The grapes of wrath english literature essay

When we were foremost given this assignment, I thought, how will I larn anything from this? By the clip I was on the 3rd chapter I had my reply. A book filled with emotions, calamity and difficult clip, I could n’t assist but believe how in some ways, many of these are slightly like today ‘s. While, granted, the bulk of us still have occupations, instruction, and roofs over our caputs, I will explicate subsequently on how there are many similarities between today ‘s economic system and the economic system which lies within this book. But first, allow me take you into the absorbing universe that is, The Grapes of Wrath.

It begins with the debut of Tom Joad, fresh out of McAlester prison after functioning four old ages for manslaughter. As he makes his manner back place he is incognizant of what has happened in the last few months while he has been locked up. When a truck driver, who kindly agrees to give Tom a lift slightly of the manner, asks him why he is returning place to what is most likely empty land as its more than probably that the Bankss have seized it, as they have done with many other belongingss. On his concluding stretch of route in which he walks, Tom comes across a tatterdemalion looking adult male sitting in the shadiness of a tree. It turns out to be Jim Casey, the sermonizer from the church Tom attended as a kid. As they walk together we hear of how Casey has decided to no longer a sermonizer due to his behavior with misss after mass. As the brace arrive to the farm in which the Joad ‘s owned it is noticed how dead it is. While houses are half knocked, Tom recognises how no 1 had stolen wood or anything else. He realises that what the teamster says was true and fears he will non be able to happen his household. Fortunately for him, an old neighbor informs him that the Joad ‘s have gone to Uncle John ‘s place, and program to travel to California from at that place on. When Tom arrives to Uncle John ‘s he is heartily greeted by a happy male parent, Pa, and an even happier female parent, Ma. As he settles down he learns of how the Bankss have evicted households from their land as the bankers are non doing adequate net incomes from the agriculture. It is so announced that the program to travel to California is in fact true. They have been told that many occupations are to be found and that one could do a batch ofmoneyfrom picking the likes of oranges and grapes. Bombarded with this intelligence Tom insists on fall ining his household. They plan on going in a truck which was picked out by Tom ‘s younger brother Al. We are besides introduced to the youngest sibling Ruthie and Winfield along with Tom ‘s pregnant sister Rose of Shannon who is married to Connie, a local male child from a neighbouring farm. We besides meet Tom ‘s grandparents. It is told how they all plan on going in this truck, including Tom and the sermonizer, with all that they posses. As they pack up what is left of their properties, holding sold most of it to do money to acquire to California, the household make up one’s mind it is clip to travel. However, holding lived on the land all his life Grandpa decides he does n’t desire to go forth. Knowing he ‘ll be asleep shortly the household complete the wadding and carry him to the truck, and off they set.

As autos line the Highway 66 we learn of how every squeak, every jar and every hushing of noise is to be listened for in the truck. All driver know precisely how far it is from service station o service station, aware of the possibility of interrupting down and holding no manner of repairing the auto if they are in the center of nowhere. It is after go throughing through Oklahoma and settling for the dark that the first calamity occurs. As the household draw up and bivouac on the route side they meet a adult male, Ivy Wilson, and his married woman, Sairy, whose auto has broken down at the side of the route, all households worst incubuss. We besides find out that Grandpa is ill, really ill. The Wilson ‘s are sort adequate to offer their collapsible shelter for Grandpa to lie down in, nevertheless, it ‘s non long before he has a shot and unfortunately passes off. It is so decided to bury Grandpa and to go forth a non saying what happened. Come morning, both households decide it will be a good thought to go together from now on. With the Wilson ‘s auto fixed for now, the all set off one time once more. However, on the 3rd twenty-four hours of going the Wilson ‘s auto one time once more brakes down. Tom and the sermonizer stay behind with the auto while Al brings the remainder of the household to a nearby encampment topographic point before heading back to Tom and the sermonizer to assist repair the auto. Back at the cantonment site a adult male is informing Pa of how there is really no occupations in California and it is a waste of their clip traveling at that place. Not being one to be put off, Pa bushes the remarks to a side and continues on with his eventide. When the male childs arrive back with the auto fixed they decide to kip in it so as to avoid holding to pay more money to remain in the cantonment site. However, in the cantonment site, Grandma is highly ill, holding fallen ailment after the decease of her hubby. Geting sicker by the minute the household decide to head off at the cleft of morning so as to make the desert before taking nether interruption. Once the range the outskirts of the sweet, technically already in California, another adult male tells of how he is on his manner place after gaining there is no proper occupations to be had in California. As Grandma gets worse the household make up one’s mind it will be easier to take the desert at dark so they set off. However, this clip it is with sibling Noah, who has decided that he wants to remain on the outskirts. Convinced he is non truly loved by his household he pleads with Tom to inform the remainder of the household about his determination. When Ma hears this, she believes her household is falling apart. As the household get stopped for a everyday review, Ma pleads with the constabulary to allow them on as Granma is in demand of some medical intervention. However, when they reach the other side of the sweet, Ma announces that Granma has been dead since the review of the truck. The household eventually arrive to a cantonment where there is a little possibility of acquiring work, nevertheless as a battle breaks out between Tom, the sermonizer and a constabulary adult male, it ‘s realised that Tom has one time once more interrupt his word. The sermonizer kindly steps frontward and takes the incrimination for the battle and he is put in prison. With the disappearing of Connie as good, the household decide to travel on to another cantonment. It is here that Tom finds work and the household start to settle, nevertheless, after a few hebdomads Ruthie accidently outs Tom about being in prison and the household must one time once more travel on. Here strikes the 3rd calamity, Rose of Shannon gives birth to a still babe. With heavy rain endangering the hovel in which the household are remaining in, they decide they must happen dry land. On their travels they see a barn and venture to it. It is here they find a adult male and his boy. The adult male is deceasing have n’t non eaten in yearss. So ill that he is unable to eat any solid nutrients, merely milk or soup, it is here that Rose of Shannon asks the household to go forth them entirely for a piece.

