Blog #19: The Grapes of Wrath

I believe that there were many causes, gains, and losses in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I saw many major conflicts in the book one of which is the farmers versus nature. The drought of the 1930's forced the farmers to migrate westward to California because they were not able to pay the landowners of their farms. All of the migrating farmers caused the local people of California to frown upon all of the migrating farmers. Overall I think that the conflict was between responding to hardship and disaster by focusing on personal needs and risking personal safety for a common good. I see this conflict because the Joad family was responding to the hardship of the drought and the dust bowl and they ended up facing many small disasters along the way sometimes risking safety just to get safely to California and have a steady income to get along in life with the bare minimum essentials.

The dust bowl caused the farmers to lose all of their crops because of the harsh conditions. Because the farmers were not making a good income from the sale of their crops, they were unable to pay the landowners the rent. I think that the whole plot/ story line is just a chain reaction. Each event conflict somehow leads to the next.

I believe that society gained hope. I think that the workers begin to realize if they work together, there is still hope for society. In chapter eight I noticed a quote, "When they're all workin' together, not one fella for another fella, but one fella kind of harnessed to the whole shebang. . . that's holy" (Steinbeck 43). I thought that this really proved my point that if all of the workers work together towards a common goal, they should still think they have hope.

Although it did not seem like there were many gains in this book, I think that the people definitely gained hope. It did not take any time at all to think of the causes and the losses, but the gains took me a while. I think that the only major gain for the Joads and other members of society was hope.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. NY: Penguin, 1939. Print.