Analysis of the Joad Family in "The Grapes of Wrath&quo
Uploaded by spootyhead on Mar 05, 2007
Analysis of the Joad Family in "The Grapes of Wrath"
John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the specific story of the Joad family in order to show the hardship and oppression suffered by migrant laborers during the Great Depression. It is an excellent example of how the corporate and banking elites chastised farmers by shortsighted policies meant to maximize profit even while forcing farmers into destitution and even starvation. The novel begins with the description of the conditions in Dust Bowl Oklahoma that ruined the crops and instigated massive foreclosures on farmland. No specific characters emerge initially, I think when Steinbeck made this book he describes events in a larger social context with those more specific to the Joad family.
Tom Joad, a man not yet thirty, approaches a diner dressed in spotless, somewhat formal clothing. He hitches a ride with a truck driver at the diner, who presses Tom for information until Tom finally reveals that he was just released from McAlester prison, where he served four years for murdering a man during a fight. Steinbeck follows this with an interlude describing a turtle crossing the road, which he uses as a metaphor for the struggles of the working class. On his travels home, Tom meets his former preacher, Jim Casy, a talkative man gripped by doubts over religious teachings and the presence of sin. He gave up the ministry after realizing that he found little wrong with the sexual reliaisons he had with women in his congregation. Casy espouses the view that what is holy in human nature comes not from a distant god, but from the people themselves. Steinbeck contrasts Tom's return with the arrival of bank representatives to evict the tenant farmers and the tractors to farm the land. He raises the possibility of a working class insurrection, but cannot find an effective target for collective action. .
Tom Joad finds the rest of his family staying with Uncle John, a morose man prone to depression after the death of his wife several years before. His mother is a strong, sturdy woman who is the moral center of family life. His brother, Noah, may have been brain damaged during childbirth, while his sister, Rose of Sharon (called Rosasharn by the family) is recently married and pregnant. Her husband, Connie Rivers, has dreams of studying radios. Tom's younger brother, Al, is only sixteen and...