Family Unit in the Grapes of Wrath Essay

I dedicate this humble work to those whose blood runs in my veins; to my dearly loved parents and to: my dearest sisters all fundamental B.A student all my delighted and respected English teachers all those who will read this modest research paper ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I’m foremost grateful to my supervisor Dr. YASSINE Rachida whose guidance and continual encouragement have efficaciously helped towards the fulfillment of this modest research paper. I would like also to thank deeply whose efforts in class room opened my eyes and inspired the idea and the subject of this research paper, namely: Mr. ELHAMRI Rachid. I would like as well to express my deep feelings of gratitude to my little precious family that supported me to achieve where I am today and still supporting me to the fullest, bearing in mind my treasured friends for their ongoing moral support. Finally, my thanks are devoted to all the students of the department of English at Ibn Zohr University for their appreciated suggestions while this research was under preparation. INTRODUCTION: As most of critics refer to it, The Grapes of Wrath is a master piece written by john Steinbeck, a great American writer who wrote some of the best American stories ever. This novel tells the story of the Joads, an example of what happened to families that lived in Oklahoma during the 1930s. Because of drought, dust storms, and the death of crops, the landowners had to kick the farmers off from their lands. In order to live, thousands of people moved westward and left their homes deserted for new chances of life. On their way to California, they faced many difficulties; some of them lost family members because of starvation and tiredness, and some women brought new born babies to life, and some children stole food from other’s camps in order to eat and feed their dying families. When people reached California  with big dreams, ambitions and aspirations, they found out that it was not as they expected, life is harder there if not saying worst than the one they already live, crowds of poor, hungry and unemployed people staying in government camps waiting for salvation or even death, hopes and dreams were broken, many decided to go back and die in their home towns. Despite some of them had a chance to work, the wages were too low to feed a family of more than eight members. At that point in time, working class people were considered as slaves and pigs for the rich class, their struggles against the current is described by Steinbeck as a â€Å"turtle crossing the road†. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck tells us what kind of struggle the Joads confronted during their journey to live an ordinary life or more, a better one. In this Research paper I’m going to focus my attention on the concept of â€Å"family† itself and the strong union between the members of the Joads as the main drive that kept them going and fighting against all odds for their freedom and right of life thanks to â€Å"Ma† the strong, sturdy woman who is the moral center of family. This last point is what stroke me and motivated this research paper’s choice of topic, therefore my aim is to inspect first of all the importance of family in our day of age and how does individualism affects its unity and brings it down, then secondly, I will show you the example of this family unit through the work of John Steinbeck; The Grapes of Wrath by revealing everything that helped to keep the them bonded and united through the whole way to California and when they rea ched it. PART I: Family vs. Individualism Family in the light of individualism became more complicated and more separated than ever. In the last few centuries western families were characterized by the strength of their unity that ties them together and keep them close to each other as one vital entity that functions properly in the society, but with the rise of the ideology of individualism, family members started to break up from the usual structure and start a whole different one that is based on new principles, norms and a whole new ideas about the concept of family. The aim of this chapter is to discuss; Firstly, the distinction between collectivism and individualism with taking into consideration family as a model of collectivism, secondly to make difference  between traditional and new modern family structure in the western societies. Finally, to show how individualism affects in a negative way the unity that bonds western families. 1- Family and individualism The family institution is essentially the most important part in our society. Without the family, our society would not be able to function the way it is supposed to. Thus, how can we define the word â€Å"family†? The definitions of family are as diverse as families themselves and the situations they are found in. I shall then begin with defining this concept in a more general way. Family is the basic social unit because it represents people living together by ties of blood, marriage or adaptation, thus representing a single household. According to sociology, the family has the primary function of reproducing society; biologically, socially, or both. Furthermore, there are various structures of a family based on the relationship shared between parents and their children. Therefore, different types of family can be distinguished from the nature of this relationship, such as patrifocal family, where the family consists of a father and his child, Matrifocal Family, where the fam ily consists of a mother and her child. Consanguineal family is one which consists of the mother, the child and other people, mainly belonging to the family of the mother1. In most societies, Family is the principal institution for the socialization of children. And this institution might be based on the traditional concept of family or on the new version of it; each one of them has its own principles and characteristics which I’m going to show in detail later in the next following section. In addition to that, Family is considered as the best example of the idea of collectivism which some few cultures are still characterized by. In contrast, there is an opposing concept which is totally different from it which is the concept of individualism that means the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses the moral worth of the individual2. Hofstede explains it by asserting that in the individualist cultures people are autonomous and independent from their in-groups; they give priority to their  personal goals over the goals of their in-groups, they behave primarily on the basis of their attitudes rather than the norms of their in-groups, and exchange theory adequately predicts their social behavior3. In other words, individualists believe in one’s own interests, goals, freedom and independence and according to the German sociologist Ulrich Beck individualism has become the social structure of the era we are living in today. Life of individuals is characterized by choice where in previous generations no such choices existed. he clarified this by saying that the â€Å"Maintenance of the family link is no longer a matter of course but a freely chosen act. In the situation following a divorce, kinship is worked out anew in accordance with the laws of choice and personal inclination†4. Nowadays, in western societies many families has became totally modernized, In other words, they are infected by the individualistic ideology that keeps children away from their parents and helps to destroy the family unit that we really need in this day and age exactly as it used to be very essential centuries ago, for example, in the 20 th century precisely in the age of the great depression, family unit was a very important characteristic in the lifestyle of western families in order to maintain survival and endurance through the worst economic â€Å"Family†. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 25 Jun 2012. Web. 28 JUN 2012. . 2 â€Å"individualism†. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica., 2012. Web. 28 Jun. 2012 . 3 Greet Hofstede, Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001), p. 909 4 Beck Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization (London: Sage, 2001), p. 96  crisis of all time. Now the question is which one is characterized by unity, the traditional family or the new modern one? 2- Traditional vs. New Modern family At the present time, the traditional family structure no longer exists in the modern western world. It’s not surprising that the modern family structure has substituted it instead. In this section of my research paper, I’m going to focus on the differences between these two contradictory family structures by highlighting three major characteristics (the size, the head of the family and the discipline) In order to show in which one the concept of â€Å"unity† appears most. Let’s begin with the size. The Size is one main feature in comparing the two structures; hence, traditional families appear to be larger than modern families. Usually they are more than ten members in their families, whereas modern families have only three to four members. Also Traditional families always live with their relatives and have a lot of children in one big house, which is the reason why they are big families. Concerning their work, Most of traditional families are farmers. They can work at their farms and fields; consequently, they don’t employ additional farmers in order of saving money. In contrast, modern families don’t need anyone to help them in their work because they work in the office. They only have one or two children and don’t live with their relatives; this last difference affects modern families because they will not be acquainted with their relatives, as traditional families do. They only meet them on special occasions, such as birthdays and New Year. For example, children will not get used to their grandparents because they only meet them in few times per year. They will not respect them as much as they should have. Another difference between traditional families and modern families is the head of family. Men are always head of traditional families. Women usually take care of children at home, whereas men work outside. Women and children must listen and follow whatever men tell them, they should obey him and do whate ver it was demanded to be done. Men have the power to order members of their families to do everything, even if they don’t like to do. Modern families don’t have the head of family because women and men are considered to be equal. Both women and men work outside. They share ideas with each other. Women and children don’t obey the men’s orders if they think their orders aren’t correct. Women and children can decide by themselves. For example, women work outside, as men do. When she comes home,  she doesn’t do the house work alone because she needs her husband to help her in doing it. The last difference is discipline. Traditional families have many rules that are respected by all the members of the family. Most parents of traditional families are strict because they have a lot of children to look after. It is only women who take care of children at home, so they need to have a lot of rules to control them. On the other hand, modern families have few rules to control their children. Parents of modern families work outside. They don’t have enough time to take care of their children, so they don’t have time to make rules also. Instead they hire someone to look after their children while they’re working outside. This difference actually affects modern families because their children will always make problems to gain attention from their parents. For example, children don’t go to school because they want their parents to ask them why they do this. They want their parents to talk to them. Through these three important differences, we can notice the development of family system from the past until now and it’s only confirming the idea that states: â€Å"when societies change, families also change and both good and bad things change†. We can also notice that traditional families are more collective and social so that we can sense the aspect of unity in it, whereas modern families are more individualistic and independent and it lacks family unity in all its aspects. But the other question is how this individualistic attitude affects the family unit? 3- The effect of Individualism on the family unit Much has been said about the family and the future of family in the so-called postmodern world we are living in today. As it was said before Individualism has become the social structure of this present era; Life of individuals is characterized by two major features: the first one is the moral appreciation of individualism and the second one is the opportunity and capability to choose. These two main characteristics were rarely found in the previous generations. Talking about the previous generations for example before and during the great depression era, all families were mainly traditional because they living all together in one place as one entity; Grandfather and Grandmother with the children of their  children in one big house probably with a farm and some corn fields or at least a vast land to work on later, the idea here is that, the group had control over the individual in everything. Nowadays, the individualistic attitudes affected the concept of â€Å"family† by leading it to a gradual change in its structure and the principles it was built on. Individualists or as they call themselves modernists today tend to have a unique way of thinking and a special way in looking to things and life in general. They also have their own way of looking to â€Å"family† as a social institution. But their selfish attitudes prevented them to see to what extent they affect it negatively, Etzioni argues that the surge in individual rights conflicts with the needs of community. He added that Individualism would destruct vital institutions such as family and neighborhood, and thereby create misery5. in other words this effect begins when certain members – especially grown children – of the same family when they become aware of their