John Steinbeck, born Febuary 27th 1902 wanted to be a author. He graduated high school in 1919 and went on to analyze at Stanford University. Having left University without a grade he moved to New York to prosecute his passion of going a author. When times were tough at that place he moved back to California where his first novel was published. He wrote a sum of 20 seven books and in 1962 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is best known for his plants including East of Eden, Mice of Men and of class, The Grapes of Wrath, is an writer that many people can fall in love with. His ability to convey you into a book and do you experience like you are at that place with him, along for the drive. He does n’t compose to compose, he writes to inform and edify 1s ego of what times had been like. He connects profoundly with the book, about as if he is stating you his really ain life narrative. It ‘s rare to experience as if the writer is composing from the bosom. Yet, Steinbeck draws you in from the really get downing. His ability to do you oppugn what his characters do, how they act and what they say. It ‘s as if he is a portion of the book and the book is a portion of him. It ‘s about as, daring I say, if he got stuck in witting, the book could give him a intimation as to where to travel on from. A great author, possibly, an even better narrative Teller.

It ‘s astonishing how a book can merely catch your attending from the start. It sucked me right in. I was in a universe of my ain reading it. I could n’t assist believe to myself how things are so different now but yet, so the same. However, some of Steinbeck ‘s descriptions bothered me a spot. While they were full of imagination and gave great item, I found myself oppugning was it truly necessary. Such as the first chapter on dust. I merely did n’t see how it related to the remainder of the narrative. I do nevertheless, understand why there was such great description sing California, it was the hereafter of the household so I was happy to read about it. I merely felt that some spots of it seemed meaningless, they did n’t look to add to the narrative line and frequently, I felt myself planing over it to acquire to the good portion. But when we reached the parts about the household I was in my component. Reading the battle they had to get the better of, about being able to see it was astonishing. One of my favorite minutes in the book was when we read of how Tom and Al had found a debris pace and because the proprietor was n’t at that place, they were able to acquire pieces of a auto at a fraction of the monetary value to what it would of been had the proprietor been at that place. It merely shows how concern proprietors were taking people for granted, cognizing they would pay about anything to repair up a auto so they could acquire to California. There were many minutes in this book when I merely halt and believe. The looks people used, the cognition people had without an instruction. It was astonishing to see how the male childs were able to repair up a auto that had something incorrect with it that I had ne’er heard of. At the age of 16, Al was able to pick out a truck he knew was trust worthy plenty to acquire him and his household all the manner to California. He was so able to drive the truck and listen out for any little, uneven noises the engine might do. The manner it was written, you would hold thought he was in his mid-twentiess, non a immature teenage male child. I besides thought the character of Tom Joad was one of the best written characters I have of all time read approximately. He puts everything aside to mind and protect his household. He is even willing to allow them travel in front and remain behind if it means they will be happier and no problem will follow them. He did n’t inquiry interrupting his word to remain with his household. It ‘s as if he was the knight in reflecting arm for the household. Possibly sometimes a difficult read, over all, there was a sense of achievement reading this book. It would n’t hold been one I would hold read out of wonder, but I ‘m glad I got to read it. There is something particular about completing a book and holding it linger in your head for a clip after.

