Shona+Lamb

 The Fortitude of One  The economic downturn of the Great Depression that lasted from the 1930’s to the early 1940’s was compounded by the widespread crop failure known as the Dust Bowl in America’s Heartland. This period of economic hardship brought out the best and worst qualities of individuals as they confronted the injustices of the social infrastructure and had to decide for themselves what was right or wrong. As the family farms of the Midwest were consolidated by large corporate banks and businesses that were more concerned with profit than with the moral state of humanity, the family dynamic was broken down and changed as farmers were forced off their land to become migrant workers. In his novel, //The Grapes of Wrath//, John Steinbeck illustrates the multiple injustices the migrants faced in their struggle for survival and the obstacles they encountered that tested their moral beliefs. The primary injustice is the system of society that is structured to reward the pursuit of wealth without regard for people and without establishing resources for the people to reform the infrastructure. In his novel, Steinbeck advocates the strategy of unifying with others in a common purpose to confront the injustice. However, in order to combat the corruption prevalent in a society that measures success by the greater amount of money one makes compared to the competition, the fight against injustice must originate within an individual who must work to alter the underlying infrastructure itself in order to improve conditions of society. During the struggle to overcome the inequity, an individual must deem whether a particular action is acceptable according to personal beliefs that are influenced by life experiences.

The concept of fairness and injustice has been created by humans and is not actually an idea that exists within the natural world. In chapter one of //The Grapes of Wrath//, the farmers are faced with a dust storm that destroys the means for their livelihood, yet Steinbeck does not portray the natural disaster as malignant. Instead Steinbeck describes, “All day the dust sifted down from the sky, and the next day it sifted down…an even blanket covered the earth” (3, Steinbeck ). Nature is not the injustice the farmers face because it is merely an innocent part of life on which people impose their own personality. Steinbeck introduces the family structure as the men emerge from their houses to observe their ruined farms “and the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men-to feel whether this time the men would break….and the children sent exploring senses out to see whether men and women would break” (3, Steinbeck ). Within the individual family unit the children would take direction from the women while the women in turn would look to the men for guidance, and the men were left looking at the barren land because there was no one else. The modern society created by the shift to industrialization from a primarily agrarian community supported the idea of the isolated family, represented throughout the novel by the Joad family, but this organizational method did not always work to the benefit of the people as a whole. Steinbeck identifies that in order to begin confronting the injustice through change, the previous structures of society, in this case the family unit, must be broken down in order to reconfigure the entire system. In order to have greater success in confronting the system, the individual can unite with others focused on a common goal.

Even though the process of confronting injustice is long and arduous because proper resources are not readily available, the individual can join with others to command a greater authority and distribute the impact of suffering. Steinbeck uses the natural world as a model for what he believes the migrants’ society should become because there is no inherent structure that can be considered fair or unfair. The migrants would then be able to establish a system that exhibits more equality. In chapter three of the novel, Steinbeck uses a turtle to represent all the migrant workers, including the Joad family. The slow and steady progress of the turtle that is measured generationally is contrasted to the strengthening force of modern industry that progresses at a rapid pace. Steinbeck uses a truck to model the injustice of an industrialized society as an opposing force that moves over the land in contrast to the turtle that comes from the land. The two are thrown together as a result of technological advancement, “And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it” (15, Steinbeck ). Despite the obstacle, “…little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright” (16, Steinbeck ). The turtle was able to withstand the shocking blow of the truck because the impact was absorbed by the shell. Steinbeck chose the turtle as a desired model for the migrants because the creature had constructed a sturdy shell with segments joined together as part of a stronger whole that proved capable of surviving great trauma. The segmented parts enabled the shell to remain intact without cracking because there were more areas that distribute the effects of the shock, just as a united community can more effectively endure hardship compared to a lone individual. Therefore the mechanism that allows the individual to confront injustice is a group inspired in a common cause. Just as “the turtle entered a dust road and jerked itself along, drawing a wavy shallow trench in the dust with its shell”, a united, determined group of people will have more resources than a single individual to continue their journey while leaving their personal touch on history (16, Steinbeck ). Trust is essential in order to form a cohesive unit with others, and individuals must be honest with themselves before they can be honest with those around them.

