...Nikki Slomers Mrs. Moser AP English 11 28 March 2014 Steinbeck’s Philosophical Theory and Influences The Grapes of Wrath, a story of the Joads’ journey from Oklahoma to California in search of the American dream during the Great Depression era. Thousands upon thousands of people had to pack up and leave the land that they were born and raised on due to the Dust Bowl and the banks foreclosing on acres and acres of property. Having lived through this time period, John Steinbeck, the author of the novel The Grapes of Wrath is no stranger to the conditions these people lived in. Traveling with migrant farm workers for a few years in Salinas California, John adopted a very specific philosophical theory from the many influences around him. John Steinbeck’s philosophical theory, including transcendentalism and the concept of the oversoul, humanism, earthy democracy, and pragmatism, all play an important role in the development of his characters in The Grapes of Wrath. To begin, one of the most important characters in the novel, Jim Casy, “the preacher”, single-handedly interprets and embodies the philosophy of the author John Steinbeck and the novel itself. Tom Joad and Jim Casy cross paths while Tom was on his way home to find his family after just being released from prison. The two men, having been long time friends, decide to walk together and catch up. Jim vents to Tom, and tells him about not preaching anymore. “I was a preacher,” the man [Jim Casy] said seriously, “but...
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...The novel “The Grapes of Wrath” that is written by John Steinbeck is a great novel that talks about the horrors of the Great depression as it probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. The novel also talks about the lives of an ordinary people who are starving to preserve their humanity in the face of the social and economic desperation. When the Jaods lose their tenant farm in Oklahoma they join thousands of others, on the road going to California to find a better life. Each night society is created, leaders are chosen, and the rates of violence are increasing. John Steinbeck uses symbolism in his novel to show that people in difficult situations start to treat each other badly in order to protect their own interests. The major symbols that the author used in his novel are the turtle, the insects, the pregnancy of Rose of Sharon and the dead child. First, in page 20 it said that as the embankment got steeper the more the turtle showed work to successes in the first challenge. The road represents the steep embankment to those migrant people because they had to cross two thousand miles in order to get California. Along the road the major obstacle that faced them was that they have to take care of their cars because they were old. They were supposed to spend the money on themselves but it turned out that they have spent most of it on the cars. Second, when the turtle was crossing the road she was slow. That’s the reason...
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...Throughout the semester we read three different books: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Let The Water Hold Me Down by Michael Spurgeon, and Poor People by William Vollmann, all have a common theme, poverty. The books take on different aspects of poverty and use real life experiences that make you aware of what happens in their lives and how they deal with difficult situations. The Grapes of Wrath and Let The Water Hold Me Down have common story lines like family, grief, death, poverty, oppression, and they show how in different time periods the poor had to live and survive. The Grapes of Wrath novel follows the Joad family on their journey to California in search for work and comfortable living. The Joad’s get forced out of their land and are sent packing by the banks that is buying up everyones land for the plantation and growth of cotton. The family sets out on their trip to the “land of milk and honey” with Tom, who has been paroled, Ma, Pa, Al, Granma, Grampa, Uncle John, Rose of Sharon and husband Connie, Ruthie and Winfield, and preacher John Casy, and Noah....
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...H. Tharp The Unspoken Truth about John Steinbeck’s Legacy in Monterey County John Ernst Jr. Steinbeck is one of the most respected and honored American writers among our society today. In many classrooms around the world, his books are still mandated as reading requirements and there are many museums and centers dedicated to this esteemed author. John Steinbeck has won numerous awards for his books, most notably the Pulitzer Prize for his fictional novel, The Grapes of Wrath in 1940, and the Nobel Prize in literature in 1962 based on his entire body of work. Steinbeck’s other awards, which are typically less known are included in the following chart: WORK | YEAR | AWARD | MEDIUM | “The Murder” | 1934 | O. Henry Award | Print | Tortilla Flat | 1935 | Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal for Best Novel by a Californian | Print | In Dubious Battle | 1936 | Ibid | Print | Of Mice and Men | 1938 | N.Y Drama Critic’s Circle Award | Play | “The Promise” | 1938 | O. Henry Award | Print | Of Mice and Men | 1939 | American Bookseller’s Award | Print | LifeBoat | 1944 | Academy Award nominee for Best Story | Print | A Medal for Benny | 1945 | Ibid | Print | The Moon is Down | 1946 | King Haakon Liberty Cross | Print | Viva Zapata! | 1952 | Academy Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay | Play | N/A | 1963 | Honorary Consultant in American Literature to the Library of Congress | N/A | N/A | 1964 | U.S Medal of Freedom; Press Medal of Freedom | N/A...
