Sojourner Truth’s “Aren’t I a Woman?” explains how women were treating during the 1800s. Born a slave, Truth was able to express and describe how difficult life was for women during these times. Truth wants her audience to realize the reality that women were not being treated equal. Although she had “plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no mean could head [her]” (1406) she was still being treated as a slave but working like a man. She expresses her confusion on how women were treated. Although some were working like men, or sometimes even more, they were treated unequal. She points out that a man mentioned “women needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches” (1405), but she explains that she has never had anyone help…
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…
In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents both a challenge and their only hope. Among them are only four women embodying every ages: the Grandma, the Mother and her two daughters, the pregnant Rose of Sharon and the young Ruthie. Appearing in Chapter Eight the mother, who is referred to as “Ma”, holds a decisive role in Steinbeck’s novel. She is, along with her son Tom (the main character of the book), present from the early stage of the story until its very end. We will attempt to trace back her emotional journey (I) as well as to analyze its universal aspects and to deliver an overall impression on the book (II).…
In chapter thirty of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck highlights the most destitute moment of the Joad family during their exodus to California and the transformation of many characters. Steinbeck opens the chapter by describing the flood is taking over the boxcar. Pa urges other men to build an embankment because Rose of Sharon begins to experience labor. While the men work on building the embankment, the cotton tree is uprooted, cascades into the embankment and destroys it. Steinbeck continues to show the Joads’ struggle to overcome the hardships as Pa goes back into the box car, and Mrs. Wainwright informs him that Rose Sharon has delivered a stillborn child. The Joads send Uncle John to bury the child. Because the water level keeps increasing,…
In the years 1890-1925, the role of women in American society had changed politically, economically, and socially. Women were no longer considered the servant of men. She was considered an important part of society, but wasn’t able to lead in areas dominated by men. In this time period this is when things started to change for the women.…
The Joad family, Gatsby, and Invisible Man all have a false sense of reality as a result of their blind hope. Gatsby was under the impression that he would spend the rest of his life with Daisy. Even after she leaves him, Gatsby expects her to call. His blind hope of their unconditional love leads him to go for a swim and wait for her call there. Also, Gatsby is a wanted man during this time and is suspected of killing Myrtle. There is no logic in his decision to go for a swim out in the open when Myrtle’s husband, Wilson, is on a manhunt for him. Gatsby’s love for Daisy was so strong that he was unable to realize his poor decision. Similarly, in Grapes of Wrath, when the Joad family is taking shelter in a barn, they encounter a dying…
From the beginning of time, sexism has greatly impacted and hindered women from all walks of life. This was particularly true in America’s history. In the 1930’s, females were treated as though they were strictly sex objects. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, this case is evident when Curley's wife was objectified and disrespected on multiple occasions. Although Curley’s wife is considered an antagonist of the story, she is actually a victim of sexism based on how the men on the ranch acted toward her and took away her basic…
Family is defined as “a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not” (Dictionary.com). The idea of families acting as a unit is explored in the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The novel is focused on a family from Oklahoma, the Joads, as they journey to the West because they are driven off their land. The Joads are tested as a basic social unit as they encounter the difficulty of loss, new people, the search for work, and much more. Steinbeck explains many points about family throughout the novel, including the idea of loyalty. In The Grapes of Wrath, loyalty to the family is demonstrated by Ma and Tom Joad??? and can easily relate to modern families.…
In a fantasized world like The Odyssey, women can threaten the power of the patriarchy, but in a modernized world like The Catcher in the Rye, women cannot threaten men because they do not hold tangible power. In The Odyssey, women like Helen, have the capability and desire to gain power; Helen exemplifies how women can manipulate men through the use sexulaity to do anything desire, even start a war. Her power over these men not only causes death and destruction, but it also causes endless nights of men missing their wives and just longing for a woman. Unlike The Odyssey, The Catcher in the Rye presents models of women who appear subordinate to men. The average woman in the 1940’s cleans the house, cares for the children, and cooks the dinner. Her life is in the home, leaving her unable to gain power from men. The two situations contrast,…
