Grapes of Wrath :: Essays Papers

Grapes of Wrath2In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes of the novel, as nearly to set the tone of the novel. The turtle is a metaphor for the works class farmers whose stories and struggles are recounted in The Grapes of Wrath. In Chapter 3, the turtle roams along dutifully, notwithstanding is consistently confronted with danger and setbacks. Significantly, the dangers posed to the turtle are those of modernity and pedigree. It is the ravishment of cable cars and the building of highways that endanger the turtle. The truck that strikes it is a symbol of big business and commerce. The turtle entered a dust road and jerked itself along, drawing a crinkly shallow trench in the dust with its shell (pg 21) shows that the Joad family that will before long be introduced will fix similar travails as the turtle, as they plod along wishing only to survive, yet are brutally pushed deflection by corporate interests. Chapter 7, another intercalary chapter critiques yet another get of the business system. The owners of the car careerships mean solely to exploit impoverished buyers. They do not profit from selling cars that will last, but rather from purpose the most ill-used vehicle, giving it the appearance of reliability, and pawning it off on do-or-die(a) farmers wishing to get to California. There is no compassion in the car sales, but rather a perpetual cycle of exploitation. This indicates what the Joad family must sure enough have experienced to get their car to go west, yet places it in a larger context. The chapter makes it clear that they are not the only family to experience this. As the Joad family faces the same trials that the turtle faces, and as the desperate farmers have to deal with car dealerships, the intercalary chapters help to set the tone of, as fountainhead as integrate the various themes of The