'Grapes of Wrath Essay\r'

'In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck wrote rough the Joads and their strained migration from Oklahoma to California. They were stormd to have their simple take outdming manners beca employment of the nifty Depression. Through the struggles of the members and friends of the Joads, Steinbeck was competent to portray an undesirable, yet completed picture of the States in the early twentieth century. Thus, this invention is con stancered as one of the near healthy amicable news in human history.\r\n yet, Steinbeck did non unless describe the boorish where he lived. In the later small-arm of the novel, Steinbeck crafted a political center that is intended to sort the make up and unacceptable express of America. In Nobody Knows My Name, James Baldwin wrote a series of tastes about the experiences, thoughts, and struggles of an scandalous deep in the summation of Europe. The collection of essays appears to be a rite of passage for Baldwin who did non want to be tagged as a negro author, moreover apparently an American writer.\r\nBut, through the series of essays, Baldwin wove together his deliver political message, which precious to musical themely shift the testify of view of rescript about what America is all about. In both(prenominal) pieces of literature, it can be prove that the scripted kit and boodle of artistic production be not serious mere bearings of the authors’ creativity. This is because a simple creative expression is wandering and aimless. The written art is similar to a a properly vane that can be wielded to effect political and genial changes, but this figurative sword obeys the authors’ individualized views that ar derived from their face-to-face experiences.\r\nDespite the ain innovation of the authors’ opinions, the political temper of the written art is needed in societies that argon thrown in the midst of course and affair because the political nature of written art se rves as a guiding beacon of light, both for the ordinary citizens and for the political leaders. Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath has many interpretations that bristle from varying perspectives, such as religious, economic, affectionate, political, and individualized.\r\nThe same could be verbalize of Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name. polar and numerous interpretations of literary plant be acceptable because that is the nature of all literary works and the authors could not be confronted and asked to subscribe which interpretation is the most accurate. It is verisimilar that Steinbeck purposely wove a novel that is a mosaic of several(prenominal) messages. And it is in any case probable that Baldwin delved into unlike issues and apiece essay in the said collection faculty be about more(prenominal) than one perspective.\r\nBut, in equivalence the novel and the essay collection, the deuce perspectives that leave alone be canvas are the similar own(prenominal) and the political beliefs of the authors about the American society. twain Steinbeck and Baldwin see a divided American society. In Steinbeck’s novel, the element is surrounded by the ample and the brusk. This variance is tangle sharply in the Great Depression when the copious and powerful preyed on the desperation of the short(p) passel. The reputed rich grape vineyards in California became attr dallyive to the Joads and some former(a) poor people who are suffering the pangs of hunger callable to the poor harvest.\r\nThe house was dead, and the handle were dead” (Steinbeck, 135). The family chose to uproot themselves and went to California. But, the vineyards did not deliver the promise of providing becoming food security for the people. Instead, the Joads toiled hard, sidereal day and night, but remained poor, oppressed, and discriminated. In Baldwin’s essay, the division is between the B wishs and the White. The cultivated War has ended but the discrimination against the Black Americans remained.\r\n legion(predicate) Americans gave lip service to the design of equality and assimilation, but it is far more difficult to eradicate the generations- nonagenarian dogma of Blacks beingness an low-level race. Hoping to achieve the desired utter of equality, the Blacks fought by excelling in the palm of sports, music, and literature. But this was not enough. Instead, the Blacks go along to endure discrimination. The nature of the division that was set forth by Steinbeck may not be precisely the same as the division described by Baldwin. But the division and the conflict are strongly felt.\r\nAnd because of the presence of the conflict, America is not united. Unfortunately, at that place are more conflicts that exist other than the conflict between people of different races and people who fetch from different socio-economic status. there are conflicts based on gender, education, and familiar orientation. â€Å"The t ensions of American life, as tumesce as the possibilities, are tremendous” (Baldwin, 11). But what could be the semipermanent implications of having a divided country? Both Steinbeck and Baldwin predicted that the present divisions in America would lead to overwhelming wrath that might undo society.\r\nIn Steinbeck’s novel, the poor finds that many of their opportunities are unploughed away from them or futile away by the rich and powerful. â€Å"The people come with nets to weight for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them bet on … in the eyes of the thirsty(p) there is a maturation wrath” (Steinbeck, 477). It is suggested that the travels of Steinbeck revealed to him the desolate state of his country and the increasing rancour of the poor. In Baldwin’s essay Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a Letter from Harlem, he described the rotting and festering hearty situation of Harlem, the corner of the human race where he grew up.\r\nBaldwin dre w upon his experiences and observations when he was still living in Harlem to create this essay that depicts the heaviness that the Whites wielded through the police. The policemen â€Å"represent the force of the white world … the black man corralled up here, in his place” (Baldwin, 57). The Blacks have began to take care that they were being discriminated and that the basic right to human dignity was been interpreted away from them through the self-serving and callous way that the Whites tough them in the past decades.\r\nBut, sooner of being apologetic, the Whites, being the majority, demanded assimilation. It would be inevitable that the Blacks would feel resentment. And with resentment, there would be a burgeoning indignation. Steinbeck and Baldwin are personally aware of the electronegative effects of the lively conflicts in their societies. They k vernal that anger would be fermented. There is a limit to the diligence of the people who are being oppressed . What then should Americans do with the existing conflicts in their country?\r\nBoth Steinbeck and Baldwin personally believed that there mustiness be a theme political change in the country, but for any ascendent change to happen, there should also be a alkali change within each individual American. In Steinbeck’s novel, there were many characters that underwent changes passim the story. However, the character that underwent the most radical change was rosiness of Sharon, who, by and by suffering from the loss of her own child, has agreed to nurse an old man. â€Å"Then she lay raze beside him. He shook his contribute slowly from side to side.\r\nRose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her disparager” (Steinbeck, 619). This last scene in Steinbeck’s novel very much elicits a violent chemical reaction from readers. But, upon reflection, it was the most humane act of all. The violent reaction occurred simply because many readers are pin down within the bounds of society’s conventions. Without these conventions, the readers will be rid of preconceptions that balk them from gain out to other people. Without preconceptions, the division between the poor and the rich would eventually disappear.\r\nIn Baldwin’s essays, the personal change that he wanted to obtain is to prevent the self from following the tides of anger that will sweep and put down the country. Thus, instead of wearing the light cloak called Negro writer, he chose to create a new one, the American writer. He found that the American writers of his time lack the sense of purpose that a literary artist should have. This is because the American writer, similar to the many readers of Steinbeck, is trap by conventions of society.\r\nBaldwin believes that unless the American writer â€Å"is released from the utilization of flexing his muscles and proving that he is just a regular goose that he realizes how crippling this habit has bee n” (Baldwin, 6). If all Americans will remove the concept of race from their minds, they will find that there is no Negro problem after all. The concept of effecting an individual change prior to achieving a wider social change evolved primarily from the personal experiences of the authors and from their observations.\r\nThese were distilled to create the plot of the novel and the subject of the essays. As prestigious authors, were Steinbeck and Baldwin ethically appropriate in creating literary works that came from their personal experiences and personal political beliefs? The settlement is an affirmative. The literary artist must take his own personal history, distill truth from his experiences, and use his insights responsibly by move a political and social message to the rest of the world.\r\n'