The Dysfunction of the American dream in Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath
Abstract
This study aims to look into John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath's critique of the American Dream. Through focusing on such central marks of the American Dream as freedom, equality, and individualism, it will have stated that the Joad family does not fulfil the American Dream of classes and castes. The book was published during the Great Depression, a time of widespread poverty and unemployment in America. The aim is to characterize the American Dream and lay its foundation. In addition, the "self" and "other" pair will be used as a test instrument. Based on a thorough examination of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, it is attempted to define and describe recurrent themes and to create the concept of American Dream in this novel with its hierarchy. Steinbeck is respected as the foremost versatile craftsman of contemporary American fiction. He may be an author commendable to be compared with the novelists Anton Chekhov and Anatole France. This paper will address the unfulfilled dreams of the Joad family, who begun their trip from Oklahoma, putting everything they possess into a truck to California.
References
Cullen, Jim. The American dream: A short history of an idea that shaped a nation. Oxford University Press, 2003.
Fontenrose, Joseph E. John Steinbeck: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1964. Print.
Greene, Maxine. "On the American dream: Equality, ambiguity, and the persistence of rage." Curriculum Inquiry 13.2 (1983): 179-193.
Nasalevich, T. V., and Yu. V. Bee."Themes creating the concept of american dream in the novel «The
Grapes of Wrath» by John Steinbeck." Науковий вісник Міжнародного гуманітарного університету. Серія: Філологія 1.39 (2019): 105-108.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/postcolonialism. Routledge, 2007.
Opotow, Susan, and Susan D. Clayton. Identity and the natural environment: The psychological significance of nature. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2003.
Pells, Richard H. Radical visions and American dreams: Culture and social thought in the depression years. University of Illinois Press, 1973.
Putnam, R. D. (2016). Our kids: The American dream in crisis. Simon and Schuster.
Seebohm, Thomas M. Hermeneutics. Method and methodology. Vol. 50. Springer Science & Business Media, 2007.
Steinbeck, John. The grapes of wrath. A Route 66 Companion. University of Texas Press, 2021.
Steinbeck, John. Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938-1941. Penguin, 1990.
Stein, Walter J. "California and the Dust Bowl Migration." (1970): 4388-4388.
Thompson, Paul B. "Agriculture and working-class political culture: A lesson from The Grapes of Wrath." Agriculture and Human Values 24.2 (2007): 165-177.
Warner, William Lloyd. American life: dream and reality. University of Chicago Press, 1952.
Williams, Jessica K. The Locus of the Self: Place-Based Identity in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Diss. Davis and Elkins College, 2016.
Wright, Esmond. A History of the United States of America: Volume III: The American Dream: From Reconstruction to Reagan. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
1. The Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if accepted for publication, copyright of the article shall be assigned to Al-Qadisiyah Journal For Humanities scinces (QJHS), University of Al-Qadisiyah as publisher of the journal.
2. Copyright encompasses exclusive rights to reproduce and deliver the article in all form and media, including reprints, photographs, microfilms and any other similar reproductions, as well as translations. The reproduction of any part of this journal, its storage in databases and its transmission by any form or media, such as electronic, electrostatic and mechanical copies, photocopies, recordings, magnetic media, etc. , will be allowed only with a written permission from Al-Qadisiyah Journal of Humanities scinces (QJHS), University of Al-Qadisiyah.
3. Al-Qadisiyah Journal of Humanities scinces (QJHS) , University of Al-Qadisiyah, the Editors and the Advisory International Editorial Board make every effort to ensure that no wrong or misleading data, opinions or statements be published in the journal. In any way, the contents of the articles and advertisements published in the journal Al-Qadisiyah Journal of Humanities scinces (QJHS), University of Al-Qadisiyah are sole and exclusive responsibility of their respective authors and advertisers.