Analysis Of Chapter 5 Of John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

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In chapter 5 of the novel Grapes of Wrath the author John Steinbeck shows the reality of the modern day farmer. The book explained how hard it was for them to make a living for themselves, let alone run a farm. The chapter starts off with representatives of the owner’s of the land come up to discuss the amount of money that they owe to the bank, but the tenants are soon to realize that they can’t pay off their debt. The men that have come from the company hate what they have to do knowing. These men are going to ruin the livelihood of the family that farmed this land for generations on generations, but no one wants to own up and take responsibility for their actions. The owners men then explained to the tenant that “you know the land 's getting …show more content…
The owners men then state that “the bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you It 's the monster. Men made it, but they can 't control it.” (Steinbeck). This shows that although people have sympathy for others the bank doesn 't care about the people. The show no remorse to the family who is out for their money. In the movie Food Inc. it is shown by the large corporations that all they are after is their money and not the livelihood of their employees such as the bank is in the book. The movie also states that these top companies such as Monsanto, Tyson, and Perdue also use their economic power to discourage modern day farmers and their workers to speak out about their experiences or operations of their corporate controlled farms. If they do speak out, they can risk a retaliation from these corporations cutting off their revenue to their business. Throughout, the day a tractor comes along to plow everything in his way with his goggles and his rubber mask on. Steinbeck states that the operator is disconnected from the land he works and that he is not a living man but just an extension of the tractor that he rides on. In the movie Food Inc. it also shows the large entrenchment and industrialized view of the oh so powerful group of food …show more content…
The fact that if you had given this novel to someone today they might think that the book had been written very recently outlining the problems that we have today. In the novel, its states the infertile soil which has been shown today as a major problem as plants are beginning to rob the ground of its nutrients turning the dirt into dust. The second major problem that I had picked up on was the bank, in which today is being shown by the large corporations that control all of the industry and the industrialized view of everything by these corporations basically owning their employees and not letting them farm they way they want also so much as the driver of the tractor in the book was doing his just for a paycheck to feed his family. Also the owners men that had come to the farm to tell the tenant that he would have to leave his home, none of them had wanted to do that but had been forced to by the big corporations or else they would lose their

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