The Reality of The Grapes of Wrath
Word Count: 840
The Grapes of Wrath show the reality of life back then and even today. Every person who has wanted or needed something for their family can relate to this novel. It ties in and incorporates the will to survive, along with the struggle to survive. If given the chance every father would see that his family be taken to paradise. Pa tried, but California was nothing short of Hell.
Their journey from the Dust Bowl through a devastated landscape of ruined farms to the migrant farms of the West was reality for most families of Oklahoma. The family faced many trials, but since they had such a strong bond to each other they gathered the courage and nobility to fight for survival. They didn't all make it. A lot of us will not make it in society, but we must try if the next generation is to go on.
Today the government is trying to cut back on all of the programs which help families with low incomes. It is making the poverty levels of many families lower and lower. This "budget cut" is causing families to move and find new jobs and better pay. The Joads faced the same battle. The government didn't have any programs, so they were forced to look elsewhere. The land was their only means of scratching out a living for their families. There were no relief projects, just as there are a declining number of them today.
The Joads had a plan though. They may have been thrown from there land, but they came up with a dream just like all of the others. They were forced to take their families to California because the banks had all repossessed the farms. The Joads were to pick crops that grew year round. After a couple of years, they thought, they would have enough money to buy their own land and would become rich just like the farmers in California. Instead the unfortunate happened. Millions of people fled and wages plummeted. The crop owners were paying below poverty wages, and the dreams faded by the mind concentrating on survival. Dreams being shattered are part of life - reality. If you don't dream then you will never feel fulfillment. Dreams are meant to stimulate the mind and help you center yourself on goals.
Tom and Casey are very realistic characters. They both fight for the well-being of the collective soul. Casey left to fight the low wages and abominable conditions in which his people were forced to live. He soon died, but Tom took over the cause to fight injustice. Tom states, "...Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop bea tin' up a guy, I'll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'- I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build-why. I'll be there..."(Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath-page 537). With the collective soul, in Tom's mind, When one person succeeds, all who belong succeed too. It is reality that man defend the weak and get together, not as individuals, but as group to fight for the rights of each other. The individual by himself is not going to succeed. It is when people work together
that a common goal can be reached. Forces like economic, social, environmental and genetics fight against the Joads and the other Okies that migrate west. In the end, the Okies themselves are triumphant because they have learned that they belong together and to cohere to that group. Stein beck seems to point out that the only way that the naturalistic forces can be beaten, is through a group effort. The end of the novel defeats the accusation that the Okies are animals with no human characteristics at all. Uncle John and pa help to build a dam to prevent the rising waters from entering the boxcar. Steinbeck shows the image as a common goal to survive and the humanity of man, in the midst of great inhumanity and indifference. This novel is great at showing this touching, heart aching, tear jerking adventures of a fictional family that shows the reality of man and his struggle to survive even the harshest conditions.
In conclusion I just want to say that this story makes me proud to like in the country I do. We, as a whole country, have had hard times; at least we know that we get the chance to pull ourselves out. We aren't stuck in a rut for generations. The American will to survive is one of the strongest in the world. It would be rough to go through those times, but my grandparents survived and now I'm here today because of their efforts as migrant workers and farmers. I'm proud of them and believe that no other novel comes closer to the heart and soul of reality than The Grapes of Wrath.