The Grapes Of Wrath Analysis

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The Grapes of Wrath is a book written by John Steinbeck about the irony (expectation vs. reality, according to Mrs. Schaetzle) of the American Dream. The book follows the journey of the Joad family during the Dust Bowl after they are kicked out of their house and off of their farmland. The family decides to travel from their home state of Oklahoma to the green lands of California. Throughout the book, the Joad family comes across many difficulties on their search for work, and through them all, the family is forced to keep on moving in order to survive. At the beginning of the book, one of the Joads, Tom, hitches a ride with a trucker to a road. During this ride, Tom explains how he has just gotten out of McAlester (jail). He also explains…show more content…
While this may seem strange and out of place, it does do quite a bit of obvious foreshadowing. Afterwards, it cuts back to Tom Joad, and he comes across another main character, Jim Casy, an ex-preacher. They chat with each other for a little while and then decide to go over to the Joad place to see Tom's family. They walk along, but when they get there, they find that there is nobody there, and Tom states that something must have happened. In the next chapter, it is explained that the crops aren't growing anymore and so the family must be kicked off of the land, and the bank repossess it, as the family had borrowed money from the bank to buy the house and had not yet fully repaid their mortgage. The family is told they must get off the land, as there will be tractors brought in to break (is that the proper term for it?) the land, and if the tractors happened to hit the house, they (the bank) would cover their…show more content…
Then the man argues with him, saying, "But for your three dollars a day fifteen or twenty families can't eat at all. Nearly a hundred people have to go out and wander on the road for your three dollars a day. Is that right?" There is no definite answer as to whether or not what the driver is doing is right, as it is really a matter of the way you look at the situaution. On one hand, the man and his family and many other families are starving just to feed one other family. But on the other hand, the driver is just trying to do what's best for his family, even if it means something bad for others. Let's look at it this way. Would it be better letting multiple families starve to feed the tractor drivers' families (there are multiple tractors being driven), or letting multiple families starve to feed the home owners' (there are multiple people getting kicked out) families? Which is better, letting families starve or letting families starve? This time period was difficult for the majority of America. Crops weren't growing and the chance of finding a job was slim. During these troubling times, there wasn't really any right or wrong. There was just succeeding or failing to survive. As Casy says to Tom, “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff

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