The Grapes of Wrath illustrates how capitalism produces
great social and economical oppression during
the American “Great Depression”
•
Family First:
"Use' ta be the fambly was fust. It aint so now"
A migrant agricultural
worker in Holtville.
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Human dignity and spirit when
faced with desperation, is a
central theme in the novel, The
Grapes of Wrath.
The People's Justice:
"They's change a-comin'. They's a res'less feelin'."
A drought refugee
living in a camp on the
bank of an irrigation
ditch. LC-USF34T0116333-C
Survival:
"Ever'thing we do ..is aimed right at goin' on."
The water supply in a
squatter camp near
Calipatria is an open
settling basin fed by
an irrigation ditch.
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Identity:
"He was that place an' he knowed it."
Migratory workers
from Oklahoma
washing in a hot
spring in the desert.
LC-
Faith:
"How can such courage be and faith in their own species?
... Faith is refired forever"
Refugee camp near
Holtville.
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Choices and Regret:
"The one-eyed man . . cried in his bed"
Eighteen-year-old
mother from
Oklahoma, now a
California migrant
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Trusting one's own instinct:
"I got a feeling I got to see them"
John Steinbeck shed a dim light
on the attitudes that make up
prejudices and hatreds of the
world. This light is showing us
that if we could get along with
one another without attitudes
that make us hate or want to
harm other people only because
of certain unchangeable
circumstances, then we can
finally truly begin to have an
understanding of what it's like to
live in a world with peace and
understanding towards our
fellow human.
The Joads weren't trying to cause
trouble and turmoil within the
landowners of California. They were
simply trying to look for a better
future. It is, the American dream.
Rest Period in the Nursery
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Hope:
•
•
The Joads experience many
hardships, deprivations, and
deaths, and at the end of the
novel are barely surviving.
Nevertheless, the mood of the
novel is optimistic.
This positive feeling is derived
from the growth of the Joad
family as they begin to realize a
larger group consciousness at
the end of the novel.
After researching the changes in American life and thought which
resulted from the events occurring during the Great Depression and
the migration west in the 1930's, the central theme explored is the
concept of community as a means of survival.
•Hope comes from the
journey that educates
and enlightens some of
the Joads, including Ma,
Tom, Pa, John, Rose of
Sharon, and also Jim
Casey.
•On the surface, the
family’s long journey is
an attempt at the "good
life," the American dream.
Family First--Unity
Well-baby clinic. LC-USF34T01-24216-D
•
The development of this theme
can be seen particularly in Ma
Joad, from her focus on keeping
the family together to her
recognition of the necessity of
identifying with the group.
•
"Use’ ta be the fambly was
fust. It ain’t so now. It’s
anybody. Worse off we get, the
more we got to do," Ma says in
the final chapter.
Social Unity and Kinship
• In The Grapes
of Wrath, John
Steinbeck
maintains a
theme that
stresses the
importance of
social unity
and kinship
Vegetable garden in camp. LC-USF34T01-24164-D
The major themes of The
Grapes of Wrath
emphasize the importance
of social unity and
kinship. They illustrate
how capitalism produces
great social and
economical oppression
during the American
“Great Depression”, and
characterizes human
dignity and spirit in the
face of desperation.
The Oversoul
•
There are many symbols used in The
Grapes of Wrath to illustrate the point
of the story. The point, or moral, is that
sacrifices have to be made in order to
stay together as a group, as one soul. A
specific symbol is that of Jim Casy,
who sacrifices his life to keep the
family together and fed. He strikes in
order for them to be able to eat, and he
dies so they can stay together as a
family unit, as they are stronger in that
form. Another symbol is the nightly
camps along the road to california,
route 66. A whole world is created for
just one night, and the people are
connected and have purpose. That is
symbolic of the need for each other to
survive.
" maybe it's all men an' all women we love; maybe thats the Holy
Sperit -the human sperit- the whole shebang. Maybe all men got
one big soul ever'body's a part of."
Oversoul—Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The concept is clearly
present as early as Chapter
4, when Jim Casy speaks
of his realization that "all
men got one big soul
ever'body's a part of."
Because all people are
connected in this
fundamental way, the
distinctions between
families, which once
seemed so important, are
radically diminished.
Oversoul
• Readers will note how Ma
Joad-who, it must be pointed
out, begins with an
understanding that all people
must help each other-must fight
to hold on to this understanding
as the crucible of her
experiences tempts her to
abandon it. In the Hooverville,
for instance, Ma is at first
reluctant to share her stew with
hungry children who are not her
own; in the end, however, she
does share it.
Oversoul
•
The novel's final scene offers the
fullest image of "the oversoul," in
which Rose of Sharon-who for so
long before the delivery of her
child was concerned only with her
own (legitimate) needs-offers the
milk her body made for her own
stillborn baby to a man dying of
hunger. Her cryptic smile suggests
that she has come to the same
understanding as had Casy: that all
folks are "my own folks." Home is
being with our "own folks,"
broadly-and, so the novel argues,
most properly- defined as our
fellow human beings.
Steinbeck characterizes human dignity and
spirit in the face of desperation.
•
Written Notes on Item
a) Mrs. Frank Pipkin Age 46, 1941 - Youngest GreatGrandmother (handwritten on reverse)
•
People in Photograph
Pipkin, Mrs. Frank
•
Location
Shafter, holding baby]
•
1941