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Example research essay topic: Tom Joad Jacket Struggles Against Nature - 2,021 words

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The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930 s live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930 s. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California.

How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work. The Grapes of Wrath combines Steinbeck adoration of the land, his simple hatred of corruption resulting from materialism (money) and his abiding faith in the common people to overcome the hostile environment. The novel opens with a retaining picture of nature on rampage. The novel shows the men and women that are unbroken by nature. The theme is one of man verses a hostile environment. His body destroyed but his spirit is not broken.

The method used to develop the theme of the novel is through the use of symbolism. There are several uses of symbols in the novel from the turtle at the beginning to the rain at the end. As each symbol is presented through the novel they show examples of the good and the bad things that exist within the novel. The opening chapter paints a vivid picture of the situation facing the drought-stricken farmers of Oklahoma. Dust is described a covering everything, smothering the life out of anything that wants to grow. The dust is symbolic of the erosion of the lives of the people.

The dust is synonymous with deadness. The land is ruined ^way of life (farming) gone, people ^uprooted and forced to leave. Secondly, the dust stands for ^profiteering banks in the background that squeeze the life out the land by forcing the people off the land. The soil, the people (farmers) have been drained of life and are exploited: The last rain fell on the red and gray country of Oklahoma in early May.

The weeds became a dark green to protect themselves from the suns unyielding rays. The wind grew stronger, uprooting the weakened corn, and the air became so filled with dust that the stars were not visible at night. (Chp 1) As the chapter continues a turtle, which appears and reappears several times early in the novel, can be seen to stand for survival, a driving life force in all of mankind that cannot be beaten by nature or man. The turtle represents a hope that the trip to the west is survivable by the farmer migrants (Joad family). The turtle further represents the migrants struggles against nature / man by overcoming every obstacle he encounters: the red ant in his path, the truck driver who tries to run over him, being captured in Tom Joad's jacket: And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. The driver of the truck works for a large company, who try to stop the migrants from going west, when the driver attempts to hit the turtle it is another example of the big powerful guy trying to flatten or kill the little guy. Everything the turtle encounters trys its best to stop the turtle from making its westerly journey.

Steadily the turtle advances on, ironically to the southwest, the direction of the migration of people. The turtle is described as being lasting, ancient, old and wise: horny head, yellowed toenails, indestructible high dome of a shell, humorous old eyes. (Chp 1) The driver of the truck, red ant and Tom Joad's jacket are all symbolic of nature and man the try to stop the turtle from continuing his journey westward to the promise land. The turtle helps to develop the theme by showing its struggle against life/ comparing it with the Joad struggle against man. The grapes seem to symbolize both bitterness and copiousness.

Grandpa the oldest member of the Joad family talks of the grapes as symbols of plenty; all his descriptions of what he is going to do with the grapes in California suggest contentment, freedom, the goal for which the Joad family strive for: Im gonna let the juice run down ma face, bath in the dammed grapes (Chp 4) The grapes that are talked about by Grandpa help to elaborate the theme by showing that no matter how nice everything seems in California the truth is that their beauty is only skin deep, in their souls they are rotten. The rotten core verses the beautiful appearance. The willow tree that is located on the Joad's farm represents the Joad family. The willow is described as being unmovable and never bending to the wind or dust. The Joad family does not want to move, they prefer to stay on the land they grew up on, much the same as the willow does. The willow contributes to the theme by showing the unwillingness of the people to be removed from their land by the banks.

The latter represents the force making them leave their homes. Both of these symbols help contribute to the theme by showing a struggle between each other. The tree struggles against nature in much the same way that the Joad family struggles against the Bank and large companies. The rains that comes at the end of the novel symbolize several things. Rain in which is excessive, in a certain way fulfills a cycle of the dust which is also excessive. In a way nature has restored a balance and has initiated a new growth cycle.

This ties in with other examples of th rebirth idea in the ending, much in the way the Joad family will grow again. The rain contributes to the theme by showing the cycle of nature that give a conclusion to the novel by showing that life is a pattern of birth and death. The rain is another example of nature against man, the rain comes and floods the living quarters of the Joad's. The Joad's try to stop the flood of their home by yet again are forced back when nature drops a tree causing a flood of water to ruin their home forcing them to move. In opposite way rain can helpful to give life to plants that need it to live.

