Journey in grapes of wrath
Journey in grapes of wrathIn the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck one would see several different themes. One of the main themes of the novel is journey. In the first chapter of the novel, Steinbeck describes the dust bowl and foreshadows a journey and along with journey comes change, which are two main themes in the novel.
We see the theme journey as soon as the novel begins, Tom Joad gets out of prison on parole and needs a ride home. Tom Spots a huge red transport truck belonging to the Oklahoma City Transport Company. Although the truck’s windshield carries a “No Riders” sticker Tom thought he’d ask, and the driver said he could get a ride with him, now he is going to continue his journey towards the southwest. When Tom arrives at his hometown he gets out of the truck he notices nearby is a land turtle, crossing a highway with great difficulty slowly through the dust. Tom catches it as a present for the Joad children and rolls it up in his coat along with his shoes. This establishes the necessary link between Tom and the turtle dealing with the turtle’s strenuous efforts to cross the highway. So already in the novel, two journeys are taking place, one a man’s journey and the other, nature’s journey.
Change is an obvious theme in the novel. When Tom is walking home and sees a man sitting against the trunk of a willow tree and the man recognizes Tom as Ol’ Tom’s boy and introduces himself as Jim Casy, the preacher who baptized him. Casy tells Tom that he has given up his role as a preacher and says for he does not have the call of the spirit anymore. In the meanwhile, the turtle frees itself from the coat and tries to run away in pursuit of its original route.
Both of these themes seem to become clearer as the story goes. Tom and Casy are now on their way to the Joad’s house. When they get there they see that the house is deserted and damaged from the drought, the dust storm had ruined the land. Then they see a man Tom recognizes it was Muley...
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