Oscar+Rodriguez

All for One

Sometimes individuals have experiences that test their abilities to confront injustice and their abilities to determine right or wrong things to do each separate experience. The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck is a story about Oklahoma migrants who suffer countless injustices caused by their fellowman due to greed and lack morality. Stephanie Ericsson writer of The Ways We Lie, Henry David Thoreau author of Civil Disobedience and Barbara Lazear Ascher author of On Compassion are all writers who in their works of literature present similar themes of the injustices committed to human beings in the Grapes of Wrath. These entire migrant’s had only one hope of confronting their injustices and that was through the power of unity, and only with the judgments of many could they make the right decisions to do destroy this monster that had control over them. However in some cases even with power of unity all their attempts to confront their injustices were futile because this system, this infrastructure was too powerful to overcome.

“Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking(Mahatma Gandhi).” In ch.3 of //The Grapes of Wrath// Steinbeck shows the reader the power of unity by incorporating a turtle to symbolically depict all of the migrants moving to California. This turtle along with the Joad family face many hardships and injustices as they travel to their destinations. Just as the turtle is diverted and set back from its path by the truck, the Joad family encounters the deaths of loved ones such as Granma and Granpa and they also experience the abandonment of Noah which also sets them back in their journey to California. This loss of family members were truly great ordeals for the Joad family because by losing family members the Joad family lost the power of unity and therefore their will to keep going in their journey. This power of unity is what saved the turtle from total annihilation because its impervious shell composed of many separate plates could take on any blow. Even though the Joads had lost family members they still received that will power from the ones who were left among them and also from the short company that the Wilsons provided, and this power kept them alive and lead them to California.

In ch.7 of The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck presents to the reader rapacious salesmen who without any feeling of contrite cheat ignorant farmers into buying useless cars. These salesmen commit injustice because they slowly lure the farmers, with false sense of hope by telling them “Good used cars. Clean runs good. Don’t pump oil gas(pg 88).” This is why the power of unity is so important is so important in this novel because these salesmen could’ve united with the farmers and together they could’ve tried to improve this corrupt system that shrouded the nation. However each salesmen only worried for their individual needs without any regard to their people and only worsened this Monster that man himself had created. When it came to confronting this injustice the farmer’s efforts were futile, because they couldn’t go against the salesmen. As the salesmen said so themselves “We ain’t got your paper. We turn that over to the finance company(pg 88)” This whole infrastructure of business has become putrid and it is a “Monster that can’t be stopped. These salesmen had very judgment and they acted very malevolently towards their fellowman, not knowing that they too, would be sucked into this odious system that was consuming everything.

“When the motor of a tractor stops, it is as dead as the ore it came from. The heat goes out of it like the living heat that leaves a corpse(pg 157)” In ch.11 of The Grapes of Wrath tractor drivers with very bad judgment go over the land destroying everything in their path. “The machine man, driving a dead tractor on land he does not know and love, understands only chemistry; and he is contemptuous of the land and of himself(pg 158).” These drivers didn’t know that their decisions only fed this corrupt system and made it stronger. Many of the victims of these tractor drivers could only watch as their homes were destroyed. As it had been cleared in previous chapters, if people went against the drivers the banks had other means to take the land away from these farmers. Not even with the power of unity could these farmers defeat the banks who had sent these tractors because the banks were monsters “Men made it, but they couldn’t control it(pg45).”Even though these drivers benefited from what they did, in the long run, they too would be consummated and destroyed by this infrastructure.

“And the anger began to ferment(pg 388).” Chapter 21 allows the reader to see the growing anger that these migrants are producing due to the injustices done to them by the “Great Companies.” These companies show very poor judgment because they exploit the hunger these migrants have in order to benefit themselves. These great companies saw as each hungry man fought for a job “If that fella’ll work for thirty cents, I’ll work for twenty five, I’ll do it for twenty(pg 387).” Their only chance to fight this injustice was to band together, however they worried more about themselves rather than for their fellowman and that therefore that was their downfall.

John Steinbeck in chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath presents to the reader the power of unity. Just as grapes need to be together in bundles to be able to grow and blossom. In the same way these migrants needed to be together to fight of their injustices and to be able to make the right decisions together. If a single grape falls from the bundle it will rot, in a similar way if a single migrant wonders alone he too will be consumed by corruption, hunger and many other injustices. Grapes also symbolize these migrants in the way that just as these grapes grew heavy for vintage, so did these migrants grow anger towards those who oppressed them.

Stephanie Ericsson author of The Ways We Lie, she writes this essay to inform the reader of the many consequences of lying. Ericsson says that a “Lie is the spirit committing treason against itself… our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality.” In The Grapes of Wrath one can also see the destructive powers of lying. For example in chapter 7 when the car salesmen would lie to the farmers, telling them that they were selling good cars to them when in fact they were useless. In the long run these farmers would suffer the consequences of this injustice, because these cars could break down on them at any moment and this could severely hinder their journeys to California. Another injustice that happens in The Grapes of Wrath due to lying is when the Californians make stereotypes of the Oklahomans saying that they were “Dirty and ignorant. They’re degenerate, sexual maniacs… They’ll steal anything. They got no sense of property rights(pg386).”. It is evident that the Californians did this out of greed and because of lack of compassion, they didn’t want to share their land with anybody else but themselves.

Henry David Thoreau author of “Civil Disobedience” writes this piece of literature to inform the reader that governments are inexpedient and that one sometimes has to go against the laws the government makes because they are wrong. In The Grapes of Wrath many characters are presented with laws that are morally wrong however these individuals chose to follow it instead of doing the right thing. For example in chapter 11 the tractor drivers would go through the land destroying everything in their path. These drivers shouldn’t have gone against their fellowman and instead of destroying the land they should’ve united with the farmers to try to make the land more productive. However these drivers had poor judgment and they decided to follow the rules that the banks had established.

On Compassion written by Barbara Lazear Ascher wanted her readers to know that homeless people bring the humanity out in others and that we can be compassionate towards them either because we fear them or just because we might have empathy towards them. In The Grapes of Wrath one can see that most people are not compassionate towards the migrant going to California. These rapacious Californians stereotype the okies in order to keep the land to themselves. Also the banks are totally inconsiderate of the farmers and they take away their land without any remorse.

These migrants suffered a lot in the land that they thought would solve all their problems. They suffered injustices of greed, inhumanity to man, and man’s inability to have good judgment. In a corrupt system that these migrants inhabited it was nearly impossible for the individual to confront it. Their only hope of confronting their injustices was with the power of unity and even that wasn’t enough.

works cited

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New york: Penguin Group, 1989.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)

Ascher, Barbara L. "On compassion." 10 Mar. 2009