Grapes Of Wrath Rhetorical Analysis

Quotations and page number:
“The walls decorated with posters, bathing girls, blondes with big breasts and slender hips and waxen faces, in white bathing suits, and holding a bottle of Coca-Cola and smiling- see what you get with a Coca-Cola” (Steinbeck 208).
Identify or describe device: exaggeration and foreshadowing
Explain how device contributes to meaning:
The Coca-Cola advertisement in the diner represents the false hope that may lie in California in the Joad Family’s near future. The poster exaggerates the benefits of drinking Coca-Cola, giving false hope for the product. The poster depicts “smiling” blondes clothed in “white bathing suits.” The product, however, is presently being enjoyed in a spartan diner. The poster promises customers fulfillment if they purchase the beverage, as California promises a life of plenty. The phrase “big breasts” shows plenty, the object that impelled thousands of tenant farmers to trek Westward in the first place. This foreshadows the Joad’s arrival in California and subsequent realization that the state is no utopia; the fulfillment it promises is exaggerated. California is a dream for the tenant farmers. In reality, California will probably not fulfill its …show more content…
The simile comparing humans and bugs is evident in the use of the word “like” and the detail “scuttle,” an action performed by bugs. It evokes the image of an ant hill. The farmers, like the ants, perform separate functions during the day, namely travelling “westward,” but unite at night into multi-family camps. In nature, the bugs that do not unite to keep warm and ward off predators die; man’s survival too depends on his willingness to unite and work with others, Steinbeck suggests. Their proximity to food and water demonstrates their reliance on nature for sustenance, nature which has failed them and caused them to leave

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Rhetorical Analysis- the Grapes of Wrath Essay