Steinbeck’s Emblematic Astute
Breanna Womble
Mrs.Sardella
English III Honors
26 December 2015
Steinbeck’s Emblematic Astute
Undertaking the idea to set forth a new life and left with little options, the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, commences on an expedition in search of a brighter future. Considering a multitude of families did during this time period, with forces such as the Dust Bowl acting as a suppressive, people struggled to find what little aspiration they could to trudge on. Steinbeck uses these characters, elements, and animals within the novel to create another dimension purely set on the aspects of the symbolic world. John Steinbeck uses this to portray the importance of each character. These symbols serve as an even stronger purpose when relating them to his overall themes. Stemming all the way from the true bond of family to the power of self-discovery within oneself. These themes begin to surface more clearly as the book progresses and surges on for the rest of the Joad family’s strenuous journey.
The readers encounter the first of many momentous emblems in chapter eight of Grapes of Wrath, when the setting itself is set as a relevant element of their trying expedition of pilgrimage: “The cotton field scurried with waking life, the quick flutter of morning birds feeding on the ground, the scamper over the clods of disturbed rabbits. The quiet thudding of the men’s feet in the dust, the squeak of crushed clods under their shoes, sounded against the secret noises of the dawn” (Steinbeck 67). With the use of vivid imagery much like this, the reader is able to visualize the setting of the story’s dull and dusty like environment. He creates the scene of brittle and desiccated living conditions the West had dealt with, and their arduous efforts to stay alive in such troubling times. Like pilgrimage, weather conditions can be the common enemy amongst the inhabitants, so when John Steinbeck enforces the idea a multitude of times, it is more than evident of Steinbeck’s efforts to delineate and to take good note of such descriptive settings.
As the symbols of pilgrimage and mankind continue, Steinbeck incorporates another significant aspect of symbolism in addition to the harsh living conditions in his writing. The reader is introduced in chapter three to a tenacious, unstoppable, slow-moving turtle:
The hind feet kicked his shell along, and it scraped on the grass, and on the gravel. As the embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle. Pushing hind legs strained and slipped, boosting the shell along, and the horny head protruded as far as the neck could stretch. Little by little the shell slid up the embankment until at last a parapet cut straight across its line of march, the shoulder of the road, a concrete wall four inches high. As though they worked independently the hind legs pushed the shell against the wall. The head upraised and peered over the wall to the broad smooth plain of cement. Now the hands, braced up on top of the wall, strained and lifted, and the shell came slowly up and rested. (Steinbeck 15)
Used as a symbol of the kinfolk journey, the land turtle displays characteristics and shares the same values the Joad family does. With the powerful ability to recover from pain and suffering, the bravery and endurance through trials and tribulations, and most importantly, faith in oneself. The turtle may move at a slower pace but sooner or later it ends up finishing the race. The Joads were a marvelous example of this portrayal of true faith and the reliance and love they have for their family.
Alongside the implication that the turtle represents the faith in itself, and its staunch for where it may go, Jim Casy bears yet another trait of these symbolic attributes. The holy man and former preacher Jim Casy holds a vital place in the story Grapes of Wrath. With his desire to imprint on others the holy spirit and his sustained humbleness throughout the entire novel, Jim Casy is used as the biggest icon, holding the place of belief and strength. Jim Casy does a great deal to bring together the events that make up the story. Casy follows a slightly different, but as a whole, similar pattern as Jesus Christ. Besides the fact the Steinbeck coordinated Jesus’s initials to Jim Casy’s, another resemblance is that both men went into the wilderness before coming back to public life. Casy tells the reader that he lost his “holiness” and is not even sure what holy really means anymore, but spending time with the Joads, he begins to distinguish his religion again and wants to ensue it upon everyone as much as possible. Before they pack up and leave for California, the preacher abroads their journey, with his own plan of action: “The preacher sighed. ‘I’ll go anyways,’ he said, ‘Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ looked, an’ the houses is all empty, an’ the lan’ is empty, an’ this whole country is empty. I can’t stay here no more. I got to go where the folks is goin’. I’ll work in the fiel’s, an’ maybe I’ll be happy” (Steinbeck 94). The former preacher explains to the family his need and desire to leave and make a change, to be with around people and to find a better world. He represents mankind as a whole like Jesus did. In death too, Casy bore a similarity to Jesus. Christ gave himself up and died for his people to save mankind from its sins. Much like Jim Casy did to save Tom Joad, and the rest of the Joad family. Without either one of their sacrifices, the others could not have made it further in their expedition to a better world or redemption for a life worth living.