Linden+Jennings

 The Individual's Duties 

 In order to confront injustice individuals must learn to come together and work as a team to purge themselves of many internal conflicts which would not assist the entire group in overcoming injustice. The individual's duty is to understand the difference between right from wrong and use this wisdom in order to become a part of the overall group. In his novel, //The Grapes of Wrath//, John Steinbeck describes the hardships of one family during the Great Depression. Steinbeck uses this one family to symbolize the many Americans going through the exact same plights. He describes the many ways that all Americans confront the injustice they are being faced with, which in this case is having no resources to fight against the many big businesses which have left the old and traditional farmer behind with the new age of industrialism. With this problem individuals begin to realize they must purge themselves of: lying, lack of compassion, competing with others, holding on to selfish objects, and other issues that would merely split the group up instead of unifying it towards a common cause. In chapter three, Steinbeck uses symbolism of a turtle and a truck to illustrate the problem of society and how people may conquer this issue of not having the correct resources in order to succeed in life. He uses the turtle to symbolize society. Society, like the turtle’s shell, must protect itself against problems by coming together in bands, putting all differences aside to create one group which can equally distribute injustice. The truck represents the industrialization of the nation and the big businesses which are taking over the small farmers’ lands. This truck runs over the turtle to show how the modern businesses of the time do not care about poor individuals in search of salvation, which the turtle, or society, is obviously seeking. The injustice in this scenario is that society has no resources in the changing infrastructure of our nation. However, society does have an interesting advantage that can be used against this injustice, which is the ability to protect ourselves by coming together, much like the turtle shell. Steinbeck throughout his novel describes what individuals must do in order to come together and assume their role in the group going against the injustice which they are all forced to confront due to the changing times.

