Alienation In The Grapes Of Wrath

An effective way writers demonstrate the moral values of a society is by not telling the story from one in the society, but from the point of view of a person alienated from it. This method reveals small things that one in the society would not notice and provides different insights only one from outside the society can notice. Such is the case in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Tom Joad's alienation from the rich Californian landowners shows that money is the top priority of those who own land, while the poor, assumed-worthless families are on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Thousand of families flooded to California just so they could feed their families, but by showing the treatment the landowners show to these families, or lack thereof, Steinbeck points to the fact that they don't even plan on letting them eat, and that money is the only thing they're really worrying about. When explaining to his family that Jim Casy had gone on strike because of the poor wages, Tom says, "Yeah. What we was a-doin' was breakin' strike. They give them fellas two an' a half cents." Pa responds, "You can't eat on that." When their outlook gets so desperate, the first priority is to feed their families and hope for better times. By showing these small, seemingly insignificant, noble acts, Steinbeck shows the determination of these families to press on. The poor wages set by the landowners show that they, the landowners, care nothing for the families even in their destitution. With such low wages set, the landowners are alienating these poor families and giving reason for hostilities. This form of alienation demonstrates that these landowners plan on keeping every penny they possible can. With lower wages paid to more workers, things get done quicker while the rich can keep their pockets lined.

Another way the landowners invoke hostilities is the very way they refer to these poor families. When Tom asks, "Okie? What's that?" this character responds, "Well, Okie use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you're scum." By using such a foul name, the landowners further alienate themselves from these people. Not only does such a name invoke hatred in the minds of the poor folks, but it also further reiterates the revulsion the landowners feel towards theses folks for no reason other than being there. Every time they say it, they look at the "Okies" with more hatred than before. By having the landowners use such foul language, Steinbeck shows that the landowners assume the families from Oklahoma are dirty trash not to spend a minute on. To these rich folk, the poor and starving have no talent and no personality. Some of them could have had more talent than them themselves, and all of them have more personality. For example, Al Joad is very good at tinkering with cars and would like to work in a garage. He'll never be able to reach that goal or dream in California, because the Californians have assigned him the label of "Okie," a piece of trash with no skills and no life for all they care. The only skills the landowners think the poor folk have is picking peaches and hauling boxes. When harsh words are said, it says a lot more about the one speaking than the one being spoken to. By using such harsh language, the Californians block themselves off to the possibility that these poor folk have any talent at all. Much of the time words can do a lot more damage than violence, making it a great contributor to the alienation of Tom's family and other migrants.

The rude, rather cruel, behavior of the landowners