The author Dean Koontz once said, “...the most identifying trait of humanity is our ability to be inhumane to one another.” Although there are many hopeful aspects in people, the inhumanity of people is inevitable. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie Small and George Milton discover the hardships and the hope in life as migrant workers during the Depression era. Though their hope for a better life dwindles throughout their journey, Lennie and George’s dream of owning their own farm help to distract them from their harsh reality of despondency. Steinbeck reveals the bitter nature of mankind due to weakness and vulnerability through his use of symbolism, characterization, and imagery.
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. The kids are hungry all the time. We got no clothes, torn an' ragged. If all the neighbors weren't the same, we'd be ashamed to go to meeting.” (Pg 33). Farmers are trying to reason with the landowners, their whole community is out of money and are struggling to make a living. Grapes of Wrath show the unfair working situations that migrants face when they arrive in California. Land Owners are the most wealthy and powerful having the ability to pay their workers a poor wage. In the Grapes of Wrath, many Americans lose their homes, jobs and life savings, forcing them to move and leave behind their land in hopes of finding a prosperous place to live. The Great Depression (1929-1939) was the worst, deepest and longest lasting economic collapses in the industrialized western world. The Joad family is planning to move to California, but some of them have doubts and attachments that make them contemplate whether or not it is the right choice. The Joads find their motivation by helping each other through tough situations. Steinbeck shows the determination of the human spirit
Of Mice of Men was written by John Steinbeck and was an interpretation of the Great Depression and its effects on the people. The Great Depression is the economic recession and it began on 1929 and lasted till 1939. It was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. Each character represented the person that was affected by the Depression. Lennie represented the mentally disabled, Curley’s Wife represented the women, Crooks represented the black, Candy represented the disable, George represented the average worker, but to an extent and Curley represented the rich.
When analyzing the first part of “The Grapes of Wrath”, written by John Steinbeck, one can visualize the struggle of the times that sharecroppers and farmers went through in the Midwest area. Steinbeck depicts the era of America’s Great Depression which lasted until sometime after World War II. Steinbeck utilizes the first part of “The Grapes of Wrath” and the infelicity that fell the Joad and Wilson family as an example to show how the terrible drought known as the Dust Bowel affected many families from the American Midwest which also included Oklahoma. Chapter one assuredly establishes the tone for the whole novel. Part one of the the novel which include chapters 1 through eleven provides a backdrop for the main events of the narrative, describing
Steinbeck’s use of rhetorical strategies throughout the passage enables him to illustrate his message about free will, emphasizing the potential and significance of timshel and creativity in the essence of humanity and the threats against it. He utilizes diction, imagery, and rhetorical appeals to elucidate his message and persuade readers of their role in asserting their individuality. Steinbeck’s use of imagery in the first paragraph illustrates the extent of the potential of free will through his vivid description of the “glory [that] lights up the mind of a man” (Steinbeck 131) and its transformative qualities. This is significant as it delineates the role of free will in humanity, defining a “man’s importance in the world.” (Steinbeck
The tone of chapter 11 in John Steinbeck's, “The Grapes of Wrath,” is sympathetic, sad and hopeless. His word choice and syntax show how the sad houses were left to decay in the weather. His use of descriptive words paints a picture in the reader's mind. As each paragraph unfolds, new details come to life and adds to the imagery. While it may seem unimportant, this intercalary chapter shows how the effects of the great depression affected common households.
The Grapes of Wrath remains perceptibly an angry book .... And it gives a final powerful impression of a growing … anger among those people themselves" (Steinbeck, Introduction xi). The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck. The book won the National book award II and Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In Many ways, the novel is considered a tragic story of defeat and loss due to the depression caused at that time when the United States was just getting on its feet economically. Actually, the events of the novel are affected by the Dust bowl and the great depression during this period. In a narrow sense, The Dust Bowl is the storm that hit America in 1939s and had a cruel impact and fatal consequences on the
John Steinbeck, in the novel, Grapes of Wrath, identifies the hardships and struggle to portray the positive aspects of the human spirit amongst the struggle of the migrant farmers and the devastation of the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck supports his defense by providing the reader with imagery, symbolism and intense biblical allusions. The author’s purpose is to illustrate the migrant farmers in order to fully exploit their positive aspects in the midst of hardships. Steinbeck writes in a passionate tone for an audience that requires further understanding of the situation.
It can be seen in both The Grapes of Wrath and Civil Disobedience that authors John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau believe that universal ideas are the solution to a well-run and just government. As the days go by in The Grapes of Wrath, many migrant families
John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath chronicles the movement of the Joad family and thousands of other tenant farmers westward from Oklahoma, as drought and its resulting economic hardship force them to leave behind their homes. His profound and lifelong interest in biology is reflected in many places in his novel (Guthrie). He uses biological and environmental imagery and jargon in the interchapters to contrast the cooperative diction in the narrative chapters in order to enhance the value of community that is unique to the human animal.
During the Great Depression, the nation as a whole was stripped of financial security and forced into a survivalist way of living. This changed the ways that people interacted with one another and the overall mentality of society. In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is torn from their land and find themselves with nothing, a common story for migrant farmers of that time, derogatorily called “Okies” by Californians. But this is not the only group that is struggling, the entire county was in a state of panic and bruteness, no matter how “well off” they seemed to be. This caused the formation
Steinbeck once said: “Down and dirty with the common man? You bet. The downtrodden, the hapless, those struggling just to eke by on the meagerness of the day?” This quote here describes Steinbeck’s character greatly, and even the characters he writes about his his 17 novels. Steinbeck is truly a
Humanity likes to believe that it doesn’t create problems when in reality it is the main cause. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, cruelty to mankind through its own actions is demonstrated by the harsh conditions of the Great Depression. Along the Joad’s journey to a prosperous life in California, they come across multiple challenging obstacles. They are able to unite with friends and other families at government camps and on Route 66 that help them defeat each obstacle. These trials of inhumanity are portrayed through literary devices that support the creation of a theme throughout the novel. As a whole, the book is enhanced through the use of literary devices that portray the inhumanity created by other humans.
“The Grapes of Wrath” is still of the classics of American literature. This work remains banned in many school libraries across the nation because some critics said it contains full of lies of American life in that period and highly pro-communist. It is because Steinbeck created the work because of showing difficulties of many Americans who had The Great Depression and The Dust Owl. Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” can be discussed by many critical theories but Marxist criticism which I will be discussing here is the one of the most common lenses through which to read the novel. This is because Steinbeck’s narrative shows the exact problems that a capitalist society describes working class people. We will read/discuss the work to see how the
Bloom, Harold. John Steinbeck. Philadelphia, Pa: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003. Print. In the book ‘John SteinBeck’ of 2003 by Harnold Bloom, he analyzed the life and the work of John SteinBeck and he also made an analysis of his ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ Bloom stated that SteinBeck was born in