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Lauren Ayres
Period #6 English 4
Grapes of Wrath Test – Essay
March 3, 2005
Change is inevitable, the only thing that stays constant is change; many cliques are used to describe change. All things considered, change is the general theme of Steinbeck’s classic The Grapes of Wrath. It is the 1930s in mid-west America, farmers are being driven off their farms and pushed to continue westward to the land of opportunity and prosperity, California. America was a changing nation, people were migrating, inventions were expanding the technological horizons of the average person, literature was allowed to be creative, and art was breaking free of its traditional rigidness. But was this one of the last times America changed? Yes. America is undergoing little change today, although, change is something that has occurred in many instances, allowing the 1930s to be different from today.
“Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless-restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do-to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut,-anything, any burden to bear, for food” (Steinbeck 317). The migration of farmers of Oklahoma to California was not only a physical move, but a social move as well. From middle-class self-sufficiency to suffering homelessness, migrants were now in a whole different situation. This is not something that only existed in the past, today in America it is a problem as well. Legally one can claim bankruptcy at any point in time, if the situation calls for it. During the dustbowl, bankruptcy was not an option, it was disgrace and even the poorest of the poor would never admit to being penniless. People of that time would do anything to get money, or food, welfare was not an option. Today people have the right to not have a job, and receive ten times the amount the workers of the 30s received, from the government. This has been something that has stayed consistent for about two decades, proving that change in work ethics and monetary supplies have not changed what so ever.
In a review of The Grapes of Wrath, written by Michele Marchand 60 years after its publication, the author makes many good points about the book’s general themes. “This novel was first published 60 years ago, and caused a firestorm of praise and criticism” (Marchand 1). Change has obviously slowed since the 30s, by comparing this simple statement to many made by other great authors of today. Writing styles have not changed drastically as they did in the 1930s. This essay was written in 1999, and uses the same language and rhythm as any other essay I have read within the last 20 years. Literary techniques are also in a stand-still, opposed to the literary revolution experienced in the early part of the century. Take the great American novel, The Great Gatsby, for an example to compare to our ever-familiar The Grapes of Wrath, both were written within a few years of one-another, yet both display a spectrum-splitting array of literary techniques. Another contrasting example is the Harry Potter series, written in the 1990s, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, written in the middle part of the century. Both display the literary techniques of fantasy books, differing very little by only the audience portrayed to read the books. Within the many years these books were written, little change is seen, thus proving the theory that change has slowed since the dustbowl era. |