The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck The setting originates near Sallisaw, Oklahoma in the late 1930’s and throughout the novel passes through the southern states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before concluding in Weedpatch, California. After the devastation of the Dust Bowl, Tom Joad hitches a ride to his hometown. Tom reveals to his company that he had killed a man in self-defense causing him to be imprisoned, but due to good behavior he has fortunately been provided parole.Tom reunites with a childhood acquaintance, Jim Casy. Casy reveals he no longer works as a preacher. Tom urges Casy to visit the family for his arrival and they discover that Tom’s home is abandoned and ravaged. Tom learns from another childhood acquaintance, Muley, …show more content…
Upon hearing about a government run facility, the Joads move to Weedpatch leaving behind Connie, who ran away, and Casy, who was arrested for Tom’s assault of a police officer harassing the migrants. Although Weedpatch does have accommodations such as toiletries and dances, they are unable to find work and the family dwindles down on the money and food they contain. The Joads move to a peach farm and begin to come to terms that their expectations were not realistic. Tom journeyed to the outer perimeter to be reunited with Casy, who was leading picketers against the peach farm. Casy urged Tom to relocate him and his family away from the farm because of the lowering wages. Casy suffers a blow to the cranium and is murdered by men who think he’s a communist. The incident triggers Tom to hit the attacker with a hard blow. Now unsafe for the family to stay in the peach farm, the Joads move to a cotton field where Tom hides and the rest live within a boxcar with the Wainwrights family who also works within the cotton fields. Tom’s sister Ruthie accidentally tells someone that he killed a man, and Tom decides that he desires to carry on Casy’s work as a representative for the working class. Al Joad marries Aggie Wainwright and decides to stay with her family.
As he moved from one mill town to another he adds a new family members Alice and Anna. They moved to homestead where they worked in steel mill. The conflict between the labor unions and the steel mill company in Braddock lead to attempt to closing the mill. Even though he gets paid more than we used to, rents were high
Hoss sees Sam chopping wood and offers him a job. During the journey the Cartwright discover that Sam is actually Johnny Logan, the son of the sheriff and that he’s mission in life is to kill his father. Sam meets a girl he is very interested in, but keeps breaking the sheriff’s rules. When the girl finds out about Sam’s plan, she leaves very upset. When Sam finally gets a chance to kill is father,
Next, Janie marries Joe Starks and they go to Eatonville, Florida, a town created entirely by and for blacks. When they first arrive into town they quickly realize the town is in desperate need for leadership. Janie volunteers Joe to become major because of his wealth and his strong personality. Joe also buys a grocery store and has Janie work there. At this point in the novel Janie is content, but soon after the true colors of Joe start to emerge.
Later in her pregnancy she becomes very ill. Soon after, she dies along with her baby. Suddenly Jurgis comes into realization with what is happening. Matthew Morris writes, “Jurgis comes to see and comprehend the class system that has destroyed everyone he cared about, and to join the fight to change that system” that has made him lose his job and lead to his wife’s death (5). Jurgis decides to join a rebellion to protest the mistreatment of immigrants.
During the great depression, the midwest underwent a long drought. Exposed dry earth swept away with the wind and caused huge dust storms that prolonged the dry weather. With the lowered selling prices and the lack of crops the farmers had some major economic trouble. In Black Blizzard and John Steinbeck 's Grapes of Wrath, the literature develops the ideas of the poor distribution of wealth within the populations and the social aspects of people of different economic class. Social differences arise in the wealthy, the employed, and the unemployed throughout this period of hardship.
Intercalary Chapter Literary Analysis 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.
Also knowing that they left their homeland, Oklahoma in order to search for a better life and to find out California is just as jobless questions the reader. The Joads continued to struggle through when they made it to California. Having to live in an area of the town called “Hooverville” and living day by day without any job or pay would make the reader think the Joads will soon give up. But, despite the fact they had to suffer through the adversity, they still moved forward. In the end of Chapter 1, the quote “The women studied the men’s faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else remained” tells us that hope was the only thing that the women could look forward to.
Through out the novel, the character of Jim Casy is vital to providing hope and a new outlook of like to the Joad family. In one sense Jim Casy could be tied to Moses who guided thousands of people out of slavery from Egypt. This could be compared to Jim Casy guiding the Joads by providing them a way out of the famine and hard times and just into California. Once the Joads get a clear picture of what they need to do he disappears, but comes back when they are once again in a dire situation. “Somebody got to take the blame.
Since the book came out in 1939, everyone has had a opinion on the ending to John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. It has a very controversial ending, that Steinbeck thought would name the last nail into the coffin, so to speak, on how bad the dust bowl and moving west really was. The ending starts when the Joad family is threatened with a flood, so they make their way to a old barn where they find a boy and his old father. The boy says his father is starving, and that he can’t keep anything solid down. He needs something like soup or milk.
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.
This appeared to be their way of life since the community did not offer any employment opportunities after the plantations were closed. People started to engage in criminal activities which lead to their incarceration. In Lalee’s household alone, three men were in jail. Redman and Granny’s fathers were serving time and Lalee’ son was in and out of jail. They often talked about the criminal justice system because their love ones were within that system.
All the adults must now work to help provide for the family. When Jurgis gets hurt and can’t work, the children must leave school and find jobs. After a series of tragedies, including near starvation, illness, several deaths in the family, and some time in jail. Life eventually changes Jurgis as he is robbed of his strength, health and spirit. He is forced to live a life not fit for an animal.
In this chapter, you are introduced to Floyd Knowles, a man the Joads meet while setting up tents for shelter, a Hooverville, as they are on the move along with many other families. Knowles warns them of how the police are treating certain groups with harassment. Casy decides to leave the Joads’ group because he insists that he is a burden to them, but decides to stay an extra day. Later, two men, one is a deputy, show up in a car to the tent settlement to offer fruit-picking jobs, but Knowles refuses which provokes the men. They try to falsely accuse him of breaking into a car lot so they can arrest him.
The farmers acknowledge that God cursed them with tragedies. This could be tied to Casy’s turmoil with his
In John Steinbeck’s movie and novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” he presented the ecological, sociological, and economic disaster that the United States suffered during the 1930s. The movie is set during the Great Depression, “Dust Bowl,” and it focuses on the Joad’s family. It is a poor family of farmers who resides in Oklahoma, a home fulfilled by scarcity, economic hardship, agricultural changes, and job losses. Unexpectedly, affected by their hopeless situation, as well as they are trapped in an ecological madness, the Joad’s decided to move out to California; Beside with other people whom were affected by the same conditions, those seeking for jobs, land, a better life, and dignity.