In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is forced to continually migrate :: English Literature

In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is forced to continually migrate because they have the land that their family has inhabited for generations.Ownership does not reside in effectual title but in personal experience.In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is forced to continuallymigrate because they lose the land that their family has inhabited forgenerations. Despite the fact that they neer owned the land, theyfeel it is theirs because no one else knows it as well as they do.When they reach California, they experience the position of being theoutsiders, such as the banks they scorned were in Oklahoma.Because of their strong agrarian roots and personal connection to theland, the Joads confide that connection to the land means ownership.The banks believe that fiscal investment in the land means ownership.This is an interesting paradox two dissimilar groups of throng battleeach other, convinced that they are right. They are battling over adesolate piece of soil, a meager purse for the victor. The Joadsposition is defined in the third intercalary chapter, We were bornon (the land), and we got killed on it, died on it. Thats what makesit ours, being born on it, working on it, dying on it. Thatsownership, not papers with numbers on it (43). The bank believes thattheir monetary claim to the land eclipses the personal investment ofthe sharecroppers. Though there is perhaps no concrete argument todecide who is the true owner, if money is worth to a greater extent than labor BillGates has more than right to land than the populations of many smallnations.The Joads migrate to California as a result of the disadvantage of their home,and soon learn the problem with allowing personal experience todetermine ownership. The Californians consider them with a ferocity equalto that with which they treated the bank, although the Oklahomans werereacting to a considerably more intimidating threat. The migrants goto California with the expectation that they will be treas ured employees,and be able to settle on their own land in California. This is ironicbecause they had so recently learned how difficult it is to give upland, so expecting to be able to buy up land in California goesdirectly against the lessons they had just learned. Despite thiselement of hypocrisy, little discussed by John Steinbeck, the plightof the migrants does inspire sympathy, for it is truly desperate.