Throughout the novel the migrants are continually lied to by others and lie to themselves. Even though the Joad family members observe the masses of people migrating in search of work, they still delude themselves into believing that the “promised land” of California will provide them with the opportunity for work and the life of their dreams. Pa declares, “’Course you ain’t gonna fret me. I got a han’bill says they need men…They wouldn’ put ‘em out if they didn’ need men” (189, Steinbeck ). This sentiment is repeated by the majority of the migrant population as they ignore the facts and convince themselves that their story will be different and they will be able to succeed in California. Delusion is just one method of lying that Stephanie Ericsson identifies in her essay, “The Ways we Lie”. The out-and-out lie that Casy told the cops at the Hooverville that he had “knocked out your man there” to protect Tom ultimately had unforeseen consequences (266, Steinbeck). After his release from jail Casy joins a labor union, and because Tom is not forced to repent for his violent actions, he later murders a cop and further breaks apart the Joad family unit. The negative consequences that accompany lying further support Ericsson’s claim that society’s “acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to fish” (Ericsson). Lying has become infused into the system of our society, which makes it even more difficult for the individual to not participate. Ericsson refuses to condone any form of lying because she argues, “if I justify lying, what makes me any different from slick politicians or the corporate robbers who raided the S&L industry?” (Ericsson). The lies of the American people have partly contributed to the current economic recession as mortgage bankers “ignored the plain facts” that mortgage applicants would not be able to make payments but approved the loan anyway, or how the public has witnessed the misuse of their money by CEO’s of corporations like General Motors or AIG, but deluded themselves into believing the executives would instantly change their practices if given millions more dollars to be spent without regulations. Once the injustices to the consumer were recognized, the individual had an obligation to begin the process of changing the established system. Steinbeck advocates for changing the fundamental infrastructure of society to prevent the abuse of common citizens by corporate enterprises.

The consumer perpetuates the system by accepting that bigger businesses take advantage of them by overcharging for goods. In chapter twelve of the novel the salesmen exploit the migrants by overcharging for necessary car parts because “ They look a fella over. They know he got to go on. They know he can't wait. And the price goes up" (120, Steinbeck ). This particular injustice the migrants face on their journey results from the lack of infrastructure within society to protect the consumer. The individual must instead rely on resources at their disposal to confront the injustice, which in this situation would be the boycott of goods. Although an individual could respond by claiming “ I'll go on the rim before I'd give that son-of-a-bitch a dime", the boycott is more effective when a large number of people participate, furthering Steinbeck’s claim that individuals can achieve greater success as an organized group (121, Steinbeck ). Society does not condemn the taking advantage of consumers because it encourages the pursuit of profit at any cost. Therefore it is left to the individual to decide whether they believe an action is acceptable. Although the ultimate decision is made by the individual, their beliefs are influenced by personal experiences and societal standards. In //The Grapes of Wrath// the societal standards are initially guided by biblical teachings and the limitations of farm life, yet standards are adapted to life on the road and in Hoovervilles. As circumstances change, the individual perception of right and wrong also changes. In this chapter Steinbeck utilizes parallel structure as he writes, “Listen to the motor. Listen to the wheels. Listen with your ears and with your hands on the steering wheel; listen with the palm of your hand on the gear-shift lever; listen with your feet on the floor boards. Listen to the pounding old jalopy with all your senses” (119, Steinbeck ). The flowing construction of this passage mimics a stream just like the migrants flow through life constantly working to push forward along their route. When a larger obstacle is encountered, the stream joins to become part of a larger river to erode the foundation of the obstacle to restructure the course of the riverbed. If an individual discovers an unfair obstacle within the system, it is the duty of the individual to fix it. In the process of confronting injustice and restructuring society, the individual must establish resources available to the common man into the system in order to maintain a more equal society. In his essay “Civil Disobedience”, Henry David Thoreau recognizes that, “…people mean well; they are only ignorant; they would do better if they knew how” (Thoreau). Education is a vital resource that the migrants were not able to access, and consequently they were not as capable of advocating for the rights and treatment they deserved. Thoreau believes, “There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly” (Thoreau). This structure of society would allow the individual to confront injustice by directly influencing government policy, which is made possible in the United States through the processes of initiative, referendum, and recall. An individual could more easily fulfill their obligation to correct an injustice if they had appropriate resources with which to do so. The societal structure in //The Grapes of Wrath// did not provide resources for the migrants to assimilate into Californian society without losing their personal identity because the migrants were dehumanized by the locals. The corporate infrastructure is the primary source of injustice in chapter twenty-one as the economic system that thrives on manipulation and constant competition, portrayed in the novel, overlooks humanity in the constant drive for profit. Society has structured the economy so that people are not satisfied with merely maintaining stable earnings, but expects businesses to show an annual increase of profit. The local Californians are afraid of the “Okies” because they do not understand their culture and they fear losing their jobs and becoming one of the starving migrant workers, and this fear becomes anger as the locals lash out. The locals dehumanize the migrants by claiming, “These goddamned Okies are dirty and ignorant. They’re degenerate, sexual maniacs. These goddamned Okies are thieves” (283, Steinbeck ). They further reduce the status of the migrants by “keeping them in their place” through organizations like the Farmers’ Association that kept wages low and burned migrant camps. In the process of distancing themselves from the subhuman level of migrants, the farmers are actually pulling their whole society down as lower wages impede the economic cycle that requires consumers to have purchasing power to create a demand for goods that in turn drives production. However, the corporations do not care about the well-being of the workers and judge their practices, not by whether they are morally right or wrong, but by how well they benefit the company’s quest for profit. The differing perspectives of right and wrong between the corporations and workers result from their personal experiences. The migrants had consistently embodied the best qualities of humanity throughout their journey, yet “the anger began to ferment” as the migrants were oppressed and deprived of the resources to better their situation (284, Steinbeck ). The migrants did not know how to sacrifice and break down their individual family structure to join together in the camps in order to become a stronger unit that could more efficiently absorb the impact, much like the turtle’s shell. The migrants did not want to let go of the only thing they had left, family, because they feared the loss of their identity by becoming a dehumanized statistic as just one of the migrant workers.