The roles of the individual when confronted with injustice are many and some include their duties as citizens to go against corrupt authority or tyranny. Steinbeck’s purpose for writing //The Grapes of Wrath// can be supported by many outside works; including Civil Disobedience by Henry Thoreau. In his novel Thoreau explains the common people have one great advantage, which is the ability to come together with more supporters than the group possessing authority which is almost always made up of a smaller amount of people. He tells us that individuals must protest unjust situations. This can be related to Steinbeck’s work because the people are treated numerous times unjustly by the only standing authority which happens to be corrupted policemen who work for the big businesses striving to destroy the group mentality. One instance of this in //The Grapes of Wrath// was when Jim Casy tries to organize the “Okies” being mistreated against the authority which unfortunately his efforts are lost as he is killed by a policeman. Henry Thoreau believes that if the government and authority took less part in helping out these big industrialized businesses injustice would be non-existent. Thoreau states this by saying, “Government is best which governs least.” Thoreau and Steinbeck share similar opinions about injustice and recognized it can only be conquered by the masses coming together against the injustice.  John Steinbeck uses chapter 12 to further argue his purpose which is in order to confront injustice society must become one group with the same interests. Throughout the book there are salesmen who take advantage of the consumer’s inability to understand the true prices of certain products. This is morally wrong for the salesmen to do however it is how current society runs. “They look a fella over. They know he got to go on. They know he can't wait. And the price goes up" (120). The poor farmers lose more and more as others take advantage of them. However if the individuals were to organize into groups they would gain a great advantage over the salesmen. The group could refuse to pay the incorrect high prices and the salesmen would have no one to sell to. If this happened, the price would drop as a profit is needed by the salesmen. Steinbeck argues this is the only way to confront any sort of injustice in society and is the ultimate way to gaining one’s rightful place in society. Steinbeck claims the only way for individuals to succeed is to bond and take on the hardships together. This is no easy task, as individuals must do things differently in order to become a group in the changing times. In chapter nine Steinbeck describes one of the major changes individuals must go through. This change happens to be the sacrificing of selfish objects which only remind the people of the past holding them back from modernization. The poor farmers sell to unfair brokers, who selfishly take great profits as they can control the prices of the objects because the farmers are so desperate. This would not be a problem if the farmers organized however this never happens in the book. Instead the farmers leave with little money for the hard journey to California and are left to change with the times. Steinbeck shows the farmers are changing by the selling of the precious objects which symbolize the past. "The quality of owning freezes you forever into 'I,' and cuts you off forever from the 'we'" (pg 152). As the past flutters away in the winds behind them the farmers have nothing to do but look to the future and their new lives which wait for them. This change was necessary for them to become a group so they all have no differences in their past lives, all of their pasts have been forgotten. They are all the same with one goal and one future making the idea of bonding and coming together less strenuous. In __The Ways We Lie__ by Stephanie Ericsson, another “object” is needed to be given up by individuals only this “object” is intangible and is lies. People in society lie all the time and seems to be a natural part of everyone’s lives. Even though this is not morally correct it still happens to the point where it is almost impossible to give up like an addicting drug. However if individuals are to become one group this absolutely must be given up and should not be tolerated under any circumstances. These lies may seem harmless but with these lies it would be impossible for individuals to come together as it would mainly just hurt society to lie. This might be one of the hardest parts of becoming a group for many reasons. In many cases society lies to stay in their accepted places. Individuals feel they need to lie to succeed, to inherit their rank, or turn out well. Lies will ruin the group mentality because they make individuals better than others and start competition. With this competition bonding would be impossible. Barbara Lazear Ascher writes in, __On Compassion,__ that society needs to be much more compassionate to others instead of fearing others. Steinbeck’s novel similarly states this in many instances as individuals throughout the book do extremely kind things for each other that help everyone benefit. These acts of compassion are also very necessary for individuals to form the group, necessary to confront injustice. These acts of compassion are rarely seen, however when becoming a group like the families on the journey to California, these acts are often seen. Compassion is another very hard accomplishment to have to achieve for individuals. Asher says, “I don’t believe that one is born compassionate. Compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition. It must be learned, and it is learned,” (page 2 paragraph 5). Individuals seem to master this along their troublesome journey as Steinbeck does show this with his many scenes of never ending compassion. In chapter 17 Steinbeck states individuals must also create undisputed laws and codes and make understood what’s right and wrong. This major issue of creating laws for the families to abide by is also very important and with out these individuals would not be able to come together and act as one. “Leaders emerged, then laws were made, then codes came into being” (194). These codes and laws allowed the groups of people to function properly with out the corrupted authority of the policemen or the government. “And the families learned, although no one told them, what rights are monstrous and must be destroyed” (194). When the families were traveling on the road to California they stopped along the way to rest and eat and relax until they had to continue the long and strenuous journey. When they stopped they would create small “hoovervilles” in which these leaders, laws, and codes, were kept everyone inline and took away their individualism. This was needed for the group to remain a group and not disband due to murder and stealing, seen often outside these “hoovervilles.” Steinbeck describes the charitableness as well in these camps along side the road which contributed to the bonding of all the families. When certain families were in need they would be given food, water, shelter, and friendliness to relieve their suffering. This would not have been seen if families remained individual, instead competition would still be seen for the scraps of modern society and many more would fail on their journey to California. In chapter 21 Steinbeck points out the major problem of competition for the individuals trying to bond and confront injustice. The “Okies” coming into California were willing to accept much lower wages for work because they were very desperate. "And the migrants streamed on the highways and their hunger was in their eyes, and their need was in their eyes."(283).  However farmers that were already there became aggravated because the big businesses didn’t need to pay the farmers as much because they knew the “Okies” would compete for the job by working for a lower wage and they would get the job. Farmers had to lower themselves to the level of the “Okies” in order to find any work at all. "The little farmers moved into town for a while and exhausted their credit, exhausted their friends, their relatives. And then they too went to the highways. And the roads were crowded with men ravenous for work, murderous for work."(284).  This competition was the major issue that did not allow the poor farmers and the “Okies” to overcome the injustice in the end. Because these two groups fought for the scraps that the modern industrialized businesses left, it was impossible for them to organize together and demand better wages. Steinbeck states in this chapter that the individuals in order to become a group had to stop competing; if this happened the two groups would be able to succeed and be much happier. Throughout //The Grapes of Wrath// individuals are seen in many situations changing their ways in order to come together and bond in order to confront the injustice that occurred due to the changes from industrialization. The farmers and the “Okies” had to give up competing, which never happened, unfortunately contributing to the failure to organize at the end of the novel. Families had to come together and help each other meet the needs of all the families in the group. Individuals needed to learn how to use compassion in their meetings with other individual families to strengthen their ties with one another. Individuals would have to give up lying completely in order to stop its negative effect on all of society. Individual families would have to give up their most prized possessions in order to forget their pasts and concentrate on the future to make bonding with others easier. Families would have to boycott salesmen to be treated fairly, but this could only be done by organizing and leaving behind individualism. Individuals would have to also organize against the corrupt authority of the policemen in California. All these were major changes needed to become a group which Steinbeck argues was to be the one weapon the masses had against big industrialized business. He represents this idea using his turtle and truck to symbolize the current society. Steinbeck shows how hard it would be to come together and bond for the greater good throughout his novel, and in the end all seems lost but there is a slight glimmer of hope.

Work Cited   

Steinbeck, John. "The Grapes of Wrath." 09 Mar. 2009 <[]>.

Ericsson, Stephanie. "The Ways We Lie." 20 Mar. 09 <[]

Ascher, Barbara L. "On compassion." 10 Mar. 2009 <[]

Thoreau, Henry. "Civil Disobedience." The Thoreau Reader. 28 Mar. 2009 <[]>.

L.Jennings