Depending on which extreme the rain is in, it can be harmful or helpful. This is true for man, man can become both extremes bad or good depending on his choosing. Throughout the novel there are several symbols used to develop the theme man verses a hostile environment. Each symbol used in the novel show examples of both extremes. Some represent man, that struggles against the environment, others paint a clear picture of the feelings of the migrants. As each symbol is presented chronologically through the novel, they come together at the end to paint a clear picture of the conditions, treatment and feelings the people (migrants) as they make there journey through the novel to the West.

In his novel The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck wishes to change the negative social attitude toward the migrants to bring about better treatment of this group of people. He does so by using a few different techniques. One of his techniques is the use of characterization to show the migrants as humans, to do away with the stereotypes that haunted many people during this time. Another technique he uses is an attack on private enterprise. He does so because it creates greedy people. The third technique is his attack on government, because the current government was unwilling to help out the migrants and only helped the owners.

With these techniques Steinbeck attempted to change the negative attitudes that needed changing in order to create a better society. Characterization was used by Steinbeck to develop many different characters that show the reader the feelings and hardships of their journey, and to distinguish them as individual people and families, not just a bunch of Okies. He uses the Joad family to show what was happening to all the other migrants in their journey across the U. S. to get work.

When the Joad family s car broke down, that symbolized the hardships of all the migrants. In their search for work, the Joad family represented the migrants who were forced to live in Hoovervilles and answer to the local law enforcement officials. Lastly, the work the Joad's did get was typical of all the migrants because of the rarity, harsh conditions, and low wages that were a characteristic of migrant work in California. Steinbeck characterizes each member of the family as examples of all the migrant families. In his attack on private enterprise, Steinbeck writes many things that either subtly or blatantly attack the system.

He shows that the very nature of capitalism forces the owners of private enterprise into greedy I s instead of caring we s. Steinbeck uses the idea of a bank as a monster evil, a thing which all the farmers hated because as they think it s the banks fault that they re losing their land, and the only thing the bank cared about was making money. Steinbeck again attacks private enterprise with the example of a company that will do anything for money and power: a used car lot that specifically sells cars to the farmers who were kicked out of their home and hope to travel to California to get work and start their lives over. The owner of the car lot would buy cheap cars and sell them for outrageous prices that would ultimately strand many of the migrant farmers. The company had no regret for cheating these people because money was all it cared about, the system for which they worked had made them become greedy and uncaring outside of a tight circle, and they represented an I. Yet another attack on private enterprise comes from Steinbeck s description of a service station.

He explains that the people who worked at or owned the service station would try to cheat people for as much as they could. In the book, there is a joke about getting serviced, something you didn t want happening to you. Steinbeck hope to change the way the people viewed the migrant farmers by showing how they were mistreated by people who were more fortunate. Steinbeck also attacks organized government because it, too, was an evil that would not help those people who need it most. At Weed patch, where the government couldn t interfere, the migrants were happy and things worked out. The government wasn t allowed to control the migrants there, so it didn t have a chance to screw up things.

When Grandpa dies, Steinbeck talks about how the government cared more about dead people than the people that were alive. When Grandpa died there was a debate about going and paying the coroner to take the body, do the proper paper work and then bury him in the extremely poor section of the graveyard. The Joad's thought it would be better if they just buried him themselves. The idea of welfare, set up by the government, was only for people who lived there for a year of more or who had a permanent address, not someone who was forced to live in a Hooverville.

The government would only help the owners not, the people who needed it the most, the migrant workers. Through these techniques, Steinbeck hoped the landowners and wealthy people of not only California but of the United States would realize there needed to be changes in social attitudes regarding the migrant workers. He used the techniques of characterization and personification, attack on government, and attack on private enterprise to reach out to the ones who could make a difference, and he showed them how. 326


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Research essay sample on Tom Joad Jacket Struggles Against Nature

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