People in general rely on thought and think through most situations unless if there is some point of internal and/or external demand that makes the person rely on nature of self preservation. In the novel The Grapes of Wrath (the author) John Steinbeck develops a sense of self-preservation when individuals respond to competing demands. There are internal and external demands that all of the characters in the novel must endure in order to succeed in California during the dirty thirties. The internal demands are referred to as nature of self preservation because they are almost the same; but in nature of self preservation the individual acts on incidences, instincts and on what they think they should do. Each member of the Joad family approaches the competing demands in their own personal way in order to attempt to preserve their well being and the battle against the external demands and the difficulties of the journey to the prosperous California. The external demands in this novel would mainly include the obstacles they have faced and the hardships the Joads had experienced on their way to their better life in prosperous California. When Steinbeck writes, the reader gains a sense that his tone is at first individualist, then as the novel progresses so does his tone. His tone changes to collectivism at the end of the novel. When everyone has lost hope at the end of the novel, Steinbeck’s tone changes to make the mood feel that a social revolution may be coming.
For many people at during the summer months of the dirty thirties, farming was not a prospective fruitful occupation. In fact, being a farmer was almost a curse. The reason for this was because the banks owned most (if not all) of the farmland and so the farmers could barely provide food and shelter for their family. Seeing as how the Joads were farmers and they were up to their ears in debt, this applied to them. The nature of self preservation is what takes hold of the Joads. With no money, no food, and soon to be a foreclosed home, most families left for what they hoped was to be true: a prosperous California. One family that left were the Joads. They packed up what they needed and left their home in Oklahoma. Their internal drive was the need for a new start to life and to have their needs met. Food is a necessity and if a person does not have enough, they either suffer or may eventually die. They needed a change or else the consequences would be deadly. Each of the Joads deals with this situation differently. When Pa fails to control keeping the family together at the gas station (on Route 66) Ma steps up and becomes not only the citadel of the family, but as well as the head of the family. Ma’s main goal is to keep the family together because she believes that anything can be conquered when you have family by your side. The family needed each other because it was like a security blanket and when something went wrong, there was always the other Joads to back you up. Ma also thinks that the nature of self preservation for her family involves them to stay together, work hard, have optimism, and to always have hope.
The Joads encounter copious amounts of hardships along their journey to the prosperous California. During The Grapes of Wrath the Joads stumble upon a plethora amount of incidences in which people deliberately try to defeat the families hope and determination of living the good life in sunny California. When the Joads leave for California, they are faced with environmental challenges such as the exceedingly hot and dry weather and physical challenges as the mountains, slow moving means of transportation, and finally the pressure and parsimoniousness of the Californians. The police burned down the ditch-side camps, arrested the Okies for superfluous reasons and tried to do anything to break the Okies spirits and hope. Although the police do not accomplish this because in the end the Joads came out beaten down, but far from broken. Another reason on why the Joads left Oklahoma was due of the combination of their finance troubles and the handbill advertising work in California. The bank owned the Joads farmland and this produced a money shortage which resulted in a lack of necessary food and supplies. People must have their basic needs met or else they go into survival mode. It may be imagined that faced with a similar situation many others would have just given up and starved to death but some, like the Joads, would fight for survival till the bitter end. When the Joads see the handbill for work, they rely on instinct and hope that if they go to California they will have a prosperous life. Many of the Okies had also received this handbill themselves and so the rush to the prosperous Californian farms began. Little did the Okies know that the farmers only needed five hundred pickers, not fifty-thousand and all for an extremely low wage. In the end working as a fruit picker hardly fed the Joads and the long hours took its toll on them physically; however it was still work and it was providing food for the family. The external influences have made things harder for the Joads but yet had made them easier.
Steinbeck has a very interesting way of presenting if his point of view about people and/or society is more individualists or collectivists. The Joads symbolise individualism, collectivism and classical liberalism. They show that the rule of law applies to everyone in their family and Ma makes sure of this. The Joads have their own rule of law system in that everyone in their family believes in. This behaviour code bases who is in charge of the family. At the beginning of the family, Grandpa and Pa were at the top of the list and as the novel digresses, Ma becomes the head of the family and so everyone listens to her. When Rose of Sharon is demanding milk for her to drink, Ma decides to give Ruthie the milk because he needs it more than she did. This applies to the rule of law because no one argues with Ma and does what she or he is told. The Joads mainly symbolise collectivism because they think of the better for the welfare of the group and co-operation was a necessity in order to survive through the great depression of the dirty thirties. This is shown when Noah leaves because he thinks his family is better off without him (even though he will die as a consequence). They also believe in public property in that they share their capital in order for the group to have enough food. Public property in this case relates directly with economic freedom. With economic freedom the Joads chose to share their earned money for the benefit of the group. When the setting of the novel takes place in California, there is a well established individualist economy in that private property, economic freedom, self-interest, competition and economic freedom were a major part of that society. The farmers represent the all four of these understanding of individualism. One aspect or economic freedom is when an individual wants to sell your labour to whomever he or she wishes to be employed at and in this case it would be the fruit pickers. It also meant that people had the freedom to fail during the depression. The farmers have their own private property and choose to use it as a business, thus the fruit fields. When the fruit pickers got paid they had only received a miniscule amount of earnings for the day which is chosen by how much the farmers want to pay. The invisible hand also was had a part in this because a huge supply of unemployed people meant that the employer could play them low wages because someone else will work for the employer if the person applying for the job refuses the low wage offer. During the dirty thirties the government did not control this situation that well and so many decisions were made free from government control. One thing that the government could not control was the safe camp for the Okies. Here the government was not allowed to have any say of what happened on the inside of the safe haven. For many of Okies it was rather difficult to find a job because there was an incredible amount of competition for jobs that the Californians had set up. Another competing factor was that 25% of the USA citizens were unemployed during the thirties. The worst part about it was that people accepted that there were no jobs to have and so they lost hope, and then left back for Oklahoma. With the mix of the agitated Okies and the malicious Californians, there was an inevitable confrontation that was about to occur and that it would not be an easy quarrel.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck brings up many things to ponder about the nature of self preservation that each member of the Joad family strives for; their external demands that they all had to encounter; and who were individualists and collectivists in this novel. Steinbeck’s tone varies from person to person and group to group which leaves us with a clear depiction of what will happen, a revolution that will be in favour of the Okies because they have nothing to lose.
