Kohl+Jones

Defeating Injustice What defines someone or something as being injustice, or what is the definition of injustice itself? John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, approaches injustice in many different ways, and attempts to reach the core of injustice. Over the course of this novel the various ways injustice is brought up, whether it is through man versus nature, man versus man, or man versus himself, there is one central question that revolves around each differing form of injustice. That question is, what is the individuals role in confronting this injustice, and how does he better him self and those around him? The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck along with Homeless: Expose the Myths, by Joseph Perkins, The Ways We Lie, by Stephanie Ericsson, and Homeless, by Anna Quindlen explore the art of injustice and the ways individuals live through and along side injustice, and the efforts they make to fight against injustice.

The Grapes of Wrath begins with an in depth description of the landscape of Oklahoma as the period known as the dust bowl is beginning. The injustice presented to begin the novel is presented as man versus nature. “The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover” (chapter 1). Really the injustice that begins to reveal itself is a lack of infrastructure that the Joad family and many other families do not possess. The way the Joads confront this injustice is the real issues at hand. Whether the Joads will fight together or crumble as individuals under the hands of nature and the government. “The men sat in the doorways of their houses; their hands were busy with sticks and little rocks. The men sat still- thinking- figuring”(chapter 1). This is where the lack of infrastructure begins to be seen as a major topic of concern because without infrastructure everyone is looking in a different direction or at someone else to step up and take charge. Steinbeck begins this novel in a way such as this in order to set a precursor for what is to come over the course of the novel and to see if the Joads grow as the move along.

Chapter three of the Grapes of Wrath is a focal point in Steinbeck’s novel in discussing the roles in which individuals take in confronting injustice. The title of chapter three is “The Turtle” for the obvious reason of the turtle being in the chapter, and also to draw attention to the significance of the turtle in the chapter. It is hard to narrow the injustice the Joads are facing down to the lack of infrastructure amongst them, when really injustice surrounds everyone in everyday life at all times. In this chapter the source of the injustice can be symbolized as a truck, and the Joad family can be seen as the innocent turtle walking down the street. "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). The turtle is essentially unharmed by the truck hitting him although he is pushed back to where it began and is forced to climb back up the embankment of the road. The turtle closely parallels the Joad family in that something bigger and strong is pushing them out of their comfort zone, in the Joads case it the government and the natural damage of the dust bowl. Steinbeck chooses to use a animal to symbolize the Joads and their struggles, but why a turtle? A turtle because of the unique properties of the turtle’s shell, and how the shell can also represent the Joads, and the other migrants facing the same difficulties as the Joads. The turtles shell is strongest when it’s together only because of the individual plates that hold the shell together. Same with the Joads they are strongest as a group because of the individuals that make up that group and the different aspects they present in order to help the group. Steinbeck’s presumption on how individuals confront injustice and how they present a push against injustice is within power of unity.

Chapter nine of The Grapes of Wrath proposes a new form of injustice surfacing that the migrants a forced to face. The injustice the Joads and countless other “Okies” are confronting is a lack of resources that enables them to survive and fight for themselves. "You’re not buying only junk, you're buying junked lives"(chapter 9). This is evidence that the lives of the migrants are incapable of possessing resources needed to survive this depression. The only way the families know how to confront this injustice is to run, and make a new life far away from their current one. The struggle the rises upon confronting this injustice is the nostalgic ways of many of the families. Oklahoma and farming are all many of these people know, and when they are able to let go of their past ways they can fight this injustice.

Chapter twelve of The Grapes of Wrath provides an escape in some ways the injustice the Joads and other migrant families are facing. In this chapter Steinbeck reveals the hardships many faced while traveling on Route 66 to California. “66 is the path of the people in flight…”(chapter twelve). Route 66 is symbolizing the path the Okies take to escape the unbearable injustice that is seemingly a cloud that hovers over them no matter where they try to go. In this chapter the injustice can be seen when the car salesmen are over pricing cars and are capable of getting away with it because of the immediate need to reach California. “They look a fella over. They know he got to go on. They know he can't wait. And the price goes up”(chapter twelve). The injustice seen here is easily tied back to the lack of infrastructure seen at the onset of the novel. The cars salesmen are in essence the “law” at whatever particular place they sit. There are no standard guidelines, no papers, and no justice being displaced by the car salesmen and this because they can get away with it because of the lack of infrastructure.

Power in unity is the mode of confronting injustice in The Grapes of Wrath, however there are possibly other alternative to attacking injustice and in some cases, there are no alternatives at all. Anna Quindel’s, Homeless is a story in which Quindel meets homeless people, and confronts them about their situation and learns from them. Quindel eventually reaches the conclusion that there is really no such thing as a “homeless” person. She states that the term “homeless” is nothing more than a label and that home is true where you make it. "We turn an adjective into a noun: the poor, not poor people; the homeless, not Ann or the man who lives in the box or the woman who sleeps on the subway grate"(Homeless, Anna Quindel). As people are labeled as “homeless” we rob them of their place in society because they are still people although they are seen as less than that. Because they are seen as less they do not play a role in confronting injustice even though they are still effected by it.

Injustice is an inescapable aspect of life that everyone deals with on a daily basis, but how we adjust and comprehend with this injustice is what defines people. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Declaration of Independence). The declaration of Independence is set up in such a way to provide infrastructure at all times to the American population. When that infrastructure crumbles, injustice builds. It is the role of the individual to unite with others and become a strong solidified group to fight this injustice. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck along with Homeless: Expose the Myths, by Joseph Perkins, and The Ways We Lie, by Stephanie Ericsson, and Homeless, by Anna Quindlen all express certain forms of injustice and all employ ways to confront that injustice for the betterment of the people.

Work Cited "The Declaration of Independence." __Ushistory.org__. 29 Mar. 2009 <[]>. Ericsson, Stephanie. "The Ways We Lie." 29 Mar. 2009 <[]>. Steinbeck, John. __Grapes of Wrath__. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1992.