Just over half of the thirty chapters of The Grapes of Wrath are intercalary chapters, chapters deviating from the main narrative of the Joads that focus on a broader picture of the landscape and history of the Joad era. The Grapes of Wrath is as much historical record and social commentary as it is a narrative of one family’s odyssey through the Great Depression West. While criticized by some as distracting from the Joad narrative, the intercalary chapters cannot be ignored as fluff attached to the novel. The intercalary chapters buttress the main story by interweaving details among the chapters and bringing a specific situation into a larger historical picture. These chapters are not merely common literary techniques such as metaphors and symbols. Along with historical context and social commentary, these chapters reach out to prior events and foreshadow future events, while bringing these events to a universal level. At a base level, Chapter Three is an account of the movement of a land turtle and it struggles across the Oklahoman land. In less than three pages, John Steinbeck uses the techniques of the intercalary chapters to represent the turtle as a symbol of the Joad family and their struggle, along with the trials of other migrant families, and as an inspiring message for the human race as a whole.…
The author, John Steinbeck, of “The Grapes of Wrath,” wrote this masterpiece of a novel in 1939. Steinbeck who utilized his books to write about the lives of the most downtrodden people of society during those times, used “The Grapes of Wrath,” to depict and fixate on the lives of workers migrating from Oklahoma to California during the early part of the 1930s (Steinbeck-Introduction Section). In Steinbeck’s story “The Grapes of Wrath,” he breaks the chapters down into three parts. Chapters one through eleven describes a terrible drought, called the Dust Bowel, which had ravaged an area of land known as the Southern Great Plains located between the western parts of Oklahoma to the panhandle areas of Texas. The area received its name because…
Many novels written contain parallels to the Bible. This couldn’t be truer in the case…
Steinbeck uses symbolism to portray the allusion of the individual turtle’s straightforward actions to that of the hardships of the migrant worker’s journey to California. The wild oat symbolizes an obstacle that the turtle faced, originally being carried along with the turtle; A burden being carried in this instance. The spearhead seeds “stuck” in the ground from this burden, which conveys the idea of a permanent legacy being left behind, evidence that he overcame such. The turtle continues his journey despite the intentions of the truck driver who previously intentionally attempted to steer his journey of course, leaving behind with him a shallow trench in the dust. The tracks the turtle leaves behind is the physical evidence of the turtle’s…
Over the course of a student’s life under the American education system, they will read at least two books by California writer and possible communist, John Steinbeck. The longer, sadder, and more proletarian book, Grapes of Wrath, tells the tale of the great migration of Midwestern farmers traveling to California during the 1930s. Grapes of Wrath was not Steinbeck’s first venture into the tragedies that faced migrant farmers once they reached California. He had previously composed an article titled Starvation Under the Orange Trees in 1938 which detailed the hardships that migrant farmers faces in California. Steinbeck uses these two works to describe the atrocities that migrants’ faces and place blame on landowners and corporations and declare…
In this paper I can see that this student uses simple sentences very well. This student uses a simple sentence to get right to the point, and it’s working well for this student. The student’s introduction sentence was simple, yet it caught my attention. “Sand, beach, and water are what surrounded the old man.” This sentence gives a great description and I personally think it’s a great introduction.…
Through The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck conveys the importance of self exploration and individual spirituality. He weaves a tale through which the reader sees both the external hardships and the internal journeys of the book's casts. His success at delivering his message while keeping the book realistic and entertaining is what truly earns this book its place in…
Ethan realizes his own impulsiveness and flawed character, becomes aware of his flaws, proving that he fits the archetype of a tragic hero yet again. Ethan was going to deceive kindly Mrs. Hale into giving him money. However, he took a step back and saw his situation in a different light, saying “With the sudden perception of the point to which his madness had carried him, the madness fell and [Ethan] saw his life before him as it was.” (113). Ethan is so desperate to escape from his situation at home that he feels the need to take advantage of others. Ethan's impulsiveness persists, and he commits suicide when he is no longer able to face his dark…
After Colin’s death, Mark goes into a state of denial and his build-up of guilt causes him to have a mental breakdown along with signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Deep into the novel, Mark retells the story of the ’Boy from Beirut’ to Joaquin and he explains how it was his fault that the boy is dead. This affected Mark in many ways as it left in an emotional trauma and self-isolation state that made it hard for Mark to open up to others again. As Joaquin and Mark explore the depths of this memory, Joaquin said “You never pass over them [our pains]. You carry them with you forever. That is what it means to live”(p.124). The ideology behind this is everyone must learn to live with the pain through their lives. This helps Mark to unlock the guilt that he is hiding away and that there is only one person that can only truly forgive him...himself. After this moment, Mark’s heart and mind are opened and he learns how to forgive himself for his actions that took place during that…
The choices a person can make in a single heart beat can affect their entire life. Life can be cruel and unforgiving. Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton and published in 1911 is a concrete example of how life can be a tragedy. The novel is about how Ethan Frome became disabled and the choice he had made decades ago that lead to the accident—or how the locals in the story prefer to call it as Ethan’s “smash-up.” His accident was the conclusion to his escape from his miserable life with an impossible love. Unfortunately, his choice did not go as plan and permanently impacted the lives of his sick wife Zenobia, his love interest Mattie, and Ethan himself. Another example of life being cruel and unforgiving is in the film Harold and Maude released in 1971. The film displays a young man fixated with death named Harold and his short-lived relationship with a woman on the verge of becoming 80 years old, Maude. Harold just like Ethan found an impossible love interest with Maude. Maude did not want to live pass 80 and decided to die on her own terms. Life is not always sunshine and happy-ending like those in fairy tales, Ethan and Harold are completely different characters but have a few parallels in common.…
In the book Grapes of wrath the structure and language support the overall purpose greatly because John Steinbeck wanted us to believe that the bank was not a man but a monster taking every thing from everyone, which is probably the best way to describe it back then because during the great depression the market crashed because the bank was giving out to many loans to farmers and they had to start getting money back so they started taking land from the farmers because they didn't have money to pay the banks and had no way of getting the money because around the same time the dust bowl happened and that both dried up the water and destroyed the farmers crops and sense they couldn't sell crop to get money to pay the banks back the banks took…
| You receive so much information and deep emotions from this one quote. The author tells us that this boy has gone through traumatic events which have changed his life. He is hurt by the memory of it and must remember it everyday.…
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is set in a specific time and place. Steinbeck uses symbolism to convey the central idea that the human race is extremely diverse and that there are different types of people.…
The great and unique aspect of John Steinbeck’s writing style is that it isn’t just one style. He writes in many different styles, varying from omnious narrative format which he use in the writing of Mice and Men. He also writes novels that seem like plays in more of a novel format witch makes him such a grat author. In all of his writings John Steinbeck is very detailed. He leaves nothing out and wants the reader to have an exact picture of what he is writing about.…
We cannot do anything to prevent it, though we can hold it off for a little while. In our life we will eventually get hurt by the ones we love, thus our lives on earth has and will always be filled with sorrow and disappointment, but the difference lay in how we deal with it. The main character, Mat Feltner discovers that death is inevitable in such a young age, when “The Hurt Man” enters his life and thereby changes everything that he had ever known in and about life.…