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...The Grapes of Wrath a well-known classic by John Steinbeck was published in 1939, and before it was published, migrant workers were living in very harsh conditions in several parts of the United States. The Grapes of Wrath is about an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family, the Joads, who suffer various hardships while migrating to California. The Dust Bowl was a period of time in the 1930s where harsh droughts led to severe dust storms which ruined million acres of prairie land in America. This story tells us the plight of all those migrants during the Great Depression through the perspective of the Joad family. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes of the novel, as well as to set the tone. Steinbeck’s previous book had bought him much success and Steinbeck did not want his success to weaken his commitment to the intellectual goals of his writing. So later, he embarked upon a trip from Oklahoma to California with a group of migrant workers. He worked and lived alongside them in a work camp in California. His experience was the inspiration for this novel. The story begins just after Tom Joad is released on parole from McAlester prison for homicide. On his journey to his home in Oklahoma, he meets former preacher Jim Casy whom he remembers from his childhood and the two travel together. He finds out his family has been evacuated from their land and are leaving for California. Tom and Casy join them. Going west on Route 66...
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...In the novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ written by John Steinbeck the Joad family comes across many trials and tribulations and Ma Joad manifests herself as the strongest, controlled, generous, and altruistic person in the novel. Ma Joad is the mother of Noah Joad, Sharon of Rose, Tom Joad, Al Joad, Ruthie Joad, and Winfield Joad and wife to Old Tom Joad. Tom notices Ma Joad’s eyes show experiences of everything and those experiences made her become strong. Ma shows impeccable strength throughout the novel in many different situations. She keeps her family together throughout the excursion from Oklahoma west to California. The environment in ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ affects Ma Joad by it making her pull her family together and become the leader....
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...In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck speaks religion throughout the novel. Through his portrayal of showing the biblical foreshadowing through experiences they faced, he shows the religious background they had at the beginning of the book and how it's tested as they grow. Jim Casy was portrayed as a failed preacher that came along with an ex-convict to journey to the west for work. This character was the figure of Jesus through the book. As the relationship between Tom and Casy grows they stick with each other through thick and thin. “It’s all me, all right, Casy said. You got smart with the wrong guy” (Steinbeck 266). Casy takes the blame for the actions of Tom and Floyd. Jesus takes the place for all of our sins by dying on the cross...
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...The Grapes of Wrath is primarily a story about the Joads, an all-American farming family, and their journey westward, but through the use of inter chapters, the novel also depicts the hardships faced by the general population during the Great Depression. These chapters are added to give more detail and history about the economic and familial circumstances simple people must go through. The use of inter-chapters in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath adds to the novel stylistically, thematically, and symbolically by allowing readers to experience the struggles of average American families and relating those situations back to the Joads. Steinbeck’s use of inter-chapters add to the novel stylistically by using them as a foreshadowing technique. In chapter 7, it says “Squirt in a couple quarts of sawdust. Put some in the gears, too. We got to move that lemon for thirty-five dollars” (). Steinbeck is telling the readers about corrupt car salesmen who tamper with cars to take advantage of desperate families for profit. This chapter is foreshadowing the events in chapter 16 when the Wilson family’s car breaks down and the Joads stay back to help them. Another example is chapter 9 foreshadowing the...
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...In his striking novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck integrates many different themes through the use of important characters like Tom, Jim Casy, and Rose of Sharon. These themes fall into two characters being primary and secondary, the primary being Humanity and the therefore lack of, and the secondary being strength in unity and unselfishness. John Steinbeck while writing the novel The Grapes of Wrath integrated primary themes that the reader should understand after reading. The first theme that can be showed throughout the book and is a primary theme would be humanity. This would mean humanity towards all things including other people and the environment. First seen very early in the book in Chapter 2 when we first get acquainted with Tom Joad at the moment when he asks for a ride from the Oklahoma City Transport Company truck driver. The Truck driver clearly has a sign that says no hitch hikers, but the truck driver risks his job letting Tom ride. “Scrunch down on the running board till we get around the bend.” (Steinbeck 11) The truck driver bends the rules in order to help a fellow human thus showing a sense of humanity in such hard times. This can also be seen in Chapter 15 when the rest stop waitress sells candy at reduced prices to a poor family trying to make their way to California, and again when the truckers realize that she did this and give her an extra trip for her good deeds. “"Go ahead—Al says totake it. She pushed the wax papered loaf across the...
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...8.(Evaluating) Decide whether Steinbeck's suggestion of labor unity in chapter 14 is to suggest a nonviolent or violent uprising against "the great owners" and defend your decision with concrete details from "The Grapes of Wrath." I think that Steinbeck is trying to get them to unify peacefully to attain a common goal. Going back to when Jim Casy said "maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of," I think that Steinbeck is trying to get readers to recognize that they are not alone (pg. 24). All tenant farmers are losing their land. The uprising may consist of actions that make people seem bitter, but they are upset because they are starving. I think the suggestion is to come together nonviolently, and to realize that they need to show "the great owners" the results of their causes (pg.151). 9.(Understanding) Identify Ma and Pa Joad and describe each of their roles. Ma Joad is the mother of Tom, Rose of Sharon, Al, Ruthie, Winfield, and Noah Joad. Her role shifts and she becomes the center of the family as Pa Joad loses efficacy as the head of the family. Ma becomes the matriarch of the family. Pa Joad is...
