Unity In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

Words: 662
Pages: 3
Open Document
The Grapes of Wrath has little plot and an uncommon complex involvement of character with character. The novel is told primarily with multiple abstracts nawning at each other because, in the era of The Great Depression, there wasn’t a specific individual to place the blame on. The events that had led up to The Great Depression were seemingly woven and threaded together to produce one massive land of “dusted out” corn. The novel preached beyond the conservatism beliefs and ideas that existed during the 1920s, it preached the positive philosophy of life and unity for the greater good, it preached transcendentalism.
In “The Philosophical Joads,” Frederic Carpenter interprets John Steinbeck’s words by using the combination of the philosophical …show more content…
He uses the objects to symbolize selfishness, the detanglement of unity, and the philosophy of ‘to each man his own.’ To the farmers, selling their possessions and leaving their towns is leaving their home and the life that they know, the relationship of unity they’ve built with their land. They sell the majority of their possessions to other farmers. Those junk dealers are most likely going to go through the same tragedy the Joads’ are going through, however, they still offer terrible prices for the Joads’ possessions. Therefore, there was no consideration towards the Joads, they were robbed, knowingly and since they were in a desperate situation they couldn’t do anything about it. Little do the inconsiderate junk dealers know, the Joads are working alongside of them and once they realize it “the old I become we” (Carpenter 318). Steinbeck writes, “[They’re] not buying only junk, [they’re] buying junked lives. And more--[they’ll] see--[they’re] buying bitterness” (Steinbeck 110). The portrayal of the recurring cycle of life for the farmers during the Dust Bowl, becomes evident when Steinbeck follows it with the desperate hope of unity by stating, "...someday-the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they'll all walk together, and there'll be a dead terror from it" (Steinbeck 112). The lines of allusion to the previous better days makes the farming equipment more human and the audience begins to engage into the feelings of what they could be going through, thus injecting the powerful syringe of pathos into the audience. Furthermore, Steinbeck personifies the image of the willow tree and the old mattress by using rhetorical devices, “How if you wake up in the night and know—and know the willow tree’s not there? Can you live without the willow tree? Well, no, you can’t. The willow tree is
Show More

Related Documents: Unity In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

Unity In John Steinbeck's The Grape Of Wrath

John Steinbeck’s The Grape of Wrath was written at the end of the great depression era in the U.S. The story takes place in a period time of dust bowl in Oklahoman. Under the force of nature, machinery inventions, and corrupted government, hundreds of tenants lost their lands to the bank. A large number of them had no other choice but to move South West to California, a promised land with more job opportunities. Among the immigrants, Steinbeck particularly focuses on the Joad family to represent…

Words 916 - Pages 4

Essay on Grapes of wrath

lose their identities and struggle with hardship, they persevere and reach unification. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath because of the dust bowl, the Joad family, as well as other migrants, are forced off their land, losing their identity. On their journey to California, the Joads face hardship such as starvation and death ultimately leading the Joads as well as other dust bowl survivors to unity. When the Joads are forced off their land that they have been living on for generations they…

Words 1317 - Pages 6

Suffering In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

Human suffering plagued the country in the 1930's and John Steinbeck perfectly portrayed the suffering within his classic book Grapes of Wrath. Although the Joads are fictional characters the plight hey faced was all too real. The Dust bowl pushed millions of people from their homes out into the unfriendly land of California. Forced from their homes the families of laborers fought against each other for jobs. Before the savage war of finding work hit families the groups could rely on each other…

Words 1285 - Pages 6

Transition In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

Life is a road of transitions. Part of transitioning is evolving as human being for better or for worse. In John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the journey of the Joads family to California and the struggles that come their ways. The story takes place during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma when many farm laborers like Joads family have to forcibly banned their home to travel to a new place in search for a new job, new home and a new life. As the Joads’ expedition proceeds some characters mature…

Words 1063 - Pages 5

Essay on Lincoln rhetorical

The Rhetorical Triangle Key #1 Persona a mask, the character the audience perceived behind the text, the character a writer or speaker conveys to the audience "It is to my other self, to Borges, that things happen. I walk about Buenos Aires and I pause, almost mechanically, to contemplate the arch of an entry or the portal of a church; news of Borges comes to me in the mail, and I see his name on a short list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I am fond of hourglasses, maps,…

Words 6267 - Pages 26