symbols in The Grapes of Wrath help explain the themes of the novel. The turtle ... is used to represent hope for the trip West. Steinbeck describes the turtle as struggling to cross a concrete highway and ... ...

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5. Grapes of Wrath

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6. Grapes Of Wrath

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8. The Grapes of Wrath; Physical vs. Spiritual Journey

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9. Grapes of Wrath

... literary piece but it was an artistic masterpiece. John Steinbeck could have never predicted the success of what would probably be called his masterpiece Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck went out to write an honest novel, and created a book that would touch many with the picture that it painted of an era of loss and pain. In his writing Steinbeck used his clear descriptions and strong voice which ... clearly presented the atmosphere of the time and a creative writing style in writing the book, which makes it fascinating to ... my instinctive creativity and theoretical knowledge to create the ...

  • Word Count: 462
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10. Steinbeck(of mice and men and grapes of wrath)

... thing he wrote or how he depicted certain things. The review of his masterpiece novel The Grapes of Wrath on Brothers judd.com gave the book an A- review but had a different view of the noble poor. "Even more mistaken is his image of the noble poor. As we have seen, even in our age of Welfare reform, the problem of the underclass is extremely intractable; some folks just won't ... Two of Steinbeck's greatest works Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath were written in the time period of the 1930s. Both his works reflected on many relevant issues in this decade. Such issues as racism, pre...

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