ipl-logo

The Joad's Family Identity In The Grapes Of Wrath

1094 Words5 Pages

The Joad’s Family Identity Identity is the condition of who you are or what something is. Identity can change over time. It is not something that is set forever. Sometimes your identity gets influenced by others, such as your family. For example, the Joad family from the classic book The Grapes of Wrath has already identified themselves as the working class. The working class emerged when the bourgeoisie needed people to work for them and since they were born into that class, there were not many options on how to live their life. John Steinbeck, the author of the book The Grapes of Wrath, was able to portray an accurate description of what proletariat’s life was like in the 1930s and how identity comes into the equation. The Joad family …show more content…

Although it could have been the other way around, but the proletariats helped shape the bourgeoisie class and made it to what it is today, kind of like how you use your fingers to help shape a perfect clay pot. The bourgeoisie are owners of social production or employers of wage labor. The proletarians helped shaped the bourgeoisie class when some other people were unhappy with their life and wanted more or they wanted to make a better living for themselves. So, they brought up their own business and did every single slimy, sleazy action they could to get to the top. Some bourgeoisie are very cunning and greedy. They have many tricks up their sleeves, so the proletariats can work for them and the bourgeoisie does not have to pay them very much. For example, in the book The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family gets a bunch of handbills asking for work in California. John Steinbeck wrote, “We seen them han’bills. I got one right here. […] Pea Pickers Wanted in California. Good Wages All Season. 800 Pickers Wanted.” (Steinbeck 203) Most likely, there will be more than 800 people showing up for the job. So why would they print our more bills than needed? The answer is simple. What they are doing is that bourgeoisie printed out more handbills than the workers they need. That way, they can hire all of them, but they don’t need to pay them that much. According to DoSomething.org, about 836 million people live in extreme poverty. While only a small percentage of the world is the bourgeoisie. However without the proletariats, the bourgeoisie would no longer have people working for them and they would go out of business. The proletariats appear weak in the bourgeoisie eyes, making the bourgeoisie feel superior. By making the proletariats feel weak, the bourgeoisie easily manipulate the proletariats. Therefore, the proletariats basically brought up their own enemy, allowing the bourgeoisie to have

Show More
Related

  • The Conditions Of Migrating Families In The Grapes Of Wrath

    1251 Words  | 6 Pages

    The 1940 film Grapes of Wrath accurately describes the working conditions of migrating families during the Depression. The Joad’s family was a fictional family that depicted the low wages and poor living conditions of the migrant workers during the Depression. The Grapes of Wrath was historically accurate for the entire film. The family’s during the Depression would pack everything across country and sleep wherever they could find a space to rest their tired bodies.

    Read More

  • Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

    1210 Words  | 5 Pages

    From 1790 to the late 1800’s, the Industrial Revolution recreated industry as Europe knew it with ground-breaking inventions and mass-producing factories. The Industrial Revolution widened the social gap with the bourgeoisie on a pedestal and the proletariat baring the weight of being the work class that would make the Industrial Revolution happen; this strife would lead to many riots and revolutions across Europe as many men like Karl Marx would develop solutions to the proletarian’s problems such as communism. The question arose of how the proletariat were to rebel against the bourgeoisie. The fact was that a revolution was inevitable.

    Read More

  • Changes In The Grapes Of Wrath

    852 Words  | 4 Pages

    The workers that were protesting outside the farm in The Grapes of Wrath are just like the protesters that protested in New York, they wanted fair and better wages so they could support themselves and their families. Although these two situations happened in different eras, they still hold the same issue that people need fair wages in order to survive. In the book, the low wages were bad because the Joad family couldn 't afford food while the low wages now won’t allow workers to pay rent. The time periods might be different but the issues are still the

    Read More

  • Family Separation In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

    1785 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath: Family Separation The Dust Bowl migration in the United Stated was a historical period of time when families from the midwest would pack up everything they owned and head west to find work in the 1930’s. Along with taking everything they could, families would try to stick together. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck demonstrates the inevitable separation between families while migrating to the west. Some readers may argue that Steinbeck’s theme of The Grapes of Wrath was to unify families as they struggle to migrate west, but he mainly displays separation within families as their journey goes on.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Ma Joad In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

    468 Words  | 2 Pages

    The text, Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck is one of the most popular books in America today. The book starts out in Oklahoma during the 1930s. In this novel, the Joads are forced off their property and without work. Ma Joad hears of work in California and the Joad family heads westward hoping to find some source of income. Steinbeck describes all the struggles that they endured and the novel ends with no hope for the Joad family to survive.

