Open Prompt 2

As the Great Depression demolished the family funds and the Dust Bowl destroyed the family crops, plantation owners took full advantage of the desperate situations. Knowing that everyone was desperate for work, these owners compromised a fair wage to maximize corporate  profit. The Joad family in Grapes of Wrath was no exception to this selfishness, as they embarked on a strenuous journey to California where they believed they could find decent wages. Through alternating languages and numerous details of the story that recounts their journey, John Steinback masterfully blends the social issue of greed into his novel and makes his audience realize how superficial the American dream truly is. 

The plot includes few happy moments for the Joad family. The first Joad family member we meet is someone who has been convicted for homicide. As we follow him on his way back home, Tom Joad finds his old house empty. A neighbor tells him that they were evicted, and are at his Uncle’s house. Even from the start, we as readers are exposed to greed through the ousting of the Joads out of their home. With Steinback’s numerous details about how the landowners cut costs by replacing the Joad family with a large tractor, he makes us despise large wealthy landowners and sympathize with families like the Joads who have been cheated of their American dream. 

But things only escalate in difficulty as the actual voyage out west starts. The Joad family encounters numerous hardships, including the deaths of both grandparents. However, to heighten the struggle of the Joad family that the readers perceive, the narrator of the story often strays from telling the main story of the Joad family. The narrator changes from the neutral narrator to the lively language of a greedy car salesman, juxtaposing the poor families traveling out west with the people who are making a profit off of their struggles. By seeing both sides of the corrupter and the cheated, we as an audience feel even more pity for the families trying to earn enough to gain the stereotypical American dream of a house, car, and land. We see the disillusionment just as they see it. 

In conclusion, John Steinback criticizes the American dream by incorporating greed into his novel. By manipulating language, he masterfully portrays salesmen, landowners, and corporations as antagonizing forces against the common people. Steinback truly makes us question whether or not the American dream is an achievable goal or a shallow facade.