The Underlying Themes and Current Relevance of The Grapes of Wrath, a Drama Film by John Ford

The movie Grapes of Wrath, took place during the Great Depression in the 19305, where the load family looses their home and farm in Oklahoma. The family is forced to become migrant workers and move to California for more work. Without their farm back at home, they have no source of income. Therefore, they must move wherever work is being offered and this is why they go to California. On theirjourney they learn about what is really going on in the United States economically, politically, and socially. The Joad family and movie represent the large population of people who had to move out of their homes, and forced to live in foreign places just to find work. This film was based off of real events that took place in US history ad had many underlining themes.

One of the most important themes is man’s brutality to other men, During this time period many people began to lose money, their jobs, and their homes. The Joad family proves to be an example of this, They lost their farm to the Depression and the Dust Bowl, so they had no other choice but to abandon their farm and move west in hopes of starting a new life. The inhumanity within the moves is shown when one of the Joad‘s neighbors knock down their house. Although this neighbor did not want to do it, he says that the bank is paying him good money to knock down the house. At this time, the banks were failing and people became even more desperate. This changed the way people in the United States were treating one another.

Also, this theme is evident when they get to California to find work, and the man who owns the company offering the work treats the workers and families like animals. This film shows how the Great Depression and Dust Bowl affected people. They were forced to become desperate and cruel to one another in order to survive, [n the Grapes of Wrath, there are many economic, political, and social decisions that had to be made in order to keep the country from failing completely. A political decisions that was revealed in the film concerned that fact there was no one person to blame in the matter. When a man showed up at the Joad’s farm house and told them they had to leave by the morning, Pa Joad wanted to know if there was anyone else who he could talk to so that he could blame them for everything, The only thing that this man could say was that the monopolies and trusts were in charge and no one man could be singled out to blame.

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To go along with this, there were many political decisions made by Franklin Roosevelt. When the Joad family had reached a work place in California, they discovered that the government ran it. This was apart of the governments New Deal, which helped with unemployment rates in order to help people get back on their feet. With the help of FDR and his New Deal, this addressed the economical problems in the United States. More projects were being created like this one to gather more materials to build roads, etc, Because of this, there was more government spending, and it slowly brought the stock market into recovery. However, some of the social conditions were not addressed during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Many people protested the wages they were getting, and at the same time, others were taking the jobs because they had nothing else.

Socially people were willing to do almost anything because the needed to get whatever they could. This film is relevant to today because of our economic crisis that we are going through. Just like in the 19305, in 2007 there was a major decline in the stock market and many banks and large corporations were forced to declare bankruptcy. By studying what happened in the 19305 and comparing it to what is happening now, we can see how history repeats itself and we can learn from what they did back then The government and the president took an active role in fixing the economy and making an effort to give people jobs, However, there has been a little effort done by our government today. This movie shows what can happen if the correct actions are taken.

The movie, Grapes of Wrath, tries to show how a great leader can create a great country and improvement of it. Without someone like Franklin Roosevelt, the Joad family may have never found a safe work place for the family to live and be protected in In conclusion, this movie, Grapes of Wrath, had many underlying meanings and that great leadership creates an even better nation. With the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl coming to the country, FDR was able to react and be a proactive leader to create jobs, boost the economy, and improve the political status of he country The Joad family was closely examined and the film recognizes their day-to-day struggles to stay alive and be able to have food. It reveals how companies take advantage of their workers. Overall the movie was able to show how people in the 19305 survived.

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