John Steinbeck 의 The Grapes of Wrath에 나타난 공동체적인 휴머니즘

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Communal Humanism in The Grapes of Wrath of John Steinbeck

Koh Mi-ra Faculty Advisor: Prof. Choe Han-yong, Ph.D. Major in English Education Graduate School of Chosun University

This paper is an attempt to discuss how the Communal Humanism in The Grapes of Wrath because Steinbeck’s main idea in The Grapes of Wrath was humanism. The Grapes of Wrath was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. For this important literary work, Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Grapes of Wrath relates the social situation in 1930s America at a time, due to the Great Depression, many tenant farmers were exploited by land owners and capitalists. In the The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck describes the realities of the Dirty Thirties, the tyranny of industrial mechanism and the miserable lives of share croppers and laborers who had to leave for the new opportunities in California. The story of The Grapes of Wrath is clearly divided into three parts. First, Steinbeck introduces the drought, the Okies’ dispossession from their land in Oklahoma and their preparation for departure. Second, he discusses their journey to the West. Third, he portrays their experiences in California and the flood. Also, this novel consists of sixteen interchapters and fourteen narrative chapters. The interchapters represent the hardships of the migrant Okies and their social backgrounds. The Grapes of Wrath focuses on the Joads a poor family of sharecroppers who are driven from their home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in agriculture and former preacher Jim Casy. They set out for California’s Central Valley along with thousands of other Okies. During their journey to California, the Joads meet some hardships: Grandpa and Grandma Joad die, son Noah abandons the family, and Connie, Rose of Sharon’s husband also leaves. Through these situations, The Joads get to understand each other, and they learn to cooperate with other families like the Wilsons and the Wainwrights. When they arrive in California, they realize that it is not the Promised Land, but a place where hunger, cold and poverty live. In this nearly hopeless situation, they, however, never give up hope and continue on. The novel’s main characters are Ma Joad, Tom Joad, Rose of Sharon and Jim Casy. Ma Joad is a strong “citadel of the family”. During the journey to California, through bearing various hardships, she grows spiritually. Jim Casy, a former preacher is a man who carried out a Jesus-type act of love by sacrificing himself for human beings. He tries to take upon himself the pain and agony in order to save the oppressed people and give up his life for them. This idea of Casy’s philanthropic brotherhood moves Tom Joad’s heart. Tom Joad gradually figures out Casy’s acts and beliefs. Finally, he makes the decision to follow in Casy’s foot steps in that he will work for poor and oppressed people everywhere. Rose of Sharon is the most self-centered in the family, but she also undergoes a dramatic change in her life. At the end of the novel, she breastfeeds a starving old man. This part represents the novel’s most comprehensive thought, Steinbeck’s strong humanistic sympathy for the lives of the tenant farmers. Through their suffering, the Joads change from being self-centered to having a sense of social responsibility and concern for others in the same situation. Instead of thinking about themselves as “I”, they learn to think of themselves as “We”. At the end of the novel, the Joad family learn humanism. In conclusion, Steinbeck illustrates how the spirit of community can work despite the dehumanizing situation of 1930 agricultural America in The Grapes of Wrath. He believed that the powerful force of the human spirit can overcome difficulties.