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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E

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-USF34T01-

16333-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 LC-USF34T01-24189-D

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 Great-Grandmother (handwritten on reverse)

• People in Photograph Pipkin, Mrs. Frank

• Location Shafter, holding baby]

• 1941