Through out John Steinbeck’s controversial novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the protagonist are faced with a daunting idea; that there is no ‘good’ and ‘bad’ forces in the world. Grapes of Wrath was published in an era filled with discrimination, hate, and fear directed at the fleeing “Okies”; in the early 1930’s the midwestern states where decimated by a foreseen but still devastating Dust Bowl.
The reader joins the main characters, the Joad family, as they travel across the country hoping for work in a foreign state; California. Through out their trip they seem to come to believe that “there ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue” just people doing what people do. Yet the more they seem to believe this, the more the reader begins to see that there is in-fact a drastic flaw in their ideology. People do do horrible and good things, but those are what prove that Sin and Virtue do exist.
The Joad family are, as a whole, virtuous. Although they sin frequently in during the course of the novel, they are not unscrupulous people. They prove throughout the novel that you can still be virtuous and be a sinner, that these two things do exist.
When Tom Joad attacks a man for killing Jim Casey he “bust[s] his head…”(pg. 532), and although his action of killing the man may not be virtuous, the fact that he was trying to defend a friend was. Another character that is virtuous, although he doesn’t believe in virtue or sin, is Jim Casey. He takes the blame when a man talks back to a police officer, in order to save the Joads when Tom helps the man. (p.g. 362) And for all that virtue the reader witnesses by the dirty, dubious“Okies”, sin is still seen in the good upstanding citizens of this novel.
The Essay on Sins and Virtues of Man
There are many sins and virtues attributed to the characters in Eliduc, Everyman, and The Pardoner’s Tale. The characters that I wish to examine for their sins and virtues are those of Eliduc, Guildeluec, Everyman and The Pardoner. The first character, Eliduc, had both virtues and sins, both beautifully displayed in his tale. He was married to Guildeluec, who had always been faithful to him and he ...
Steinbeck portrays the Migrant farmers as a bath of misunderstood wanderers, while describing the local citizens as hostile assailants. The police always seem to be out to get the farmers, and the the average man and woman turn their back’s on their struggles. Strikes are constantly being broken that could help the farmers survive, and the lack of support migrants receive in this time period cripple any chance the “Okies” have at feeding their families and surviving their ordeal.
At government run camps, created to help the abused farmers, local towns try to destroy the camps that they believe are killing their livelihood. Most people sin in this book simply by the way the treat the non-natives, ignoring their fellow man in their time of need. And while men like the kind truck driver, buying candy for poor children, can be found they are extremely rare.
The idea that sin and virtue don’t exist is truly ridiculous. Both can be found in every aspect of life, and are deeply rooted in the core of this book. John Steinbeck uses the characters arguments of the lack of theses things to expose the truth. That all actions are based from sin and virtue.
