Intro to Literature Final Exam

The Grapes of Wrath may be set in the 1930’s, but many of the elements are no different than those of today. The characters portrayed in the novel must endure failure, prejudice, death, struggle, abandonment, and injustice, not unlike the elements we all face to a certain extent in our own lives. But not only the negative elements are shown, but also the positive ones like family love and togetherness as well as wanting to help other people as much as you can. This last example is best shown by the main character Tom Joad leaving the family near the end of the story. He doesn’t want to go, but knows that he has to. He only hopes that he can make a difference in someone else’s life: that they might not have to go through the same things he and his family had to endure. This concept is also shown through Jim Casy, the former preacher who takes the blame for an assault upon himself, thereby sparing the recently paroled Tom from going back to prison.
Today, none of us may have to endure the conditions that the Joad family had to endure, and we can all be thankful for that, but in ways much unlike the story, we face very different crisis’s in our own lives. We live in a world today with such advanced technology compared to the time of the Joad’s and costs of living that would have staggered people from the 1930’s. When they were happy to be getting one dollar a day for picking crops, we pay that much and sometimes much more for a cup of coffee. When their grandpa fantasized about being able to have grapes again after not being able to have them for a long time, pick up a bag or two of the at the local store without much of a second thought as to how they arrived at the store and what it took to bring them there. The kids were scared of the flush toilet, having never seen one, but how many of us would have last long without complaining if our high speed internet connection drops for a while?
In summary, though abstract themes can remain constant, life continues to change, and so we would be as fish out of water in their generation, as they would be in ours.

The main theme I saw in the Grapes of Wrath was the ongoing struggle of life. In painting a picture of the life and times of the Joad family, Steinbeck shows us a close knit, loving family whose fortunes turn from bad to worse. Having survived for generations on their share-cropping land, that same land is the reason for their initial struggle. Being forced to leave and start over, the family stays together for this ordeal. They struggle through hardships over the road from Oklahoma to California that include death, hunger, fear, and prejudice, and just as they seem to come out of one struggle, another sometimes worse struggle appears for them. In some ways, the biblical story of Job is similar as far as struggling with extreme hardships and still keeping your faith- in God, in family and in one another goes. Overcoming bad times. Keeping at it when it seems all is lost. Never losing your sense of purpose, and helping others are all part of defeating your personal struggles. Although the family doesn’t stay all together throughout the story, it does end on a positive slant. The family will triumph after all by continuing to fight every day, and some day they just might be able to have that house to settle down in.

Seize the Day is not as much a coming-of-age story as it is a what happens if you don’t come of age, or wait until it’s too late to grow up. Although we are never given full disclosure on every element of Tommy Wilhelm’s life, we can see that he has hit a crossroads in his existence. No job, little money and forced to live in a world he’d rather not, Tommy, rather than earn or work for his pay, tries to hit it big in the stock market. He is so blind to all things that he puts his full trust (and a thousand dollars) in a man whom his father had told him was not a man to be trusted. It seems clear towards to end of the book that he could have his job back at Rojax Corporation if he swallowed his pride a little, but he is unwilling to. Instead he loses again, this time taking some of his sanity with it. He has hit the proverbial wall in his life, and unlike the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath, he has given up. He will not succeed in life because he has failed to put the commitment into it that needs to be there.
Several times in the book, Tommy is told in a number of ways and by several people to “grow up!”. And, several times there seems to be a way out of his problems if he’d only take it, whether through a new job or regaining his old one. But, since he has decided to try to take the “easy” way, he not only didn’t succeed in his life, he also failed to take the advice of Dr. Tamkin. He didn’t Seize the Day when the opportunity presented itself.