Grape of Wrath is the book I have read in my English class. This book is mainly talking about a family who couldn't survive in its homeland, and then move to California to search a better life. The Grape of wrath really impresses me a lot. There are three main points that gave me a lot of impressions. They are difficulties of immigration, role changes of traditional women, and name-calling on immigrants.
Before Joad's Family moved to California, they thought it is a very nice place.
The flyers they saw said there are plenty of job opportunities. However, after Joad's family went there, they found California was a not a place they expected. They had a hard time on job hunting, and also have lots problem when they were finding a house. I think Joad's family's situation at that time was very hard. People's dream always conflicts with realistic.
This image was selected as a picture of the week o...
Cartoon from 1868 ("'Tis but a change of banners -...
Open-air Initiation of K.K.K. under the Light of t...And people always expect too much, but things do not always go in people's way.
Therefore people should be able to accept the differences between dream and realistic, or adjust themselves to fit the environment. I think Joad's family was very tough at this point. Even the environment was rough, they still struggle for it. I think it is good for everyone to have Joad's spirit.
Another point that impresses is the role changes of traditional women.
After reading this book, I realized women are sometimes more tough than men.
Environment can change a women directly and more easily than men. For example, Joad Mom was a very traditional and conservative woman at the beginning of the story. She follows the orders from her husband, and has been a standard housewife all time. But in the later half of story, she changes from a traditional woman to an aggressive woman, who is kind of in charge of Joad's family at that time. I think in society nowadays, it is sort of fashion that women do not rely on men, and become independent from men. It is necessary for women to learn how to survive by her ability. Women should understand that men are not always stronger than women. Joad mom did carry out all these points in the story. I feel very proud of Joad mom.
The last point that impresses me in the book is the name calling on immigration.
Discrimination on immigrants is a problem that always happening on the world.
When Joad's family first reach California, the police officer derisively called them "Okies." Which is a very bad name-calling to immigrants. I think everyone is equal regardless of age, gender, and race. But in today's society, this basic human right still got ignored sometimes. For instance, the Ku-Klux-Klan in USA still discriminate African-American for a long time.
They even attack black community during party's activities. I think those people who believe in racialism should quit think like this soon as possible.
Just like in the story, even Joad's family wasn't successful at that time, but they still work very hard and struggle for their life. It is actually very admirable. Therefore, people should not lower other's value just because they are immigrants.
I think the Grape of Wrath is a very interesting novel. Mr. Steinback did a good job on describing the positive and negative feeling of immigrant. This book actually gave me lots of feedback that I have never thought of before.
Now I understand that how difficult it was for immigrants during Great Depression, why the role changes of traditional women were very impressive and important, and the name-calling to immigrants is very disrespect
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