Kendra+Fisher

The Fight For What Is Right

Injustice is the violation of the rights of another or others. Since the beginning of time, society debates whether they should risk everything and confront injustice or stay in their comfort zone. Many individuals only confront this act of unfairness if they know they will receive some kind of personal gain in return. “Sometimes what is not as big of an injustice is what people don’t say to defend justice” (Martin Luther King) The battle to defend justice is seen throughout John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath, Joseph Perkin’s “Homeless: Expose the Myths”, Anna Quindlen’s Homeless, and Stephanie Ericsson’s “The Way’s We Lie”. The Many injustices and the lack of confrontations to these unfair acts leads to many hardships and the downfall of migrants during the mid-twentieth century. The Individuals confronted injustice bravely and with passion but because they didn’t come together as a whole they never received all of their needs that they fought for.

In Chapter 3 of The Grapes Of Wrath a turtle walks along and climbs the embankment of the highway with much difficulty. As it keeps getting higher, the turtle's efforts become stronger. On the way up the turtle faces many problems involving nature but finally the turtle reaches the top and starts crossing the highway. The first driver in the chapter sees the turtle and swerves to avoid hitting it. The next driver however, deliberately swerves to hit the turtle; his front wheel struck the shell flipping it over. “Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over.”(15) This represented that although the turtle faced many obstacles and reached a life or death situation he survived and kept on going on its journey. The turtle is symbolic of the Joads and other families during the “Dust Bowl Migration”. The turtle like the families carry their home on their back wherever it goes and risks it through their journeys. The man deliberately trying to hurt the turtle represents the injustices that families face on their way to California. Like the man in the truck, the car shops also deliberately try to setback the families by selling them low quality parts for extremely high prices. Last the turtle’s determination and fight of all obstacles represent the battle the migrants face during the move westward. The individuals confront these acts of injustice by taking what they have and making the most of it. The banks took the farmer’s land from them, but instead of giving up and complaining, the farmers packed up their lives and drove to California to start a new chapter in their life.

Throughout The Grapes Of Wrath, injustice is seen when dishonest people take advantage of kind naïve individuals. In chapter 7 this act of unfairness is taken place at a used car lot. The salesman at the car lot cheats the naïve man by lying about the car’s abilities. It is also unjust when the salesman makes no guarantees except, “we guarantee it to be an automobile.”(65) The salesman knows that the migrants all need to get an automobile no matter the condition or price so he uses it in his advantage to rip the migrants off. “Salesmen, neat, deadly, small, intent, eyes watching for weakness.” (61) The salesman knows that they are deliberately screwing the farmers over but only care about their profits. In the end, the farmer who has worked long hard hours for his money has been manipulated and victimized. The individual confronted this act of injustice with little confidence. The only thing he did to confront this was ask about the potential of the car because by the looks of it, it seemed it wouldn’t go far without breaking down. The dealer responded by saying, “Well you just get tough and I will call the cops.” (65) The Farmer realized the higher authority the dealer had on him, one because he was wealthier and two because he was the one with the car for sale. In the end, Joe shut up and let injustice keep occurring in the sales of automobiles. If more migrants like Joe stood up for this injustice and boycotted the sales of cars a difference could have been made.

The purpose of chapter 12 is to show the injustice of the truck stops and how they overcharge and sell parts that don’t work to the helpless migrants. Due to the “Dust Bowl Migration” farmers are forced to drive to California to earn a living. They first deal with injustice when buying a car to travel in. The dealerships know that the farmers need a car so they raise prices for unreliable car. In this chapter injustice is seen when the repairman lies about the parts and how good they are. “You said the casing was good, she’s broke damn near through.”(121) The repairman did this on purpose so the part could not be fixed, only replaced. The next act of injustice was when the repairman tried ripping the family off by proposing an outrageous price for a low quality part. “You go steal that tire an’ you’re a thief but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.”(120) This quote shows that the workers only care about making profits; they can care less about the poor people. An individual confronts injustice in this chapter by refusing to but the parts needed for his car. “You’ll take a flying jump at the moon! We’ll try to make the nex’ town.” (121) This showed that the individual was standing up for himself and family. He risked his life and working car to stand up for what is right and hopes to make changes for him and the other migrants traveling. Although it was a great start to confronting injustice, in order for this to end completely, many other people would have to get involved and boycott the truck shop’s prices. If this would take place, prices could finally be reasonable and the quality of the parts could be good. With the involvement of the community this act of injustice could be fixed.