In The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, the narrator explains how a social issue affected the Joad family. The realistic novel mimics life and offers social commentary too. It presents many windows on real life in Midwest America in the 1930s. Throughout the 1930s, America was trapped in the worst economic era ever—The Great Depression. The Joad family is struggling to find salvation during this tough time period. Because of this, they must travel from Oklahoma to California in order to start a new life. The Great Depression affected everyone in the United States, some people worse than others. Steinbeck uses several different strategies to interpret the social issue during this time period. By using the literary techniques of setting, tone/mood, and dialogue/language, Steinbeck composes a creative commentary on the Great Depression and how it affected the lives of Americans.…
Their actions to campaign against the tea tax should be recorded and respected and thus, Abigail wrote another letter to John about how he should not forget the attribution of ladies and be more generous toward them with laws and regulations. This is the example of women showing their abilities and defying against the oppression as they take parts in politics. Another example of career women striking against the wage cut and longer hours is given by Zinn in chapter six of his book. He explains: “In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1824, came the first known strike of women factory; 202 women joined men in protesting…. but they met separately.” This action taken by women was a big step of resisting the discrimination. The significance of women taking actions in strikes has explained in the article published by the online newspaper named “The Public”. It concludes that “The larger significance of women’s direct action in labor struggles, as in other movements for social change, has also been greater than usually acknowledged. Even when recognized that women were participants in early strikes, it has seldom been acknowledged that as the primary workforce in the textile industry, which was the model for the development of the factory system in general, women were the main pioneers of the early history of labor struggles in factory industry. When women factory workers began to “turn out” in numbers in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s, they were taking the lead in shaping the language, tactics, and symbolism of the strike as one of the major forms of action for social change.” The last example of great women taking actions would be the great female authors. Among them, the influential author is Harriett Jacobs because her fictional novel, later known as her true story, had clearly stated the oppression and the discrimination a slave women or…
Women during the Civil War were forced into life-style changes which they had never dreamed they would have to endure. No one was spared from the devastations of the war, and many lives were changed forever. Women in the south were forced to take on the responsibilities of their husbands, carrying on the daily responsibilities of the farm or plantation. They maintained their homes and families while husbands and sons fought and died for their beliefs. Many women took the advantage of their opinions being heard, and for the first time…
Women have always played a major role in society. They play very essential roles such as the carrier of the life cycle. They were created to be a companion of man. Overtime women have varied their roles in today’s society. As seen in the novel’s The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, women can travel outside of society’s norms. Women also played major role in both novels. These stories were written by totally opposite authors but the settings of these stories are the same, the Puritan era. Both authors portrayed the strengths of women while also portraying their downfalls too.…
The skill sets that the women had were essential to everyone living during the American Revolution. As helpmates, women had to focus on skills that surrounded the house, garden, and hen house, where they would spend their time “processing the raw materials their husbands produced into usable items such as food, clothing, candles, and soap” (6). The role of women is very important throughout the American Revolution because men needed them to do tasks they couldn’t do while they were at war. Eventually, these women got “caught between the older ideal of ‘notable housewife’ and the newer ideal of ‘pretty gentlewoman’” (8). Although not very happy about it, the women needed to serve the men in order to have places to live and not risk…
Chapter seven might as well have turned The Grapes of Wrath into how to force misfortunate people to buy cars. The author’s tone turns invective during this character’s lines, and this must of been how back in the Great Depression people cursed each other. The tone also creates hate toward the car salesmen, and maybe this is where the stereotype of sales people being thieves. Tenant farmers are placed as the prey instead of the predators which is the precedent of what this books is. Steinbeck is the attorney of people whose freedom of speech right is insignificant and suppression by the public who sees them as the problem.…