The Grapes of Wrath: The Dehumanizing Forces of Rain and Dust
The novel's depiction of natural phenomena such as rain and dust dehumanizes humans and causes them to face challenges. These powers are unstoppable and inevitable, and they appear to transform the lives of families and farmers permanently. Because of rains and dust, Joads and other farmers, for example, are forced to abandon their fields. Water breaks into the ground, forcing people to create embankments and some to escape, dehumanizing them. Critically, the monstrous powers of rain and dust serve as a vivid mirror to the societal forces at work in the novel's narrative. Whilst these disturbing forces are hard to be stopped and portray to be destructive, they do not give the individuals an opportunity for them to explore and discover their true self-identity and worth. Steinbeck argues that “all people are caught in something larger than themselves” (Steinbeck 78). According to the plot of the novel, these monster forces do metaphorically represent strong forces that are catalysts to change.
The Money-Driven Monster: Land-owning Companies and Banks
Chapter five does plainly introduce the “monster” that wears its ugly head in the other chapters of the novel. Steinbeck also points out that the money-driven system is “the monster destroying the lives of Okies” (Steinbeck 109). The author does show that the land-owning companies together with the banks are monsters that destroy the lives of people. He writes “The monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die” (Steinbeck 159). These monsters paint a clear picture of dehumanization are a term to be a cause of the problem that individuals face. For example, chapter five makes the audience to view the insect-like tractors that overrun the land and men wearing dust masks and goggles to be “part of the monster” (Steinbeck 175). Steinbeck writes that the drivers cannot “see the land as it was . . . or smell the land as it smelled; their feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth” (Steinbeck 184). The dust masks and goggles are metaphors representing how the people have been dehumanized and indicate the evilness nature of these monsters.
Blue Winds Dancing: The Dehumanizing Forces of Civilization
The plot of this novel is driven by monsters and dehumanizing forces resulting from an act of civilization and the “white” society causing internal and external conflicts in people. The narrator states that “We (young Indians) just don’t seem to fit in anywhere, certainly not among the whites, and not among the older people” (Whitecloud 44). There is no peace in the urban areas due to civilization as indicated by the narrator. The narrator further expresses his dissatisfactions in the quality of urban life calling it “white society”. He voices that “I am tired. I am weary of trying to keep up this bluff of being civilized. Being civilized means trying to do everything you don’t want to, never doing anything you want to” (Whitecloud 61). Truly, civilization is a dehumanizing force that brings the narrator problems of identity creating conflicts. Additionally, lack of personal identity is another monster that faces the narrator. In addressing the problem, the narrator goes to Wisconsin to seek his own self-identity. The narrator is filled with pressures of being a minority and he does not imagine being part of the white society. When he reaches his home he is also afraid of how his people will look at him. He states that “Suddenly, I am afraid… afraid of what my father will say, afraid of being looked on as a stranger by my own people.” Indeed, dehumanizing and monster forces of civilization and “white society” make the narrator encounter problems of self-identity.
Works Cited
Steinbeck John . The Grapes Of Wrath. 1st ed., Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 2015.
Whitecloud Tom. Blue Winds Dancing. 1st ed., New Orleans, LA, New Orleans Museum Of Art, 2005.