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that has countless examples of injustice. In chapter nineteen, not only is Mexico's land stolen but the dignity and dreams of American civilians are stolen as well. Wealthy farmers show many acts of injustice by paying hard working laborers very low wages. The farmers used this extra money to hire deputies to patrol their land so the "Okies" could not revolt or have a way of entering the farms and stealing food. There are a few ways individuals in this chapter confront injustice. The civilians only want a few things: a decent wage, food for themselves and families, and a place to live. Many civilians know this is impossible though, which resorts them to confront injustice by breaking the rules and doing whatever they can to survive. Many of the "Okies" decide to use the land farmers leave wasted to build "secret gardens." "And the little green carrot tops were kicked off and the turnip greens trampled.” These secret gardens were not meant for competition against farmers, they were made for one reason- survival. This quote showed that the civilians were planting very few items that could not compete with the big time farms; they were just made to give people something to survive off of. The next example of how an individual confronts injustice is when a man tries to pick a piece of fruit for his starving little boy. "And guards with shot guns patrolling the lines so a man might not pick an orange for a thin child."(237) This shows that the "okies" will risk anything including being shot to fight against the corruption of the wealthy land owners and even though they know its wrong to steal from the farmers they do what they think is right for their families.

Throughout chapter 21, injustice is seen through low wages and stereotypes. When the Okies arrived the wealthy farmers did not want to accept them into society. “These goddamned okies are dirty and ignorant…they’ll steal anything” (283) this quote showed how stereotypical and wrong the wealthy farmers were to the Okies. All the Okies really wanted was a decent wage and health for themselves and family. Instead they were views as degenerate and sexual maniacs. Due to these false accusations on the Okies units and squads were formed armed with clubs, gas and guns. The Okies did not confront this because of the intimidation they felt. The next unjust act was the fact that the wealthy farmers paid the migrants extremely low wages. Because of the high authority of the wealthy farmers, they could pay the migrants anything they wanted. “And this was good for wages went down and prices stayed up.” (283) This quote showed that because the Okies were so desperate for money they would accept the low wages no matter how unfair it was. “I’ll work for twenty five. If he’ll work for twenty-five I’ll work for fifteen.” The demand for work made the low wages worsens and worsens. An individual would try to confront this injustice but could not do it alone. Because the Okies focus on what they need to do for their family, no extra time or energy is left to try and prevail as a team. If they lived with the moral “life liberty and the share of happiness” they could rebel and work as a team to fix these acts and share the results. One example of how this relates to today’s society is the rivalry between Estancia High School and Costa Mesa High School. As separate schools they are seen as average when battling against larger schools. If they changed their infrastructure and came together as one they could conquer all!

Joseph Perkins and John Steinbeck both share similar views on confronting injustice. In Perkins’s “Homeless: Expose the Myths” and Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath The authors both make it clear that the only way to confront injustice is by finding the underlying problem and fixing it as soon as possible with confidence. In perkin’s Essay injustice is seen through homelessness in America. Homelessness is views in society as wrong and the people who are living lives without homes receive no chance in life because of the views America has. “This means that for growing Americans, a missed pay check, a health crisis or a high utility bill brings the threat of homelessness.” This quote represents that anyone can become homeless not just the bad or lazy people. To confront the injustice we as a society need to pay more attention to their mental health and substance abuse problems. Also the government needs to step it up and help create more jobs and insurance so the rate of homelessness can go down and more people can get off the streets.

“The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson is an essay that discusses the pros and cons of lying and ultimately shows how destructive lying is. Steinbeck feels this same passion for truth by discussing how important it is to end the lies that wealthy farmers and car dealerships get way with. “Our 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 a fish.” This quote discusses the corruption in society now and in the Grapes of Wrath. Because lies are seen so often we just accept them in society when really they are a destructive cancer to all.

“Homeless” by Anna Quindlen is an essay that discusses the corruption and injustice of homelessness. “No window to look out upon the world. My God. That is everything.” This quote discusses the importance of owning a home. A home is everything and in today’s society and during the nineteen twenties in The Grapes Of Wrath too many people were homeless. It was almost as if they had no identity, no place to go and have as their own. This injustice is taken very lightly because as individuals 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.” Instead of thinking like this we need to confront this injustice by remembering that these people are humans, they have feelings and not all of them are lazy and drug addicts. As a community we can help people in need and make a positive impact on society. Many individuals are skeptical in confronting injustice because of the risk of losing everything they have. John Steinbeck makes it clear though that you will eventually lose everything unless you fight against the corruption in society. In The Grapes of Wrath and other excerpts such as “Homeless” the only way to confront injustice for it to become effective is to stop only worrying about yourself and your own benefits and focus on working together as a team to overcome any unfairness. The Individuals confronted injustice bravely and with passion but because they didn’t come together as a whole they never received all of their needs and desires.

K. Fisher Works Cited

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

Perkins, Joseph. "Homeless: Expose the Myths." 29 Mar. 2009 .

Steinbeck, John. Grapes of Wrath. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1992.

Quindlen, Anna. "Homeless." 11 Mar 2009 <__http://pers.dadeschools.net/prodev/homelesstext.htm__>.