M, 2-5
Grapes of Wrath Essay
This assignment allowed me the opportunity to use my sociological perspective to analyze the film The Grapes of Wrath'. The Grapes of Wrath is a book made into a movie, based on the great depression of the 30's. It follows the Joad family, who has been forced off their family farm by the government, as they try to find a new settlement and head west to California after receiving flyers for high wage work in fruit orchards. This true story does an outstanding job portraying society, and holds numerous examples any Sociologist can study. For this paper I am going to look at the portrayals of the wealthy and poor, how land ownership is defined by the different characters and how their difference of opinion on the issue is resolved, how family is portrayed, how death and dying are portrayed, what are the interactions like among men, among women, and finally, what is the role of regional identity in the lives of people in the 1930s and what importance does regional identity plays in today's society. After looking at all of these issues I feel that I will have given a broad enough yet comprehensive analysis that any sociologist can agree with. I am going to make a progression of topics beginning with importance of issue to society, on the importance of issue to individuals and family; starting with the portrayal of the wealthy and poor in the 30's Within the first scene of the movie I could easily tell that there was a division amongst the people, and as the movie plays out the largest division can be seen between the wealthy and the poor. As the depression has sunk in many of the norms that were in place had been abolished and these two groups of people communicated in a very uneasy way. At that point the wealthy felt sympathy for those forced into poverty but the overall attitude was better them and not me. The wealthy communicated with the poor on a courteous enough basis, however they were quick to imply