P3+KJohnson

//**__GOW: Confronting Injustices__**//

//In various situations, people judge right from wrong in different ways. Some attempt to correct an injustice while others are defeated or join the opposite cause. In// Grapes Of Wrath//, by John Steinbeck, the novel is riddled with examples of individuals facing a choice between acts of justice and injustice. People judge right from wrong based on their ideas of common sense, ‘gut feelings’ and personal standards. Many times, individuals feel the need to confront a situation by defending themselves, their family or even their reputation because of an unjust act. Others lash out at the injustice by using harmful words or rash actions; in short, some are aggressive while others are reserved in ways to confront injustice. However, it’s the amount of determination the individual needs, not power, that ultimately leads them to success.

Change was inevitable in the agrarian lifestyle during the 1940’s. The modernization of production techniques from flesh and blood working horses to cold, dead steel tractors changed farming forever. Farmers felt the land they lived on was theirs; they “were born on it, working on it, dying on it” (Chapter 5, p 33.// Grapes of Wrath//). They were innocents who had put their souls into tilling the harsh, unrelenting land and the Bank was the injustice cutting their lives short. Yet the evil Bank had reason on its side. If the tenants stayed they would be stealing. If they killed to stay then they’d be murderers. Steinbeck supports the reason for the tenants’ actions by describing the dispute of the land in detail; showing the feeling of hopelessness from the families, especially due to having no effective target to prevent the evictions. The owner men have the right to push people off the land because the land is barren and once it cannot produce it’s worthless. I think that the reason the owners push away the poor tenants with such vigor is not because they ‘have to’, but because in time, they know that they must move on too. “We do not wish to be reminded of the tentative state of our own well-being and sanity” (//On Compassion//, by Barbara Lazear Ascher).//

//When the tenants met with the owners, they knew they had a problem without a solution and tried to resolve it in a conservative way. But they were helpless in small numbers, like a deer against a pack of wolves. Time was the only thing required, yet instead of being humane the businessmen attacked and forced the families off the land and denied them the right to fight against the injustice. “They don't need much. They wouldn't know what to do with good wages. Why, look how they live. Why, look what they eat. And if they get funny---deport them” (Chapter 19,// Grapes of Wrath//). Again Steinbeck keeps impressing upon the reader how the farmers are alike to innocents, but the owners are without feelings, like robots. This is supported by Chapter 11 describing the tractors and the concept of brutal reality for those of the lesser class.//

Grapes of Wrath //is about society being controlled by the government and the government being controlled by the economy. This idea is nothing more than totalitarianism and compared to Thoreau’s belief "That government is best which governs least"(//Civil Disobedience//, Part One), neither care for the idea of a working government. Steinbeck even makes [it] seem like something unearthly, something no man can control. He says that 'the Company-needs-wants-insists-must have-as though the Bank or the Company were a monster...' And the people run. They do not confront the horror like it is their duty to do and for that they survive. The truly great ones are those that stay to try to control the monster, like the Joad's family friend Muley. Even though he may have died defending his belief, at least he tried.//

//The people in Steinbeck’s novel became less willing to compromise and more willing to be animalistic as the story goes on. Mainly, the farmers resent the change in ownership because they kept the land alive and the land returned the favor. When they leave, the farmers are replaced by an efficient corpse that doesn’t need care in any way. The raw connection to the land, formed over years of blood, sweat and love is forced over to dead, careless owner men. Despite the injustice, the family packs up and moves. When they finally settle shaky feet on unknown ground, the innocents again meet another hardship; picking fruit to survive, then watching others starve “...because the food must rot, must be forced to rot" (//Grapes of Wrath//, Chapter 25, p 363). It’s completely unfair, yet it argues the assumption that if people are angry they will take action. “And under the begging, and under the cringing, a hopeless anger began to smolder” (//Grapes of Wrath//, Chapter 29). The Joad family does not take action, but continually stays passively aggressive, or is simply afraid to defend their beliefs. Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is an exceptional read but it doesn’t show what actions the Joads’ could’ve taken to avoid injustices. A central part of confronting an injustice is to actually take action.

In conclusion, an injustice needs to be confronted when it’s taking place. To face it after the fact is useless because a lesson will never be learned. The individual needs to judge the correct punishment and enforce rightness for the wrongdoer to feel and for others to witness. When there’s an injustice, an individual receives the main role in facing it before others because, if individuals cannot take a stand against injustice, humanity should not be existing today.

Bibliography//
 * Steinbeck, John. __The Grapes of Wrath__. New York, The Viking Press, 1939.
 * Thoreau, Henry David."Civil Disobedience."
 * Ascher, Barbara Lazear. "On Compassion." .