Dust Bowl Migration In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

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Pages: 3

In the classical book The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, the author created a story that revolves around the U.S. Dust Bowl migration during the Great Depression in which very many poor families drove to California from several miles away, looking for work. This particular story follows a fictional family being forced to move to California from Oklahoma by car due to their only home being smashed into by a tractor; however, with their really old truck, which is weighed down with the family’s necessities, it takes longer for them to get to California then expected. Plus, their lack of money makes things even worse. The story begins with the second-eldest son of the Joads: Tom Joad, who just got released from jail, for homicide, three years early. Several people join, leave, die in the story as it unravels the big adventure of the Joad family. …show more content…
For example, when the issue of Tom’s parole is addressed, the topic is brought up several times including the explanation of what would happen if he left the state before his three years are up, and then, later in the story, Tom kills another person, which would gain him attention towards his record, if he were to be caught, and get him thrown back into jail for an even longer time than before and he would be sent back to Oklahoma as well. “‘We got plenty to worry about ‘thout you figgerin’ out things to worry about.’ ‘I can’t he’p it,’ she said. ‘Minute you cross the line you done a crime.’“ (Steinbeck, 134). Even though this book is very old and a lot of classics have this kind of vocabulary, The Grapes of Wrath contains a lot of profanity, which is another thing that I noticed the author did frequently throughout the entire story. The profanity is part of the few things that I did not like about this