Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath”:
In the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, the life of a migrant family is portrayed. The family is forced off their land in Oklahoma and must search for employment in California. Throughout the course of the novel, the Joads shift their focus from concern for themselves and their personal welfare to concern for all people in the world.
This is one of the major themes in the novel, traceable through many characters such as Jim Casey, Tom Joad, Ma Joad, and Rose of Sharon. It is also evident in many actions taken by the Joad family as a whole. Jim Casy plays a strong role in bringing forth the theme.
Casey is a preacher like no other. He does not preach the orthodox ideas of the Christian religion. Instead, he preaches the Emersonian doctrine of the Oversoul. Tom Joad once recalls that one time Casey went into the wilderness to find his own soul, and he found that he didn’t have a soul that was his. He says he found that he just got a little piece of a great big soul. . .
His little piece of a soul wasn’t any good unless it was with the rest and was whole. This is part of Emerson’s views on the Oversoul. Man’s soul is breaking away from a larger soul, and in death, this individual soul is reunited with the larger Oversoul. It is through Casy’s beliefs in the concept of the Oversoul and his prison experience that reveals to Jim that only through unity and concern for the entire human race will the migrants succeed. Rose of Sharon is another character that can be used to trace the progression of the Joads from a concern for themselves and their own personal welfare to a concern for all the people of the world. Throughout the novel, Rose of Sharon is shown as a sick and whining girl.
It is easy to blame this on the fact that she is a pregnant woman who is expected to deliver at any time. However, her attitude and actions show that she is grouchy and irritable beyond limits. Though the family is in great peril, she worries only about the effects it will have on her baby. Once the baby is born, everything changes for her. She begins to hold a concern beyond herself and the baby because it does not exist.
She shows this in the ending of the novel by giving life to a stranger who is starving. Through this, she becomes part of the brotherhood of man that Casy preached about and part of the Oversoul. The character of Ma Joad supports the theme by focusing on the complete opposite. Throughout the novel, Ma Joad is worried about keeping the family together. In its literal interpretation, it directly contrasts the idea of the Joads moving beyond just a concern for their immediate family to a concern for all of humanity. Ma Joad is the force that holds the family together.
She realizes that they have no home and that the only value and meaning in life is derived from being a family. In spite of this, she knows that the family is breaking up. However, she still fights to keep the family together. She wants to keep them together so that they are protected, and that can only be done when the family is whole.
This can be related to the theme because Ma Joad fights to hold the family together, which is also the reason the family must worry more about humanity as a whole. Only when people worry about the human race as a whole will it be truly protected and able to succeed. This all goes back to Casys preaching about the Oversoul. Tom Joad is the main character in the novel. He enters the novel as a man who has just been released from prison for killing a man and is only interested in his own personal comforts and wants.
As he tells Jim Casy, I’m just gonna lay one foot down before another.” He shows that he feels no regret or guilt for having killed a man. As a grown man, he values his own individuality very heavily and does not like to be pushed around.
