Grapes of wrath 2
Grapes of wrath 2Not Sweet Enough
The historical play “The Grapes of Wrath” has been turned into a movie and is acclaimed by some people to be a classic. There are many themes going on in the play “The Grapes of Wrath.” Deciding which theme to grasp a hold of can be very difficult, but I have decided to focus on the Joad family as a unit and adapting to their circumstances. The purpose of this paper will be to show how the play “The Grapes of Wrath”, by Frank Galati, demonstrates how when a family comes together as one, anything can be accomplished. Complementing this ideal I will explore the concept that the Joads progressed from a concern only for themselves and their own personal welfare to a concern for all the people in the world. They did this by changing their way of thinking and through their actions. Finally, this paper will explore how the larger family unit of the migrant people replaced the Joads smaller family unit.
The Joad family’s journey to California results in the breakup of their family. The very first cause of the breakup of the individual family was with the loss of their land. The Joad family had lived there for many generations and had very strong ties to the land. Losing their land was equivalent to losing their family history. This is expressed by “She puts them in her pocket, closes the box, stands and with resignation tosses the box on the fire”(Galati 21). It is very evident that ma is reluctant to let her past go. On their journey
they lose their first family member, Grampa Joad. This shows that there is a strong connection between a man and his home. Grampa’s great longing for his homeland ultimately resulted in his death.
The shift from individual thinking to wide spread thinking is most directly
seen in the actions of Tom Joad. In the beginning of the play Tom is mainly concerned for his own welfare. He wants to make up for all the things that he missed while in prison. Later on in the play he is more concerned with the welfare of the people. Then finally his thinking had shifted to trying to do what is best for all the migrant people by helping them organize into striking. Casy also had foreseen trouble along the way, but the family still pursued west. When Casy states “I’m all worried up. I been watchin’ the cars on the road, them we passed an’ them that passed us. I been keepin’ track” (Galati 36). You can tell that Casy is having second thoughts about leaving for out west,...
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