P4+KHilva

Individuals make the daily decision on how to deal with injustice. Judging right from wrong is something we do as a safety mechanism, to protect ourselves from pain that we cannot handle. In order to do this, we must understand what is the most important to us in life; if we have suffered an injustice that matters little to us, then we won’t take a huge action against it. When a person differentiates the two, he then takes the roll of fixing the injustice done. He will then take initiative and unite with fellow supporters and in some form or another, fight for what is right. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, we see the Joad family along with many poor farming families having troubles with their harvests. Read in chapter five, the land owners and bank representatives come to hand out bad news to all these families not bringing in desired profits; they must pack as little as possible and move away from a home that has been theirs for as long as they have been alive. “The bank, the monster owns it. You’ll have to go.” (Steinbeck) Greed driven men have now forced innocent lives off the only home they know and tell then that they are sorry but they don’t know where they can go but that they have to leave. “Where’ll we go? The woman asked. We don’t know. We don’t know.” (Steinbeck)

Now homeless, the migrating families decide to move out to California, to a land of opportunity with jobs and flowing money. They were forced to sell any belongings that were not absolutely necessary, as they needed the money, although everything was sold at a very small price, desperately; they were tricked into buying faulty cars at a much too expensive price. They are aware that what is happening to them is morally wrong, but have not yet reached a point that they are going to unite and do something about it.

The families in this novel overcome great obstacles and even when they reach California, things do not turn up in their favor. The injustice’s that the poor farm families had to face were confronted in a way that the families left and tried to start their lives over in a happier place. By doing so in California we see that while Americans were working for something they wanted they were greed stricken. They swept in and stole land that had belonged to the native Mexicans. Here we see another injustice, as greed makes everybody come in full circle where the poor and mistreated are now mistreating the poor. “And such was their hunger for land, took the land- stole Sutter’s land, Guerrero’s land, took the grants and broke them up and growled and quarreled over them”(Steinbeck, chapter 19)

While the poor farming families were somewhat submissive to the wealthier land owners, they still manage to unite together and work for what they deserve. “ Yet the Mexicans don’t confront their hardships at all, they are described as “weak and fed” (Steinbeck) “They could not resist, because they wanted nothing in the world as ferociously as the Americans wanted land.” Although their survival is at steak, the Mexicans realize that if they put up a fight they will not win reason being they do not want this land as much as the migrants. It is apparent that after having their own land stolen and giving in, it is their time to fight if necessary.