The novel The Grapes Of Wrath begins with solidarity between farmers, all of whom are interconnected through the land they till. This unity ends up transcending the boundaries of both physical and communal planes, as the farmers’ identities turn to those of migrants’. The removal of the farmers’ security, coupled with a communal sense of ostracization from society, created an identity of migrants that was both unique and similar to the community that was created by the farmers prior to the Great Depression. The tenants forced off their land shared a near indistinguishable plight, stitching together a new era of life on the road. The intolerant treatment of these migrants generated a greater sense of community, built on both a sense of responsibility
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As the author explains the laws of history, he goes into depth the landowners will go to rip the migrant communities apart, “And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. (page 249)” The great owners attempt to repress the migrants, who they deem unclean and even inhuman, as more and more arrive in California. Though from the repression by the upper and more powerful classes, the community of migrants become tightly combined, and more powerful by consequence. The anger and resentment of the poor masses fuels the exact uprisings that the owners wish to prevent, and the organization of the communities the migrants form on the road. At the weedpatch camp, Timothy, one of the main councilmen helping the Joad men find work, explains why the sheriffs have no ability to enter government camps like Weedpatch, “We ain’t never had no trouble with the law. I guess the big farmers is scairt of that. Can’t throw us in jail—why, it scares ‘em. Figger maybe if we can gove’n ourselves, maybe we’ll do other things.” (page 297) As the migrant community organizes and creates a new, ‘more refined’ identity, the oppressive authority figures begin to fear this new, large, and rapidly expanding social class of farmers turned hard laborers out West. And so, the repressive …show more content…
Then leaders emerged, then laws were made, then codes came into being. And as the worlds moved westward they were more complete and better furnished, for their builders were more experienced in building them. (page 194).” As the form of identity switch from farmers in the soil to migrants on the road, the laws and rules that once dictated their entire existence changed in unison to fit this new and changing environment. Their ideas and morals were kept as the world changed around them, binding them together with the only things they know. Yet it would appear that basic human necessity, especially hunger, would destroy the fragility of these communities binding the migrants together through almost blood bonds. Though the travelers all hunger for food, work, and a place to call their own, these bonds are only strengthened by a shared wrath towards those who dare to test their self-respect and spirit: “and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage (page 349).” Though they hunger for basic human
As the author explains the laws of history, he goes into depth the landowners will go to rip the migrant communities apart, “And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. (page 249)” The great owners attempt to repress the migrants, who they deem unclean and even inhuman, as more and more arrive in California. Though from the repression by the upper and more powerful classes, the community of migrants become tightly combined, and more powerful by consequence. The anger and resentment of the poor masses fuels the exact uprisings that the owners wish to prevent, and the organization of the communities the migrants form on the road. At the weedpatch camp, Timothy, one of the main councilmen helping the Joad men find work, explains why the sheriffs have no ability to enter government camps like Weedpatch, “We ain’t never had no trouble with the law. I guess the big farmers is scairt of that. Can’t throw us in jail—why, it scares ‘em. Figger maybe if we can gove’n ourselves, maybe we’ll do other things.” (page 297) As the migrant community organizes and creates a new, ‘more refined’ identity, the oppressive authority figures begin to fear this new, large, and rapidly expanding social class of farmers turned hard laborers out West. And so, the repressive …show more content…
Then leaders emerged, then laws were made, then codes came into being. And as the worlds moved westward they were more complete and better furnished, for their builders were more experienced in building them. (page 194).” As the form of identity switch from farmers in the soil to migrants on the road, the laws and rules that once dictated their entire existence changed in unison to fit this new and changing environment. Their ideas and morals were kept as the world changed around them, binding them together with the only things they know. Yet it would appear that basic human necessity, especially hunger, would destroy the fragility of these communities binding the migrants together through almost blood bonds. Though the travelers all hunger for food, work, and a place to call their own, these bonds are only strengthened by a shared wrath towards those who dare to test their self-respect and spirit: “and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage (page 349).” Though they hunger for basic human