Why is grapes of wrath important

The Second Industrial Revolution shook the structure of American life in the early 20th century, as a large number of people migrated from farms to major cities to fill the demands of the new economy. Over time, more efficient labor practices and the use of machinery seeped into the area of agriculture, displacing many farmers. In The Grapes of Wrath , the need for improved farming techniques becomes significant when the drought makes crop cultivation difficult.

The industrial economy adversely affects the farmers, forcing the banks, portrayed as monsters, to foreclose on unprofitable land. Steinbeck depicts industrialization as a sexual force, replacing the loving hands of a farmer with the roughness of a beast:. Behind the harrows, the long seeders—twelve curved iron penes erected in the foundry, orgasms set by gears, raping methodically, raping without passion.

The driver sat in his iron seat and he was proud of the straight lines he did not will, proud of the tractor he did not own or love, proud of the power he could not control. And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. For the farmers, modernization not only alters their way of life, but also their romantic attachment to the land. When the Joads move to California, they experience another trial.

While the state does not suffer the same weather-related problems as Oklahoma, industrial agriculture has resulted in only a select few owning land, leaving smaller farmers displaced and migrants expecting work. In both cases, industrial agriculture challenges the Jeffersonian view of the hard-working, noble farmer as a romantic American figure; the new owners have no emotional connection to the land, regarding it only through paper or plunder.

As the novel begins, the Joads appear to operate under a patriarchal structure, where the oldest male acts as head of the family, making all decisions for the group as a whole. During this time, a long period of drought and high winds affected large parts of the American Midwest, including much of the state of Oklahoma, creating what was called the Dust Bowl. Many of the people in the lower Midwest moved elsewhere, hoping to find fertile land on which to make a living.

Tom Joad is the protagonist, or main character, of The Grapes of Wrath. Tom is the book's hero as well despite the fact that Tom attacks a policeman at one point in the novel and beats a man at another point, becoming a cave-dwelling fugitive as a result.

Tom's actions, although illegal according to the letter of the law, are morally just. The most famous image in The Grapes of Wrath is the novel's final one, in which Rose of Sharon Joad, whose baby was recently stillborn, breast-feeds a sickly, starving man on the floor of an old barn.

The Weedpatch Camp, which is described in The Grapes of Wrath , not only still exists, but is listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of the role it played in the Dust Bowl migration. Skip to main content. Recent Blog Posts. Nov 10, Nov 05, Nov 04,