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...The Grapes of Wrath (1940) When Darryl Zanuck was chosen as the executive producer for The Grapes of Wrath, eyebrows were raised. Zanuck, then head of Twentieth Century Fox, was considered politically conservative and therefore an odd choice as the executive producer (Ebert). In fact, Zanuck was nervous about the left-wing political views of the novel, and due to common "red-baiting," he sent a private investigator to Oklahoma in hopes of legitimizing the novel's contents (Levy). John Ford, also politically conservative, was hired as the film's director. Ford, who was not as concerned as Zanuck about the novel's liberal content said, "The whole thing appealed to me–being about simple people–and the whole story was similar to the famine of...
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...A provocative idea is one, which illuminates a respondent about moral or contentious issues and challenges their view of the world. Within the literary world, composers explore provocative and timeless ideas whilst instilling their own personal experiences into their novel to produce a great classic. John Steinbeck epitomises these ideas in his realist novel The Grapes of Wrath by exploring the challenging and stark issues of; the powerlessness and perseverance of Okies, and the power of communities. Steinbeck successfully connects with respondents on a sensory and emotional level, through the utilization of various language techniques to illuminate respondents of the numerous socio-economic hardships the Okies were subjugated to in the late 1930s. Powerlessness comes about when an external force renders one into a state of mind where they feel that have limited control over their wellbeing, personal lives and the culture wherein they live. Steinbeck highlights the Joads powerlessness in “We tried to camp together, an` they drove us, like pigs. Scattered us. Beat the hell outta fellas. Druv us like pigs”. Through the use of simile of “pigs”, it highlights the inhumane mistreatment by the Banks, which have driven them out of their homes. This is further highlighted in the rhetorical question “The kids are hungry all the time. What do you want us to do?” Steinbeck conveys the difficult predicament the tenant farmers are put in by the landowners, who have subordinated the...
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...John Steinbeck Research Paper: Final Draft John Steinbeck is regarded as the “quintessential American writer.” He created many works of literature that “evoke life in the 20th century with compassion and lyrical precision” (Li). John Steinbeck’s most popular works such as Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) explore the darker side of life in America for farm laborers. Though these works were considered highly controversial, they gained him major recognition. Of Mice and Men was adapted as a play in 1938 and was declared the best play by New York Drama Critics’ Circle. He went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath. In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature (Schultz & Li). As a child and youth, Steinbeck spent a lot of time working on farms and interacting with other migrant workers. His experiences with migrant farm workers created the foundation for Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. John Ernst Steinbeck was born on February 27th 1902 in Salinas California to John Ernst Steinbeck Sr. and Olivia Hamilton Steinbeck. Steinbeck Sr. managed a flour mill, and his mother Olivia was a teacher in a school, thus securing the family a middle class income (Bender). His mother Olivia looked to “mold him into a man of broad intellectual capacity” (Kiernan). She read him several books as a child and, by the age of five, he could read. In school he was teased for “his large ears…so he withdrew into books.” His...
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...During the difficult times of the Great Depression, families sought strength and power from those sharing similar deprivation and misery. In Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the Joad family is taken through a flurry of complications as they make their way westward escaping the destruction and eradication of the land they once owned. Throughout their journey to California, the Joad family grasps the importance of community, and the impact it has on their travels. The communities they encounter help them throughout their travels by administering encouragement and support. The Joad family experience the sense of community, when they settle in decrepit Hooverville and the egalitarian government camp. The Wilsons and other families the Joads meet along the route, are additional support. The communities and...
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...in which the group entity was of as great an importance as the individual. Humanism can be traced back to Whitman's exaltation of the common man and can best be understood as a love of all persons. This is the spirit that Jim Casy is referring to when he claims that it's "all men and women that we love…the Holy Sperit — the human sperit." This love will most often be physically expressed by the mother figures in the novel: Ma, Sairy Wilson, and eventually, Rose of Sharon. From her first appearance in the novel, Ma is the epitome of the concept of loving one's neighbor. She is the first to extend comfort or nourishment to strangers. This willingness to help people is seen in her welcoming of Casy into the family and her feeding of the hungry children in the Hooverville camp. She works selflessly for others and tries to instill the same attitude in Rose of Sharon. Sairy Wilson's compassionate help during Granpa's death, in spite of her own illness, is another example of human love extending outside the family. Rose of Sharon is slow to embrace this selflessness and giving, focusing instead on her own comfort and well-being for the majority of the novel. In the end, however, she, too, becomes part of this embracing of all humankind when she offers her life-giving milk to the starving...
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