Jim Casy and Tom Joad reveal their characters in their first conversation. Both of them are travelers who have nowhere to stay. This becomes a strong tie between them because this is one of the minor experiences that they have in common. However, their characters are quite different. That is, comparing to Tom Joad, Jim Casy possesses more conscience and more sense to take responsibility. Though Casy is prone to act careless at what he did wrong, he still feels guilty. For example, when Casy expresses that there is no place to lead the people to, Joad says “Lead’em around and around. Just lead them” (Steinbeck 21). Unlike what Joad suggests, Casey wants to lead people to somewhere, which shows that he feels obligated to his work. In contrast, Joad reveals the irresponsibility and imprudence in his character because his responses shows that he is heedless. Furthermore, Joad does not feel guilty about his misdeed. For instance, Joad says to Casy that he is not ashamed of killing a person. This indicates the fading of Joad’s moral values because he is not regretful at all about his crime. On the contrary, Casy is guilty about his sins. When he tells Joad that he sleeps with the girls, “he looked over at Joad and his face looked helpless” (Steinbeck 22). This implies that he is compunctious about his immoral act because he looks as if he is abashed and does not know what to do. In spite of Casy’s shameful feeling, Joad, on the other hand, says “Maybe I should of been a preacher. I been a long time without a girl” (Steinbeck 22). This indicates that he thinks it is acceptable to have intimate physical contacts with women and dally with there affections, which in Casy’s opinion is sinful. In conclusion, Casy thinks relatively conscientiously and owns a sense of being responsible. Joad is relatively imprudent and has little moral…
The author, John Steinbeck, of “The Grapes of Wrath,” wrote this masterpiece of a novel in 1939. Steinbeck who utilized his books to write about the lives of the most downtrodden people of society during those times, used “The Grapes of Wrath,” to depict and fixate on the lives of workers migrating from Oklahoma to California during the early part of the 1930s (Steinbeck-Introduction Section). In Steinbeck’s story “The Grapes of Wrath,” he breaks the chapters down into three parts. Chapters one through eleven describes a terrible drought, called the Dust Bowel, which had ravaged an area of land known as the Southern Great Plains located between the western parts of Oklahoma to the panhandle areas of Texas. The area received its name because…
I think that the chief reasons for the mass migration to California where based on a few different reasons. The first reason was because everyone was poor. They didn't have enough money to have the most basic necessities in life. They would even go to such lengths as to steal a neighbors house. No body was happy living in Oklahoma. They all had such hard lives that no one had time to do what they wanted to do. It was farm from sun up to sun down. That is what everyone did, and they didn't even get that much compensation for all the devotion that they put into their work day, after day, after day. If I worked at something for twelve hours a day, and just made hardly enough money to keep living, I would get quite frustrated and not be very happy at all.…
reveals every little detail in chronological order to tell his story. Another technique he uses is his…
The year was 1942 and Addie’s husband had been at war for a year. She had no job, no husband to provide for her at the time. Her husband wasn’t dead, her husband was in the dreaded World War II. There wasn’t a second in her mind that she didn’t think of him, hope that he was okay.…
A person's morals change over time with economic burdens, social struggles, and for political reasons. In different situations a person is going to adjust accordingly. In the novels The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain the two protagonists, Tom Joad and Huckleberry Finn their morals changed with certain circumstances they were put in and were not influenced by the law itself. Throughout each one of the books all of the characters showed growth and developed in three main areas socially, politically, economically, and with family.…
If one did not learn from each step they take in life, where would the world be now? This question may be impossible to answer, and yet easy to imagine the possibilities. A journey is not only a voyage set on foot, but also an adjustment in mindset. The Grapes of Wrath, a novel by John Steinbeck, paints a vivid picture about a particular journey in which a character learns about life and accomplishment. The book not only tells the tale of the tragically poor, but also an uplifting sense of discovery. To embark on a spiritual journey, one must acquire aptitudes and a perspective, which compels the mind to have hope, and to strive for proud existence.…
Throughout history, human beings have been incessantly cruel and violent towards each other. It has happened so much so, that some have argued human nature is intrinsically violent and aggressive. This can be seen in chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath: the mindless destruction of resources ultimately amounts to nothing productive. In his novel, Steinbeck expresses harsh criticism and disapproval toward humanity’s self-destructive and violent nature.…
Many authors use minor characters to help the audience analyze the surface meaning and gain support of main characters in text. They briefly come out in the novel but have a huge impact in the plot of the book. John Steinbeck, in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, demonstrates that minor characters represent a major significance to the story as a whole. He portrays Muley Graves as a minor character in the novel that chooses to stay on his land and refuses to leave anywhere else to emphasize his pride, stubbornness, and fear. Muley Graves represents all the migrant workers during this time, this teaches readers the difficult decision that migrant men had to answer to and take action towards and how a group of united people may be the best choice.…
Throughout the course of The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, Ma Joad, Tom Joad, and Rose of Sharon show extraordinary endurance. As the family falls apart, these three migrants persevere through all of it. They face the trials that moving west during the Dust Bowl brings. Some of these instances would be when Grandma dies, when Noah departs from the family, and when Connie leaves.…
Thesis: John Steibeck severly criticizes capitalsim in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, but is not advocating communism.…
As the Joads were on their way to California, Ma exhibits fear through her actions. She was so focused into getting into California before anyone took up the jobs. Grandma had been sick for a couple of days and Ma was the one who was taking care of her. As Grandma gradually went downhill, Ma did not tell anyone because she didn’t want to distract them from where they were suppose to get to. After Grandmas death she says, “’ I was afraid we wouln’ get acrost,’ she said. ‘I tol’ Grandma we couln’ he’p her. The fambly had to get acrost. I tol’ her, tol’ her when she was adying. We could’ stop in the desert. There was the young ones –an’ Rosasharn’s baby. I tol’ her’”(Steinbeck 228). Ma feared not being able to make it across the California border. She was afraid because the kids were in sake and also a baby in the womb. This action showed fear throughout her because it even cost a human life in order to be able to overcome it. It also showed fear because she was so set onto making it across that Grandmas life was not worth saving for, and was only getting in the way.…
west and took California away from Mexico. Steinbeck talks of how the they believed that…
John Steinbeck, born in California in 1902 ( -1968, New York), is one of the most important American writers, widely known for his Pulitzer prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath”, a “social” tale about the strugglings of the Joad family to get to California, “the promised land”. Considered to be his masterpiece, this novel is not only the story of a family, but the image of the America of the 30s and 40s, of the sufferings, desires and hopes of the people who, driven by society and the capitalist system, try in vain to fight against this “Monster”. In this essay, using an extract from Chapter 12 of the novel, I am going to show how this idealist writer believed in a better way of society, where community would remain over individualism. He believed that commerce was nothing but cheating, that everybody, with no exceptions, was driven by an external force created by humanity itself, an external force which alienated men, but, however, would never end with their hopes and faith.…
This Study Guide was prepared by The Old Globe Education Department with research and activity designs by Teaching Artist, Radhika Rao.…