I believe "The Grapes of Wrath" shows us how hard life really can be. We think of life back then as simple, but this novel really contradicts that with the story of the Joad's and people who moved out of the "Dust Bowl" in general. Having to move around everywhere just to work for next to nothing was the only way the Joad's were able to survive. This would be a terrible way to live, but every farmer seemed to have to do this. Nobody liked the "Okies" in California and we see how terribly they are treated from the mean cops to the crooked car salesmen to the people who want to pay the workers two and a half cents for a box of peaches that were picked. The conditions for the workers were terrible, but they made it through it somehow.
The character I find most interesting in the novel is Jim Casy. At the start of the novel, he is a man who is lost I guess you could say. He is trying to make sense of his situation of not being a preacher anymore and he is looking for answers of if his actions of when he was a preacher were right. Towards the end of the novel, I believe Jim Casy has found himself. He knows that he should organize the workers and he dies for that purpose. Jim Casy is such an inspiring man that he leads Tom Joad to do the same job he was attempting to do when he was killed, organize the workers. Jim Casy was very inspiring and a good leader to the workers and to Tom Joad. Jim Casy was a hero to the "Okies".
I believe the theme of this novel is how a group of people, specifically the people from the "Dust Bowl" that moved to California, must adjust to their surroundings in order to survive. If they do not adjust, they and their family have no chance for survival because there will be no money for food or a sufficient living space. People moved from Oklahoma because the bad conditions for crops contributed to them losing their farms to the banks. They thought conditions would be better in California, but they were not. You could describe every possible job opportunity as a riot in California because so many people needed jobs. This is why you could say the theme of the novel is having the perseverance to adjust to the California way and finding a job.
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I think that the workers made it through the hard times in California because they had each other. Somewhere in the book it says that "Twenty families became one." They had each other so they were able to stay strong because they knew that everybody was in the same boat. I also agree with what you said about Jim Casy. I think that without him, Tom wouldn't have been able to mature as much as he did in the book.
ReplyDeleteThe sticking together theme really stuck out to me as well, they travel together and as you said adjust. With me it felt like I was getting tired of hearing about them going to another job, doing it would be unimaginable.
ReplyDeleteJim Casy was my favorite character, too. He's really insightful about things and has a lot of good moral. And I agree that adaptability is one of the many themes of this novel. But I don't necessarily think they were adapting to the "California way"; the "migrant way" would probably be more accurate. Constant traveling, hunger concerns, and living in the present, not the far future; these are just some of the traits of the migrant farmers.
ReplyDeleteCasy was fascinating. He was also the least annoying and the smartest. He had sense even of he took a lot of rambling to say it. The other characters yelled at others for unreasonable things or stuff they themselves were doing. Casy didn't; he only said things that helped or needed to be said. I dob't think this era was ever portrayed as simple. They had to work hard to grow their own food, and make enough to support the family. Also if weather was bad, they couldn't help but be in debt and barely squeeze through even before the Dust Bowl happened. And seriously, whe hasn't read Harry Potter that's just weird. And it is probably a comparison most people get, because more people have read or seen Harry Potter than read Honors 10 books.
ReplyDeletePerseverance is definetly something that this books illustrates. Even thought it is considered fiction, I would have to argue that it could be labeled historical fiction. What the Joads went through is what so many Americans experienced; and without perseverance, our country would not exist. Adaptation is key for survival; and if one cannot realize what is truly important, then survival is almost impossible. You picked up on some very important aspecst of the novel, good job!
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