Grapes Of Wrath Essay, Research Paper

Through out history man has made many journeys, far and wide.

Moses’s great march through the Red Sea and Columbus’s transversing

the Atlantic are only, but a few of mans great voyages. Even today,

great journeys are being made. Terry Fox’s run across Canada while

having cancer is one of these such journeys. In every one of these

instances people have had to rise above themselves and over come

emence odds, similar to a salmon swimming up stream to fullfill it’s

life line. Intense drive and extreme fortitude are qualities they had

to possess during their travels. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

shows the Joads endurance by his use of extended metaphors in

intercalary chapters.

Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the

various themes in the novel. This effectively forshadows upcoming

events by telling of the general state of the local population in the

intercalary chapters and then narrowing it down to how it effects the

main characters of the novel, the Joads. Setting the tone of the novel

in the readers mind is another function of Steinbeck’s intercalary chapters.

In chapter three, Steinbeck emaculatly describes the long tedious

journey of a land turtle across a desolate highway. From the onset of

his journey, the turtle encounters many set backs. All along the way

he is hindered by ants, hills, and oak seeds under his shell. The

turtles determination to reach his destination is most apparent when a

truck driven by a young man swerves to hit the turtle. The turtle’s

shell was clipped and he went flying off the highway, but stop the

turtle did not. He struggled back to his belly and kept driving toward

his goal, just as the Joads kept driving toward their goal.

Much like the turtle from chapter three, the Joads had to face

many great hardships in their travels. The planes of Oklahoma, with

their harsh summer weather, was the Joads desolate highway. The truck

driver represented the Californians, whom Buried food and killed live

stock to keep the Joads and others like them away from their dream.

And sickness was their ants and hills. But even through all of this

the Joads persevered. They were driven by great motivating powers –

poverty and hunger. Just as the turtle searched for food, the Joads

were searching for paradise, “the garden of Eden.”

The Joad’s journey is second to none in terms of adversity and

length. The Joads incredible ability to over come all odds and keep

going is epitomized in intercalary chapter three. Steinbeck uses his

rendition of facts, the “turtle” chapter, to parallel the Joads

struggle to reach the promise land. Just as the turtle endured, so did

the Joads. Never digressing from their strait and narrow path to California.