Hector+Perez

People are not born with the ability to determine what is right from wrong. They develop a conscience that is influenced by the morals and beliefs of the people around them. Once an individual believes they know what is right based on their morals they follow this mental road and whenever they experience something out of place they classify it as wrong. It is the individual’s role to confront injustice by using the power of many to dominate the injustice. By describing the struggle of a family and migrants against the change of human society due to industrialization and through figurative language techniques such a symbolism, The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck explains how an individual judges what’s right from wr ong as well as establishes that the role of an individual to confront injustice is by working as a community. Other literary works such as “The Ways we lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, “On Compassion” by Barbara Lazear Ascher and “Expose the Myths” by Joseph Perkins also contribute in showing how the individual judges right from wrong and his role in confronting injustice. In the 1920’s industrialization was changing human society and it was being unjust to farmers, like the Joads and other migrants, in that it was pressuring them to move to the cities and urbanize. Many families lost their lives and memories of their land due to this change in society. In order to survive though this injustice Steinbeck described the turtle and its shell crossing the highway.

In chapter three of __The Grapes of Wrath__ a turtle is found struggling to get across a highway. In the process it is hit by a truck in which the, “front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddley-winky, spun it like a win, and rolled it off the highway (pg15).” This illustration stands as a symbolic way of representing the form in which an individual is supposed to confront injustice.

The turtle represents the Joads and other migrants in that it had a destination to get to and is stopping for nothing. The truck which symbolizes the growth in industrialization slows the turtle to its destination. However, due to the style in which the shell is formed: tiny individual squares combined to form a somewhat flexible but hard protection, the turtle is able to survive and continues on its journey. “Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time but at last its legs waved in the air... (pg15).”

Further in the novel in chapter seven, Steinbeck demonstrates how an individual judges right from wrong. The auto salesman in this chapter has a mentality to sale his cars at any cost. He has learned that lying is the right thing to do in order to sale his products. “Sure, we sold it. Guarantee? We guaranteed it to be an automobile. We didn’t guarantee to wet-nurse it. Now listen here, you- you bought a car, an’ now you ‘re squawkin (pg.65).” In the eyes of the people buyers however this is viewed as wrong because it doesn’t benefit them. “The ways we lie” by Stephanie Ericsson furthers this judgment. People are not born with the ability to determine what is right from wrong. They develop a conscience that is influenced by the morals and beliefs of the people around them. Once an individual believes they know what is right based on their morals they follow this mental road and whenever they experience something out of place they classify it as wrong. It is the individual’s role to confront injustice by using the power of many to dominate the injustice.