The Great Depression was a time when our country went through economic crisis and turmoil. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath express to readers the life and hardship of the characters during the Dust Bowl at the time of the Great Depression. The novel portrays a turtle crossing the Oklahoma highway which symbolizes the struggles, discrimination, and perseverance of many migrant farmers in the Midwest during the time of the Great Depression. The journey of the turtle is portrayed as a metaphor of the journey of the migrant farmers in their search for hope and a better life for their family. The use of symbolism in the story helps readers create the ideas and qualities of the characters. It is important to understand that the story takes place in time when life is difficult and everyone is just trying to get by. The turtle in the story is faced with many hurdles on his way to crossing the highway. When the turtle starts its journey, he is adamant to get across the street. A journey taken is like “sleeping life waiting to be spread and dispersed, every seed armed with an appliance of …show more content…
The author used the turtle as a metaphor to describe the characters in the story. The novel portrays a turtle crossing the Oklahoma highway which symbolizes the struggles, discrimination, and perseverance of many migrant farmers in the Midwest. Like the turtle crossing the highway it was faced with difficulties just like the migrant farmers. They both struggled to overcome the hardships that they face. They were both treated hast and with discrimination because of who they were. They were thought of as insignificant and inhumane. Both the turtle and the migrant farmers didn’t give up on their journey to either cross the highway or find work and new home for their family. They didn’t give up and showed that if they keep trying and stick with it they would
A few chapters into the book we get to know a little more about Turtle and find out about the abuse she suffered. Taylor freaks out when Turtle is almost kidnapped at the park and says, “ I’ve just spent the last eight or nine months trying to convince her that nobody would hurt her again. Why would she believe me now?” (p. 226) Taylor grew
Eventually the turtle is able to right itself and continue on its path. This detailed account of the turtle 's journey could be an elaborate metaphor.
The land turtle in chapter 3 is described in a very human way. The turtle is described as “humorous” and “serious”. The turtle can be a symbol of the Joad family because the Joad family continues to push their way across the united states even
Some people mature faster than others, and some take their time doing so. In the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a young woman named Taylor happens to end up with a little girl, Turtle. Throughout the story, Kingsolver mentions birds often. Birds represent maturity to Turtle. She use birds to compare to Turtle's life and her situations while she is maturing and growing up.
Turtle’s vegetable-soup song mentions the people she accepts and cares for in her life and who she has a strong connection with. Esperanza, a Guatemalan immigrant builds a strong bond with Turtle as they spend quite a bit of time together on their road trip to Oklahoma with Taylor and Estevan. Because of the strong bond that they have built, Esperanza is mentioned as an ingredient in Turtle’s vegetable-soup. Although Esperanza has a positive connotation with plants and vegetables late in this novel, they were earlier used to describe her rough past in Guatemala and difficult time adjusting to her new life living as an immigrant in the United States. Earlier on in this novel, Estevan explains to Taylor that when he and Esperanza lived in Guatemala, “police would come and set their houses and fields on fire and make them move again” (195) in order to show the common people their superiority.
In the works The Bean Trees, The Crucible, and I have a Dream, the societies are immoral because there are rules and laws that make the society unjust. In the works the authors depict what they define as moral and build plots to heroicize those who rise against immorality, even though the society accepts it. In The Bean Trees, Mattie instructs Taylor that we, the people, have an obligation to help those who are at risk or in danger. She puts her own life on the line and risks it all in order to save people. Taking in Turtle was an action that showed both Taylor and Turtle what the world is and how things can change one step at a time.
In the allegory “The Turtle,” the author John Steinbeck explains that as life gets harder people work hard to succeed, and people may try to get in the way. Although the story does talk about a turtle climbing an embankment, people can relate to this story on an emotional level because they can understand overcoming the struggles in life. The struggles in life depend on what goals people set out to achieve. In this paper, the writer will examine the allegorical meanings of the turtle.
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.
So you won’t forget” (Glancy 194). This story is an anti-colonial allegory where the weak turtle (Cherokees) defeats the deer (Americans) and therefore survives the race bet. The story is about a deer racing a turtle, but the turtle
In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck follows the Joad family as they suffer the hardships caused by the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The most important lesson people can learn from the novel is the value of a human life. Although the 1930’s was a low point in American society, the ill-treatment of human beings is still relevant today. Just like Jim Casy’s philosophy, it is important to fight for the rights of the people and their dignity. There are several examples of oppression in The Grapes of wrath.
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.
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.
One of the significant proceedings that occurred in the book was when Turtle was abused, again. The climax was where readers established an understanding toward the second incident, “All these months we had spent together were gone for her. I knew it from her eyes: two cups of black coffee…” (Kingsolver 222). This part of the plot was the most outrageous part because this time Turtle was hurt but the difference was that no one knew if she will ever go back to her happy self, not to mention it effected Taylor’s behavior toward everything.
In the World on the Turtle´s Back the Iroquois wanted to emphasize how there was a Sky World, with people that had extravagant beliefs that explained how good and evil balanced everything in their life. This peculiar place had different gods, like Iroquois. They believed in weird thing for example they believed that a Great tree was the center of their universe. The Great Tree wasn’t a habitual tree, it was huge and had been in that place forever. In this Sky World, there was this woman that seemed to break the rules and desire things that are off limit.
World on Turtle 's Back fulfill the aspects of a traditional Native American creation story. The Iroquois people still consider the story the guide for how to live and thrive in the natural world. The deep rooted connections to nature and animals that has been held by many native tribes relates back to the initial actions taken by the first woman. The twins who symbolized the balance in nature and in humans have parallels all over the world. They are the representation of the constant battle for dominance that wages in the minds of all people.