Unity In John Steinbeck's The Grape Of Wrath

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Pages: 4

John Steinbeck’s The Grape of Wrath was written at the end of the great depression era in the U.S. The story takes place in a period time of dust bowl in Oklahoman. Under the force of nature, machinery inventions, and corrupted government, hundreds of tenants lost their lands to the bank. A large number of them had no other choice but to move South West to California, a promised land with more job opportunities. Among the immigrants, Steinbeck particularly focuses on the Joad family to represent for the entire migrants at the time. The Grape of Wrath demonstrates Steinbeck’s theme of human dignity and unity.
First of all, unity is one of the main factors that help the Joad and migrants families to sustain through the difficult circumstances.
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As the story goes along, Steinbeck spread his idea of unity to nationwide, the bonding between human being. Steinbeck introduces the concept of human unity through Jim Casy’s belief. As the story go on, he gradually develops his theme of Human unity on each individual character. For instance, in the very start of the novel, Casy admits that he has a different view in Holy Spirit. He states: “Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe? I figgered, ‘maybe it’s all men an’s all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit- the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’ a part of.’” (Steinbeck 234) Casy himself is pretty confident about his new view in Holy Spirit, yet he does not know how to work it out. However, as he experiences the unfair society where immigrant workers have to live under the power of corrupted governments, by then, he puts his theory of “one big soul” (Steinbeck 234) into action. As a representative of Jesus Christ he believes that his job is to stand up for the people he loves. He gathers the workers all together as a whole to fight against the corrupted government for their rights. Thus, Steinbeckuse Casy’s belief to introduce his idea of Human unity to the readers, then he apply it in to Casy action to set an example of what Human unity