It is dangerous when people are regarded as merely statistics because people tend to forget the human suffering behind the generalization. In her essay “Homeless”, Anna Quindlen argues that society, “would be better off if we forgot about the broad strokes and concentrated on the details” (Quindlen). She shares the stories of homeless members of society to prevent them from being just another homeless on the streets looked down upon by society. Her descriptions make the person into somebody society can relate to and not fear. Once there is fear, it can quickly turn into irrational anger as shown by the violent treatment of minority groups throughout history from Jews to African Americans, and within //The Grapes of Wrath// as migrants are killed by locals. In order to combat the injustice of dehumanization by corporations within the novel, the migrants and California farmers should have united because they were in similar positions of being poorly treated within the system run solely for business profit. Ultimately the underlying foundation of society determines the quality of people in the system, so an individual can correct an unjust system by destroying the established infrastructure.

Steinbeck once again uses nature as a model for the migrants’ world as chapter twenty-five explains how a corrupted infrastructure of society corrupts the people, just as the quality of the soil determines the quality of the grapes, and ultimately the wine. Once an underlying infrastructure is created, it must be maintained to prevent deterioration and death of society. Within the novel, the diverse group of migrants that came from the Heartland of America represented everyone because the corruption of the very core of society has widespread effects as “the smell of rot fills the country” (349, <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Steinbeck ). Although each family is their own bunch of grapes, each bunch stems from a single vine that is rooted with a single piece of land. The treatment of the grapes with the amount of sun, water, and nutrients they receive throughout their development all determine the quality of the mature grape, just as the quality of an individual is the culmination of their life experiences. “In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage” (349, <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Steinbeck ). However, the vintage produced from a grape or an individual is ultimately determined by the quality of soil or the foundation of their society. A fine vintage can not be produced from the fruit of a poisoned society. The injustice individuals face is that within a society founded on an infrastructure that connects everyone, no one can escape the corruption. The only way an individual can confront this injustice is to take down the structure, replant the vine in a pure patch of soil, and nurture the developing society by providing necessary resources. An individual must confront injustice by working to reform the very infrastructure that forms the foundation of the unjust society. Within his novel, Steinbeck advocates the strategy of uniting with others to achieve a shared goal to more efficiently use the precious few resources available. Each individual must decide for themselves what is considered appropriate for each unique circumstance that may arise, proving that personal identity can still be preserved within a larger community that has unified to protect humanity from the corruption of society.

<span style="display: block; font-size: 110%; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Works Cited
 * Ericsson, Stephanie. "The Ways We Lie." 28 Mar. 09 <[]
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Quindlen, Anna. "Homeless." 28 Mar 2009 <[]>.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Steinbeck, John. __Grapes of Wrath__. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books, 2002.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Thoreau, Henry D. “Civil Disobedience.” __The Thoreau Reader.__ <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">28 Mar. 2009 < <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil.html <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">>.