Grapes of Wrath- 3

There are many different themes in Grapes of Wrath. I will discuss a few of them. Some of them were more important than others, though. Some themes I really want to discuss in this blog is do what you can with what you have, or do your best, and family.

Do your best no matter what is the main theme in this book in my opinion. The Joads were the perfect example for this theme. The Joads had had too many horrible encounters. Life just kept throwing hardships at them, like the bank closing and how they lost their jobs. The Joads had to move before the tractor came, so they were rushed. Even something as hard as being forced out of your home had something negative with it. In this case, it was that they had to rush and figure out where they should go to. They all helped out with everything and were very nice and polite to everyone who deserved it.

The other big theme discussed is the importance of family. The Joads have a big family, and that even includes the preacher, Casy. The preacher counts as family. They are very close with each other. In the three books I discussed on my blog, these characters were the closest. Even though some of the members did not make it to California, they did their best to stay together and survive. They make the statement "Family is the most important thing" true. The more people who work for the family, the more money they make, so it is important that they realize they are in this together and have to work for each other, not only themselves. They all know how important family is. They act like they love each other and care for each other. You learn that family is very important. It is probably the only reason they survived. If each member of the family had to do that alone, I doubt anyone would survive.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006.