nted the Californians, whom Buried food and killed live stock to keep the Joads and others like them away from their dream. And sickness was their ants and hills. But even through all of this the Joads persevered. They were driven by great motivating powers - poverty and hunger. Just as the turtle searched for food, the Joads were searching for paradise, "the garden of Eden." The Joad's journey is second to none in terms of adversity and length. The Joads incredible ability to over come all odds and keep going is epitomized in intercalary chapter three. Steinbeck uses his rendition of facts, the "turtle" chapter, to parallel the Joads struggle to reach the promise land. Just as the turtle endured, so did the Joads. Never digressing from their strait and narrow path to California.The Grapes of Wrath is an eye-opening novel which deals with the struggle for survival of a migrant family of farmers in the western United States. The book opens with a narrative chapter describing Oklahoma, and the overall setting. It sets the mood of an area which has been ravished by harsh weather. "The sun flared down on the growing corn day after day until a line of brown spread along the edge of each green bayonet. The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country, and white in the gray country." (Steinbeck pg.3) Steinbeck, in a detailed fashion described the area in great detail. Not only was the area stricken by a drought and extreme temperatures, but to add to the difficulties, the families of the area were bombarded by high winds and dust storms which barraged their houses, crops, and moral. The idea was made clear, quite early, that the farming plains of Oklahoma were a cruel and difficult place for a family to make a successful living. The reader is first introduced to a character by the name of Tom Joad, a man who has been released early from the penitentiary on parole...
