Sunday, April 17, 2011

GOW

I read the essay that dealt with the wilderness/land, and how it related to the Grapes of Wrath. There were a lot of biblical undertones brought up in the essay, as well as the mention of the American dream. The author states that perhaps the reason the depression occurred may have had to do with the fact that Americans used to have this idea that the land we lived on held infinite abundance. This problem was evident in the novel, because the Joads believed that California would be sort of like their version of the promised land. The author stated that the concept of infinite expansion within already acknowledged boundaries was extremely contradictory. It wasn’t because of the weather that the land dried up, it was because of the poor agricultural methods the farmers were using. It wasn’t because of the land that there were no jobs, it was because the people expected the land to provide for them no matter where the moved. The land is also sort of personified in this essay, because the people during this time period had an emotionally attachment to it, as is evident in the Grapes of Wrath. Muley Graves is a great example of this. He cannot break the ties he had with the land in order to accompany his family west. His ties with the land were eclipsed the bond he had between his wife and the rest of his family. The essay also depicts the land as being symbolic of being a woman. After it is farmed for the first time, it had lost it’s innocence and purity, and was now a “wife”. The plows and machines that destroyed the land were described as “raping” the land. Perhaps the land is an important symbol, and I may or may not feel compelled to use it in my essay.