Francisco+Gonzalez

Fusion

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 until the economic recovery of the 1940s. The stock market crashed heavily, and continued to fall sharply; as a result, the United States and the world were thrown into a decade of poverty and unemployment. The depression affected all sectors of the economy. Farm owners and agricultural workers suffered from falling crop prices. It was impossible for individuals to survive in this period of economic depression and even more difficult in confronting the injustices of social infrastructure. “United we stand, divided we fall”, has been the American motto for centuries and the basic concept is simple when the people are united it is difficult to destroy them. We can achieve unity only when everyone decides to pursue a common goal. The importance of unity when confronting injustice is simple, “All for one and one for all” (Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno) an old Latin phrase that still holds true today which states that one person would give his life for the group of people and that all of the people would give their lives for even only that one person. This shows the role of the individual and the people that are being talked about because individuals will defend each other and be for each other no matter what adversity occurs. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the author illustrates the many injustices the farmers face at that period of time.Steinbeck shows us that as an individual we are small and weak but when we come together with other smaller individuals, the weak become strong and we can overcome the injustice.

Morals are a necessity in order to survive in this world. In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck speaks of a car that aims to hit a turtle on the road. “His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway.” (Chapter 3, Grapes of Wrath). The car symbolizes hardships brought upon an individual, represented by the turtle. The turtle’s shell represents a group of individuals working together; all necessary for its life and survival. When the car hit the turtle, it chipped off a piece of shell. Although part of its “ethics” was now missing, the turtle was still able to survive. It is the role of the individual to still proceed on in life, defendin each other even if it means to die for one another. This reflects how the turtle shell is made up of each individual and when together it was able to survive the impact. Unity was so strong that when it got hit, it got right back up.

Individuals need strength in numbers to stand up for themselves and others in injustices. Unjust actions were almost the greatest force in the Great Depression. The causes of these unjust actions were fueled by desperation for survival. Both the conductors of unjust actions and the victims shared one thing in common: a need for survival. Car salesmen in the Grapes of Wrath were a supreme example of performing unjust actions out of survival. “Now look here. I’m givin’ you my shirt, and’ you took all this time. I might a made three sales while I been talkin’ to you. I’m disgusted. Yeah, sign right there. All right sir.” (Chapter 7, Grapes of Wrath) This car salesman is so selfish and only cares about his own personal interest that he cheats off the poor farmer that has no clue about cars. It is necessary for the car salesmen to act this way because it is the only way he is able to sell his cars and without selling his automobiles he simply cannot survive in this time of economic hardships. The only way that these poor tenant farmers could have confronted the injustice is that if they’ve worked together and perhaps sought out a deal that would benefit the both of them then they would be able to live adequately rather than inadequately.

The car salesmen might have thought that it was fine to cheat of the poor farmer, but by cheating off them they do not win anything at all because the farmer, car salesmen, and other people in this time period are all the same and all fall under one category, fighting for survival. " They look a fella over. They know he got to go on. They know he can't wait. And the price goes up" (Chp12). The exploitation of ignorant and illiterate farmers is easy and can be related to our current exploitation of immigrants coming into America searching for low paying jobs. The farmers now pay these immigrants far less than the average wage for hard labor in the fields like picking cherries and planting crops. It is easy to exploit people who we view as being lower than ourselves. The only way the farmers and the poor immigrants can combat this injustice is if they refuse to buy the products and refuse to get paid below the minimum wage. It will be more effective if they united and together boycotted the unfair prices and low paying money. Thus, referring back to Steinbeck’s claim that as a team we can achieve more.

An individual’s role in combating injustice is to unify towards a common cause and individually fulfill their part in society to overcome any obstacle and together it will never fail. In chapter 14 of the Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck talks about how the land owners are only doing the exploitation of farmers for their own personal benefit. They also have fear because they’ve realized the true potential of the farmers if they force together into one common body. However, the farmers do not realize this and are unable to rebel. "Fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live - for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken … fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe." (Chp 14) All of the farmers have a common cause but are not able to realize this. They all are poor, hungry, and dying yet they compete against each other thinking that this is the only way of survival. If only they could form together as a group they would be able to stage a revolt and demand for higher paying jobs.

We grow as a person through personal experiences and hardships that we might have to face at a point in time. “By linking homelessness to poverty, advocates obscure the real root of the problem. If we really wanted to help the homeless, we would pay far more attention to their mental health and substance abuse problems.”(Homeless: Expose the Myths) We as a society wish to rid our streets from the homeless yet we view as being impossible. It is very easy to say that we want to rid our streets and help the homeless as much as it is easy to say that I want to fly. The hard part about this concept is figuring out a way to do this. The money that would go into this would cost a fortune and the government alone simply cannot waste millions and perhaps billions of dollars into this. This is why it is important for everyone to cooperate and for some kind of organizations that would help out the homeless by giving money into this organization. This way the government can put in some money as well as the people. With the unity of the people it can donate enough to help satisfy the needs of the poor homeless man.

It is common sense that when we are together we can achieve more, but the question is why we as a society don’t come together more frequently to battle the injustices that we face everyday. It has been done throughout history for example the black movement and the social rights movement. They were weak minorities and together they formed a group to combat the injustices that society thrust upon them. In our current day economic crisis, we as a society need to come together and put an end to this mass economic depression. Not one single man can do it and President Obama has even stated that he himself cannot do it but he can lead us there it is just up to us to decide if we want to or not.

Work Cited

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.

Thoreau, Henry D. “Civil Disobedience.” The Thoreau Reader. 28 Mar. 2009 .

Ericsson, Stephanie. "The Ways We Lie." 29 Mar. 2009 .