The Grapes Of Wrath Essay The Malice of Society - 867 Words

Malice In Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family represents the thousands of migrant families who came to the west with the fantasy of obtaining a peaceful life after the Dust Bowl. Conversely they are faced with something resembling the epitome of human cruelty. Business owners and Californians do what they can to keep the Oklahoma families from breaching the invisible line that divides the privileged and the poor. This line, which only exists in the mind, causes people to loose their sense of humanity. The following quote describes the attitude of the wealthy: â€Å"And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger† (Steinbeck 434). In the beginning of the novel, Steinbeck describes the devastating Dust†¦show more content†¦From the beginning, people are merciless with the Oklahoma folks. When the Okies, derogatory term for the Oklahoma migrants, try to sell their items, they are taken advantage of because of their ignorance of bargaining and need for money. Getting to California is problematic enough. The Oklahoma people can not stop at a gas station, store, or diner without receiving some sort of unkind glance. One situation in the novel describes a waitress who is reluctant to serve man because he is a migrant. â€Å"You can’t get no loaf a bread for a dime. We only got fifteen-cent loafs† is what she tells him (Steinbeck 159). Situations only get worse as they near the ‘fruitful’ land of California. While they think there is an unlimited amount of jobs in California, the affluent business owners are constantly sending out more handbills. The more men he gets the less money he can pay each man that comes looking for a job. â€Å"‘Maybe he needs a thousan’ men. He’ll get five thousan’ there an’ he’ll pay fifteen cents an hour’† (Steinbeck 263). Men have to provide for their families so they readily seize what wages they c an get. All the while, the pockets of the business owner grow fatter and fatter. Steinbeck steadily insults the mentality of the wealthy. There isn’t any house that the Oklahoma people could afford. Instead they set up camps along side the road or congregate in one area. These areas where the migrants assemble are referredShow MoreRelatedRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesin Africa and rejects the European values that have oppressed a society. But prior to the advent of popular culture and especially the music recording business in the late twentieth century, its apparatus of cultural formation was controlled fully by the elite who, to a large extent, ran the educational apparatus and the economic system. But much of the country was beginning to question in earnest the structure of colonial society by the early 1930s. The emergence of Rasta during that period correspondsRead MoreA Picatrix Miscellany52019 Words   |  209 PagesBut in all of them which are designed to do good, gather things together, join [others] together, or cause favor and love, you ought to write [the name] in the breast of the image. Works which cause arguments, separation and which cause enmity and malice, [write the name] behind the shoulders (which is to say, in the spine of the image). All works which are for glory, honor and the gaining of high office ought to have the name written on the top of the head of the image. And thus it is done. XII