Grapes Of Wrath Paper Essay, Research Paper

Essay on the Grapes of Wrath

By John Steinbeck

Many people spend their entire lives looking for their family. A family to some people is the most necessary thing in life. The novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, is based on the collapse and fall of families. Family is something that is always there even if you don t notice it.

You start to see the downfall of family in chapter 6 when Joad went back to his house. He came back to his hometown and saw his moms house totally abandoned and wrecked. Somepin s wrong, he said. I can t put my finger on her. I got an itch that somepin s wronger n hell. Just this house pushed aroun an my folks gone. (57) Not understanding what was going on he went looking around for anybody or anything, going into the barn he finds Muley and was somewhat relieved. Tom, Muley, and Joad made a fire out of the loose wood on the house and made a fire to cook some rabbit. They were around the fire eating and talking like a family would around the dinner table. They were like a family even if they couldn t see it.

Somewhere in the beginning of chapter 10 Tom and Ma Joad decided to get all the farmers from Oklahoma and start out new in California. This was a way that everyone could get a fresh start. Everyone is joking around about moving out to California like Ma said playfully, They don t let people run aroun

with their clothes unbotton in California. (125) After all that stopped they wondered what would the people be like and if the could find places to live. Soon all the farmer packed up and got in their trucks and formed one big line going down route 66 to start their new lives. All the people going to California are going to become a big family even if they are unaware of it.

In chapter 21, the workers are in California and the mild people of California find in the Okies what they have yet to experience- fear and desperation. Sensing the extent to which the migrants are willing to work, the locals begin to fear for their own jobs, and most importantly, for their own property. In fearful defense, they attack the Okies as marauders who mean to destroy both populations through their desperation. This fear transforms into hostility, which reveals itself in the story through the deputies and managers who abuse and assault the Joads, as well as other migrant families in the workers’ camps. Even as the people move they still try and keep their families close due to their importance.

Family is always around you even if it can t be seen, heard, or even felt. In the novel all the characters found some kind of family in their quest. When Joad thought that something terrible had happened to his mom and dad he found comfort in Tom and Muley around the fire. Ma Joad thought that moving to California would give her a new place to live with her family and be happy. The workers thought that because their families have fallen apart that nothing else could go wrong. They just ended up with a new family that loved them and cared for them. Family made them leave, but a new family made them stay.