Grapes Of Wrath Essay Essay, Research Paper

As the novel The Grapes of Wrath progresses, the Joads progress from a concern only for themselves and their own personal welfare to a concern for all the people in the world. This is accompanied by the disintergration of the smaller family unit which is replaced by the larger world family of the migrant people.

This shift from individual thinking to wide spread thinking is most directly seen in the actions of Tom Joad. When we first see him at the beginning of the novel he is mainly concerned for his own welfare. He wants to make up for all the things he missed when in prison. Later on in the novel he is more concerned with the welfare of the family. When we last see him he has shifted to trying to do what is best for all the migrant people by trying to organize them into striking

That shift in thinking is also accompanied with the replacement of the individual family by the world family. The thing that started the breakup of the individual family was the loss of their land. The family had lived there for many generations and had strong ties to the land. Getting thrown off the land was sort of like losing their family history. This is shown by the things that Ma Joad burns before they left. Next Grampa Joad died because he couldn’t take leaving his home. He is the first family member to leave the family. At the same time though, the joining with the Wilsons shows that the individual family is being replaced by the larger world family of the migrant society. Chapter seventeen is one of the general chapters that shows the growth of the new migrant society that has it’s own laws and leaders. At the boarder of California, they loose Noah when he refuses to leave the river, and have to leave the Wilsons behind because of Sairy’s illness. Then Granma dies on the way across the desert. The Joads have to leave her for a pauper’s burial. This shows the disintergration of the families standards. Previous to this the Joads had always paid their own way and never asked for charity. In chapter twenty the family looses both Connie and Casy. The growth of the world family is shown when Ma shares her food with the other people’s children. When they get to the government camp, there is a brief respite from the breakup of the family. They are finally getting treated like humans again. Towards the end of the novel the family disintergrates more with the loss of Tom and engagement of Al. Now Ma realizes that the family doesn’t come first anymore when she said to Mrs. Wainwright that the family used to come first but now it’s just anyone who needs help.