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The American Dream In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

490 Words2 Pages

At the time of the Great Depression, when a family is told by their owners that they must give up their land, they face the agonizing struggle of finding a new and better life. This is the theme that Steinbeck utilizes in The Grapes of Wrath as the Joad family experiences this very struggle and begins a journey of hardship from Oklahoma to California to start their new life. Throughout this journey, Steinbeck exhibits irony through the hypocrisy of the sharecroppers, the desire for new life, and in this instance the American dream as a myth. When the tenants are told that they have to give up their land, they argue that “Grampa killed Indians, Pa killed snakes for the land.” Or in other words, their ancestors acquired the land by killing the …show more content…

Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange.” The promise of work is more than appealing to families who now have no land, and the ultimate hope is to be able to start a new and better life in California. However, because this goal becomes such major motivation to the sharecroppers that most people become so desperate that they would do whatever is required to fulfill this hope. This is ironic because if the Okies have such strong determination to begin anew that they will overlook their own evil to do so, then the overlooked sins/evil on their journey to California shape them into different people, only making it more difficult to start anew and forget about their past. Lastly, the instance that is both ironic and devastating is that the American Dream of having a better life in California is nothing more than a myth. Specifically Tom’s dream that every man to be able to farm his own land, shared by all Americans journeying to California, turns out to be disappointment. Instead horrible conditions are found in California created by owners who recognize the desperation for jobs. The owners therefore force men to work for incredibly low wages. This is sadly ironic, because the dream that motivated hundreds to move to California turns out to be a

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