Who would hold thought a book about thegreat depressionwould somewhat mirror today ‘s economic system. Does that demo merely how bad things have gotten? I think it ‘s clip we have a expression and happen out merely how much the economic system in The Grapes of Wrath are mirrored in today ‘s economic system. Let ‘s foremost compare the “ monsters ” , otherwise known as the bank directors. Back so, they regarded the bank directors as the monsters as they took the land in which people lived on, took all their money and got off with it. I think it ‘s just to state today that the Bankss can be called monsters as good. Some high up bank directors have besides taken what is n’t theirs and a few have in fact gotten off scot free, or have been somewhat punished but nil to what should hold happened. Therefore I think it is just to state that in both universes, bank directors can be regarded slackly as monsters. I besides think the book helps explicate what is go oning in the economic system today. We seem to be in a province of daze, or we were when the recession foremost happened. it was like nil we have of all time seen earlier. Jobs were traveling left and right. Peoples all of a sudden realised they had auto loans and monolithic mortgages to pay and did n’t hold the money to pay them. Suddenly Bankss did n’t hold money and set force per unit area on people to pay up. We ‘re selling our 2009 Mercedes and B. M. W. s for 2004 Opel Astra or a Ford Fiesta so that we can afford to run it and pay back loans. We ‘re no longer heading in Brown Thomas on a Saturday afternoon to sit down with a friend to hold a java and a scone merely because we have n’t seen them since last Saturday! We non traveling into the bag section and purchasing a Miu Miu bag because we think it ‘ll travel with one outfit we have. Now let ‘s expression at what happened in the Grapes of Wrath. Suddenly they excessively had a strain on their money. They sold what they had to do money. They were cognizant of how much they could afford to pass on a auto to acquire them to California and non a penny more. They knew how much they would necessitate to pass on gas to acquire at that place. They knew they may necessitate some trim hard currency to set towards parts for the truck if it broke down. They were n’t traveling down the town for a few pints, or passing money on Sweets for the kids. To me, the lone difference between both universes is one thing and one thing merely, the kids in the Grapes of Wrath understood what was go oning, even at the stamp age of seven or eight. Now, do n’t acquire me incorrect, today, plentifulness of 16 twelvemonth or 17 twelvemonth olds and above understand what ‘s traveling on. But allow ‘s be honest, the younger kids do n’t. They do n’t understand that Ma and Pa may non be able to acquire them that Xbox game they wanted this month, they ca n’t afford to purchase a new brace of Uggs every clip a brace gets soaked and takes a few hebdomads to return to normal coloring material. But the kids in The Grapes of Wrath, Ruthie and Winfield for illustration, they know why they ca n’t hold a saloon of cocoa ; they know how lucky they were to be given Sweets towards the terminal of the book. It ‘s as if, straight away the Joad ‘s were cognizant they need to maintain money tight. It ‘s besides as if, it took people today a piece to gain they needed to make the same, but after clip, they realised. We could hold learned from this book though. There was no authorities bond outs in the Grapes of Wrath, no NAMA, no 2nd opportunities. Imagine if we had applied such thought to our economic system. If your thought would we be in the same places as the Joad ‘s had no such bond outs occurred, I know we would n’t hold. But we can larn from this book to assist us today. We can be smart with our money. We can make as Tom and Al did and pass maintain the money they saved when purchasing the auto parts. They could hold gone down to a saloon and had a great dark if they wanted to. But they were smart with their money. We could travel and book a vacation with the money we could acquire for selling a twelvemonth old auto and down rating to an old auto, or we could make as the male childs did, and salvage it. Put it towards the hereafter. Bring back the economic system so our kids and expansive kids can hold the life we had. We can larn a batch from this book sing the economic system. Our economic system today is their economic system seventy old ages ago.

It could easy be said that The Grapes of Wrath is about one thing and one thing merely, the difficult times people can fall on. But we know it ‘s non. While it is about the difficult times, it is besides about the unbreakable yet breakable bond of a household, their desire to populate another twenty-four hours and their will power to travel on when everything is traveling against them.