Steinbeck The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

A description can have a several values which differ depending on the aim the author targets. It can have a narrative value for example, an explainatory value, a poetic value, but also a symbolic value. The way the author makes the description of a fact is never neutral. In the case of this extract of The Grapes of Wrath, John steinbeck seems to give a symbolic and argumentative value to his description using telling images to make us understand what this action represents for the affected people which suffer this episode. Indeed the extract describes the progression of tractors sent by landowners and banks with the purpose to plow the whole property including the farmhouses of the tenants which were evicted previously. He depicts how the tractors come and go, in complete indifference, but also the tractor and his driver, underlining the relations which connect them to each other, but to the land, the earth too. As a matter of fact this description is not just indicative of what is happening, it is a very subjective description which enable the reader to perceive what this scene represents for the tenants witnessing it. Violence pervades the whole text : this is a very litterary description, which is ride of images helping the reader to imagine how violent is the scene, materially and psychologically for the tenants. But the text is also ride of implicit comparisons, and of contrasts between the different manners to practice agriculture, the different connections the driver and the tenants have with the land and the earth. This extract stages the victory of the landowners and the banks over the tenants, of one vision of agriculture over another.

It seems therefore that the real interest of this description is that the plowing is turned into the symbol of the transformation of agriculture in a way presented as negative and dangerous. By the use of the different images, the author pervades the actions of the tractors and the driver of violence and indifference, that the reader can not approve of. By the literary work of the author, the text became a satirical tract and transcends its descriptive nature. To begin with the tractors and the driver are turned into instruments of domination, monstrous and powerful. Then the lampoonist dimension is highlighted through implicit contrasts with the tenants, making the plowing appearing more awful. Finally this text shows the power of literature which is able to mirror the reality and the feelings of the tenants by staging the plowing, and in this way builds a condamnation.

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In first place, this description develops the monstrosity and the domination of the tractors which are seen as the destroyers of the land. The tension which exists between the couple :landowners /tenants is transposed to between the tractors and the earth.

So the earth and the tractors are both turned into characters full-fledged, as well as the driver. Through the comparisons they get their own identity, and become alive. Indeed the tractors are first described like ‘’ great crawlers moving like insects’’ l.2, this is a negative comparison as a larger number of insects in a land is really harmfull, they are also depicted through the metaphora of pigs and monsters : ‘’snub-nosed monsters ‘’, ‘’ their snouts ‘’ l.4-5. So through this comparisons the tractors become alive, they are described in a derogatory way that immediatly put them in the bad role, the animality given to the tractors is a way to discredit them, and to show they are dangerous. They endow of a will, so in a way they are responsible for their actions : ‘’ They ignored ‘’ l.7, ‘’ raping methodically ‘’l.31, this verbs usually used for humans underline the choices of the tractors which are personified. The earth is also considered as an alive character as it can have feelings : it is possible to see it through this personification ‘’ that earth(…)muttered in a sympathetic vibration ‘’ l.12 the earth can express itself. It is also considered as a person : ‘’ surgery’’, ‘’ the cut earth’’ as if it was wounded by the tractor. The driver is completly dehumanized and becomes ‘’ a robot ‘’l.10. So it ables us to consider that this description presents the action of animated objects, things which seems alive.

In the characterization of the characters appears the power of the tractors which dominates violently the earth and in a way the driver. This scene represents the victory of the tractors over the earth and the driver. ‘’ They crawled over the ground(…) rolling on it ‘’l.2-3, the use of over and on reflects the domination of the tractors. Besides the metaphora of the rape l.30 of the earth by the tractor shows his violence and put the earth into the role of a victim. So there is an organization into a hierarchy between the earth and the tractor, but the driver is also presented as dominated : ‘’ the driver’s hands could not twitch because the monster(..) had somehow get into the driver’s hands ‘’l.15 , here the monster does not characterized the tractor, but this sentence shows that the driver is dominated. So,in a way, it lets the power only to the tractor :’’ the driver could not control it ‘’l.12

The description emphasises the automatic actions of the tractor and the driver and the coldness of mecanics which reinforce the power and demonize them. ‘’ He could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled ; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel ‘’l.17, the driver is anesthetized, the coldness comes from the lake of feeling, he is dehumanized .’’ He could not cheer or beat or curse or encourage the extension of his power ‘’l.20, he is enable of a judgement of an action he is just a cold underling who does not care about his action. Considering the tractor, the narrator makes some close-ups on the matter of the tractor ‘’ iron teeth ‘’l.29, ‘’ iron seat ‘’, ‘’ iron pedals ‘’l.19, the iron connotes coldness and solidity, that is a mineral matter without any organic life. ‘’ Raping without passion ‘’ l.31 also shows the coldness and the automatic dimension of its actions just as the use l.5-6 of the prepositions and adjective ‘’ straight down ‘’ ‘’ in straight lines ‘’, which point out the coldness of how it accomplishes its task.

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So this enables us to see that the tractors and the driver are turned into instruments of domination, monstrous and powerful. This description can be linked to a serie of implicit or not contrasts which highlights the discrepancy between the tenants, the earth and

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