Blog #21: The Grapes of Wrath

I cannot specifically say that I saw only one character stand out as a hero in The Grapes of Wrath. I saw several characters acting as heroes at different times. I think that the fist hero that stuck out to me in the book was the truck driver. Without the truck driver I believe that Tom Joad would not have made it home in time before his family left for the journey west. Even though the truck driver broke the rules of his management, I still saw him as a hero because he went out of his own way to help someone who happened to be less fortunate than himself. I think that the conversation they had in the truck leads me to see the next hero in the book. Tom Joad. I think that Mr. Joad should be seen as a hero because he is caring, compassionate, and honest. I see him as being a caring person because he is going back home to his family because he knows that they will need all the help that they can get, and Tom feels like he should be there for his family in the time of need. I saw Tom also as being a compassionate hero because he helped out his family even if it meant he had to do something that he might not have really wanted to do. I think that this is a HUGE part of being a hero. In all of the super hero movies, the hero is helping someone inferior. I think that the only reason why someone should be considered a hero is if they display care and compassion toward others that they might not even know personally. The third reason that I see Tom Joad as a hero is that he is completely honest. Tom has served four years of jail time, but he is going to tbe the first to tell people what happened. I like the fact that he does not wait for the truck driver to ask him why he was in jail, he just goes ahead an explains it all on his own. I do think that there were other major heroes in the book including Tom's Mother, and Rose of Sharon, but they did not seem to be quite as significant.

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