    Read More

  • Grapes Of Wrath Literary Analysis

    1639 Words  | 7 Pages

    In the Grapes of Wrath, the farmers don 't always have the benefit of a helping hand. People sell what little they can to prepare for moving out. As they sell their belongings for really low prices they say “we could saved you, but you cut us down, and soon you will be cut down and there’ll be none of us to save you” (Steinbeck 87). The farmers know others will experience similar circumstances and know that they could have helped one another, showing understanding of another’s troubles even in their desperation. As they descend into destitution, they strive to help one another.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

    390 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution caused a massive economic spike from small-scale production to large factories and mass production. Capitalism became the prevalent mode of the economy, which put all means of production in the hands of the bourgeoisie, or the upper class. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argue that capitalism centralizes all the wealth and power in the bourgeoisie, despite the proletariat, or the working class, being the overwhelming majority of the population. The manufacturers would exploit the common proletariat and force them to would work in abysmal conditions and receive low wages, furthering the working class poverty. “The Communist Manifesto” predicts that as a result of the mistreatment

    Read More

  • Community In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

    750 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Harvest Gypsies, the migrant workers are seen to band together,but not as much as in Grapes of Wrath. “Noah and Uncle John and the preacher began to unload the truck. They helped Grampa down and sat him on the ground and he sat limply, staring ahead of him. These workers are seen through a lens that makes it seem as though they are

    Read More

  • Low Income Workers In The Grapes Of Wrath

    717 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Joad’s and other migrant workers spent entire days in the fields, leaving before sunrise to pick crops and finishing well after dark. Without migrant workers picking, the farmers couldn’t run their farms. The same goes for fast food and other low-income workers today; they work as cashiers, make food, and clean around their facilities. Neither of these groups feel they receive a livable wage for these jobs, as the previous paragraph explains. Additionally, the owners of these large corporations are similar to the large-scale farm-owners in The Grapes of Wrath.

    Read More

  • Adam Smith Social Inequality Essay

    1169 Words  | 5 Pages

    Marx advocated revolution by the Proletariat against the Bourgeoisie to reduce income and social class inequality. However, Smith felt that the Invisible Hand and the division of labour would eventually bring the poor out of poverty, but may not entirely resolve the income inequality or equal distribution of

    Read More

  • The Upper Class In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

    451 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Karl Marx And Emile Durkheim Analysis

    1277 Words  | 6 Pages

    Marx believed that the current capitalist society is separated into two classes, the Proletariat society, and Bourgeois society. The Proletarians, as perceived by Marx, are part of the working class that only possess one significant material value, that is the ability to work, or labour power. The Bourgeoise, on the other hand, is the societal class that owns the means of production and hence rule over the Proletarians. As I quote from Marx’s book, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1988, p. 473)

    Read More

  • Essay On The Grapes Of Wrath

    447 Words  | 2 Pages

    This social philosophy preserves that human survival is dependent upon the banding together of humans to find strength in group unity and action. Now, if we elaborate a conclusion based in this scene then we can relate this topic to an economic disaster. Because, the elaboration of this theory in the film is seen in the education of the troubled (tom) and disadvantaged (Joad’s family) with the organization of unions and strikes as vehicles of group protest and change. In final consideration, “The Grapes of Wrath” emphasizes the unfair treatments that the migrants receive and how this doesn’t apply to their hardship; it diminishes them as human

    Read More

  • The Father Of Capitalism And Marxism By Karl Marx

    1140 Words  | 5 Pages

    Capitalism, according to Karl Marx is divided into two major social classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie, which is the minority of the class system, own the means of production such as land, machinery, factories and raw materials whereas the Proletariat, which is the majority of the class system, having no means of their own production and have to work to earn wage for a living. Karl Marx has his own theory that history is made up by class struggle which he mentioned in his book – Manifesto of the Communist Party: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1848) and had predicted that the Proletariat would lead a revolution to overthrow the Bourgeoisie. Karl Marx believed that there will be intrinsic conflict like exploitation, alienation of labour and commodity fetishism between both of the classes.

    Read More

  • What Is Karl Marx Theory Of Exploitation

    1074 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Edwards et al. (2006) Marx thought that within capitalism there would be an increased divide between the bourgeoisie class and the proletariat class in the future. The proletariats are lower of the two classes, the people who have to work for wages in order to survive. The bourgeoisie are the people in society who controlled and owned the means of production in a capitalist system.

    Read More

More about The Joad's Family Identity In The Grapes Of Wrath

Open Document