P3+KGalvan

Synthesis Paper on GOW

“The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.” (Winston Churchill) throughout our nation’s history there have been many up’s and downs. These have been greatly influenced from the sense of justice and the morality within the people of this nation, because all of the people are what create and hold a nation together. In the novel //The Grapes of Wrath// by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck depicts the United States’ sense of justice and it’s people’s sense of morality through the challenges that the nation faced during the Great Depression. Not only was societies perception of justice and morality greatly tested during the Great Depression, but it is also tested in our current society. This is seen in both the contemporary writings of Lars Eighner and Anna Quindien in //On Dumpster Diving// and //Homeless//. In //Civil Disobedience,// Henry Thoreau chooses to show the reader the effect that the government has upon its people, whether just or not, and how the people’s response to that usually is. All four of these pieces of literature exploit the impact that societies misgivings have on not only a sector of the people of this country, but in the United States as a whole. In //The Grapes of Wrath//, readers are exposed to the trial and tribulations endured by most Americans during the Great Depression. This is done through Steinbeck's depiction of a typical farming family's displacement as a result of the dust bowl and their journey to California in the search for economic stability. Steinbeck does this through the alternation of chapters about the family’s voyage West and chapters that allude to the United States sense of justice and morality at the time. One of the major themes in //The Grapes of Wrath// is the government’s and the upper class’ disregard of the appalling living conditions that the displaced farmers had to endure in order to survive. “The granaries were full and the children of the poor grew up rachitic, and the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides.” (Steinbeck-Ch.21.284) Through the describing of the children’s appalling health conditions, it is shown that the United States’ upper class people and many others were at a loss on how to judge right from wrong; this is in the sense that they were to busy worrying about their own present condition after such a vast economic downfall. Though there were some people that assisted the poor farmers, the farmers were usually greeted with negativity. “There is a fifteen cent loaf. The man put his hat back on his head, He answered with inflexible humility ‘Wont you—cant you cut of a ten cents worth…God damn it Mae give em’ the loaf.” (Steinbeck-Ch.14.152) The waitress and many other common people had to choose between right and wrong by reaching into themselves and by using good morals. The people themselves that were assisted were usually those that seemed more poverty struck and so forth. Not only was this help and rejection shown during the Great Depression but also in today’s society. In the article //Homeless// by Anna Quindien, she discusses an experience that she had while on a bus. What Quindien had was an exchange with a homeless woman in order for her to receive more information for a book that she was writing. Little did she know that upon this bus ride she would soon gain an understanding of people that she used to consider less of her. Her actions are much similar to those of the “wealthier” people in The Grapes of Wrath. The reason for this is that since the people’s appearance didn’t meet the standards of what a certain person of stability should have, a person immediately would think lower of the person that they are judging. In Quindien’s encounter with the homeless lady, she soon realized that “She was not adrift, alone, anonymous, although her bags and her raincoat with the grime shadowing its creases had made me believe she was. She has a house, or at least once upon a time she had one. Inside were the curtains, a couch, a stove, and potholders. You are where you live. She was somebody.” Quindien soon realized that her sense of justice was off. She herself had discriminated and prejudged a woman solely because of her appearance. It is only after she has a conversation with this woman that she realizes how her judging from right and wrong is off because of her lack of understanding of the two. It is only until after this encounter that Quindien understood societies odd understanding of what right and wrong, wrong being that “in the main I think we work around it when it is lying on the sidewalk or sitting in the bus terminal—the problem that is.” Like in Homeless, the people from //The Grapes of Wrath// weren’t seen as people that needed to be helped but as people that weren’t worthy of anything or as some distinct creature. “That’s what you think! Ever hear of the border patrol on the California line? Police from Los Angeles—stopped you bastards, turned you back. Says, if you can’t buy no real estate we don’t want you. Says you got a drivers license? Le’s see it. Tore it up. Says you can’t come in without no drivers license.” (Steinbeck-Ch.12.120) Overall, the right and the wrong that some may believe that they know may be completely off. //On Dumpster Diving,// is a great example of the choices that people have to make in order to survive and how these decisions could be looked at through the eyes of modern society. Eighner tells the reader about his experience in being homeless by beginning with the reason that he had come to this point. “ While Lizbeth and I were still living in the shack on Avenue B as my savings ran out, I put almost all my sporadic income into rent. The necessities from daily life I began to extract from dumpsters.” Eighner’s experience with poverty, he expressed as an experience that was not at all bad. This was because he himself chose to do the right and see everything through a positive perspective. This really helped him to surpass the difficult things that he had to endure while he lived ‘on the streets.’ He also chose to face the justice that had been brought upon him by accepting life as it was meant to be for him. “ I have no special knowledge and I have been wrong before.” Also, he talks about his experience in talking to other people that also are in the same position that he is in “Curiously, I do not mind my direct competition, other scavengers, so much as I can hate scroungers.” His relationship with others that are in same current condition as him is parallel to those in //The Grapes of Wrath//. “Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.“ (Steinbeck-Ch.5.31) Eighner had to eventually force himself to become a more cold person on the streets because of the many people that he had to confront on his dumpster diving sessions. Though he confronted many people, the main people that he had to confront were those that were in control of the shops of which the dumpsters belonged to. He had to face those with authority, In the book //Civil Disobedience//, Henry Thoreau chooses to tell the reader about the position of the government and it’s duties to it’s people. Most importantly though, it discusses the peoples reaction to it’s government. Thoreau make it known that he is a strong believer in that “it is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.” In Thoreau’s statement, he states that no matter what, most people should go into a revolution against an inefficient government because everyone had that right to defend themselves. This was Thoreau’s own personal definition of justice. Like in T//he Grapes of Wrath//, the people’s reaction to justice is often times good in the sense that they choose to follow the right instead of the wrong. Often times though, the desperation within the people leads them into giving in and choosing unjust things that there government imposes upon them. “Spattering row of ancient engines. There’s a dumb bunny lookin’ at that Chrysler. Find out if he got any jack in his jeans. Some of these farm boys is sneaky.”(Steinbeck-Ch.7.65) Though the people in authority may often times take advantage of the people that don’t have the ability to defend themselves, they often end up ruining the state of their people or nation there for justice isn’t served and the reaction of the people soon becomes unsettling. In conclusion, there are many ways in which justice may be served or unserved. This often times triggers either a revolt of a nation or the depression of one. The people’s reaction what can either cause a change to soon happen or rather make the people In authority wait for the “right” time. This is all proven in the readings: //The Grapes of Wrath, Homeless, On Dumpster Diving//, and //Civil Disobedience.//