The Grapes Of Wrath Political Analysis

When a writer’s work is called “political” it is implied that he or she are trying to support a political agenda using their writing. This is the case during many reforms and times of trouble throughout history. For example, The Grapes of Wrath show the story of a family during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era and try to gain the reader’s sympathy for the cause, in this case, better treatment for Californian immigrants and better understanding of their situation. Eudora Welty, a popular novelist during the 1940-1980’s always claimed that her writing was not political and was only a reflection of the true world and she does not appear to make overt political statements. Whilst Eudora Welty claims her writing is not political, there are three factors that make it political: It takes place during the Civil Rights reform, one of the most important elements in her writing is …show more content…
In many of her short stories, the main characters are socially subjugated individuals who break their traditional society-assigned roles. For example in “A worn path” the main character Phoenix, an old black woman who goes on a long journey to obtain medicine for her grandson. Throughout her quest, she encounters characters that embody racism, for example, she meets a white hunter whom she asks for help in order to get out of a ditch that she fell into. After the hunter begrudgingly helps her, he makes fun of her and asks if she is going to see “Santa Claus” because he believes that she is incapable of such good intention and strong determination to help her son being such an older woman. The hunter is also extremely mean to the older woman. For example “[the hunter] laughed and lifted his gun and pointed it at Phoenix.” After that, he asks “Doesn 't the gun scare you?” to which Phoenix responds “No, sir”. This again demonstrates Phoenix, the older black woman standing up against society and resisting the white