Money in "The Grapes of Wrath"
Money in "The Grapes of Wrath"
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, presents the struggles of one family during the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930’s. Steinbeck had many ideas about how land was owned. His point of view seemed appropriately humanitarian. Land ownership was not properly distributed in the book. Money speaks much louder than the sweat and blood as it always has.
Money talks as it says in this sentence, “ Can’t think of that. Got to think of my own kids. Three dollars a day, and it comes everyday. Times are changing…” The tractor driver was willing to demolish his friend’s houses so he could be able to feed and support his family. That was going against all his morals and what he believed in. The tenants of the land stared and cried because that’s all they could do. Everything they worked on for their whole life was gone in a matter of minutes. These people were forced homeless because of the greedy landowners. The landowners had control of the whole country. The people were willing to do whatever they asked for what little money they gave them.
The bank could do whatever it wanted. It had power just like a bulldozer has the power to knock down a house. If a landowner had enough money he could buy whatever section of land he wanted even if people had worked their whole life on it. The landowner didn’t care, he would buy it for cheap and then make a huge profit of it. If the people who became homeless finally got a job the landowner would barely pay them enough to survive. He would then make them buy the food from the grocery store he owned so he would make even more money. That was part of his plan. He would charge them more than what the food was worth. He didn’t care though because he just worried about how much money he is making.
Money can change just about anyone if there is enough of it. Times still haven’t changed because the rich still have control over many people. It seems as though people don’t change they just get greedier.