own preferences and abilities to have a better life as an independent unity in the society to which they belong. This certain beginning leads to the ultimate break up from the original family then from the society into another atmosphere of living life with new ways of thinking about the whole social institutions particularly the one of â€Å"family†. During the great depression era, families needed to be united and gathered as one body, any break up in that unity led to the collapse of the entire family. My aim behind this general study of family in the shadow of individualism is to illustrate how important family unit in the novel of the grapes of wrath is. I shall make this clearer in the second part where I’m going to focus deeply on the concept of family in this novel in which Steinbeck portrays the value of being united in the era of The Great Depression. In the previous part, I discussed generally the concept of Family and the one of individualism. I discussed as well the difference between the traditional and the modern structure of family. Afterwards, I examined how individualism can affect the traditional family and how it tries to modify its structure in order to modernize it. However, the traditional family remains the best structure in all circumstances, because it keeps family members as one group as we will see in the novel of John Steinbeck; The Grapes of Wrath. The Family is the key of survival in this Nobel Prize winner masterpiece. Without each other, the Joads would have no way of coping with the loss of their land or of getting to California. Family is the one weapon that the Joads have against the cold, bitter world around them. They, along with many other migrant workers, learn that they are stronger and safer when they stay with each other as one unit and when they reach out to other families in order of creating a sense of community. Therefore, my research paper topic will be developed efficiently by giving answers to these following questions: Who are the Joads? What is The Great Depression and what is its effect on the Joads? How did they survive? Is it their strong unit of family or because of some other reasons? These questions and more are going to be answered in this chapter in details to show how family unit is important for the Joads in the era of the great depression as a reaction against the crisis and the greediness of the upper class of the 1930s. 1. Introducing The Joads Before dealing in details with the â€Å"family unit† itself in this novel, we should first get acquainted with a traditional family that survived thanks to their strong unity, it’s The Joads family. In this section I’m going to introduce all the family members who played a great role  of maintaining and keeping the whole family as one unit through their journey to California. So, who are the Joads? The Joads is a family of twelve members from deferent generations; Tom Joad, Ma Joad, Pa Joad, rose of Sharon and her husband Connie, Grandma Joad, Grandpa Joad, Al Joad, Noah Joad, Uncle John, Ruthie Joad, and Winfield Joad. Let me first introduce the ones who kept the family as one unit: Tom Joad: The book’s central character, and Ma and Pa Joad’s preferred son. Tom is goodnatured and thoughtful man. Even though he murdered a man and has been separated from his family for four years, he does not waste his time with regrets. He lives fully for the present moment, which enables him to be a great source of vitality for the Joad family. A wise guide and fierce protector, Tom exhibits a moral certainty throughout the novel that imbues him with strength and resolve: he earns the awed respect of his family members as well as the workers he later organizes into unions. Ma Joad: The mother of the Joad family. Ma is introduced as a woman who knowingly and gladly fulfills her role as â€Å"the citadel of the family.† She is the healer of the family’s ills and the arbiter of its arguments, and her ability to perform these tasks grows as the novel progresses. Pa Joad: Ma Joad’s husband and Tom’s father. Pa Joad is an Oklahoma tenant farmer who has been evicted from his farm. A plainspoken, good-hearted man, Pa directs the effort to take the family to California. Once there, unable to find work and increasingly desperate, Pa finds himself looking to Ma Joad for strength and leadership, though he sometimes feels ashamed of his weaker position. Rose of Sharon: The oldest of Ma and Pa Joad’s daughters, and Connie’s wife. An impractical and romantic young woman, Rose of Sharon begins the journey to California pregnant with her first child. She and Connie have grand notions of making a life for themselves in a city. The harsh realities of migrant life soon disabuse Rose of Sharon of these ideas, however. Her husband abandons her, and her child is born dead. By the end of the novel, she matures  considerably, and possesses, the reader learns with surprise, something of her mother’s indomitable spirit and grace. Grandpa Joad: Tom Joad’s grandfather. The founder of the Joad farm, Grandpa is now old and infirm. Once possessed of a cruel and violent temper, Grandpa’s wickedness is now limited almost exclusively to his tongue. Grandma Joad: Granma is a pious Christian, who loves casting hellfire and damnation in her husband’s direction. Her health deteriorates quickly after Grandpa’s death; she dies just after the family reaches California. Al Joad: Tom’s younger brother, a sixteen-year-old boy obsessed with cars and girls. Al is vain and arrogant but an extremely competent mechanic, and his expertise proves vital in bringing the Joads, as well as the Wilsons, to California. When he falls in love with a girl named Agnes Wainwright at a cotton plantation where they are working, he decides to stay with her rather than leaving with his family. Uncle John: Tom’s uncle, who, years ago, refused to fetch a doctor for his pregnant wife when she complained of stomach pains. He has never forgiven himself for her death, and he often dwells heavily on the negligence he considers a sin. Ruthie Joad: The second and younger Joad daughter. Winfield Joad: At the age of ten, Winfield is the youngest of the Joad children. Ma worries for his well-being, fearing that without a proper home he will grow up to be wild and rootless. Two characters left the family because of their selfish dreams and their individualistic attitude; they represent in my own interpretation the individual type that does not believe in the ideology of the strength of the traditional family, they simply give up their role among their family by trying to find their own happiness without the help of any one. They are: 12 Connie: Rose of Sharon’s husband, an unrealistic dreamer who abandons the Joads after they reach California. Noah Joad: Tom’s older brother. He leaves his family behind at a stream near the California border, telling Tom that he feels his parents do not love him as much as they love the other children. There’s also one other character who accompanied the Joads through their way to California; Jim Casy: A former preacher who gave up his duty out of a belief that all human experience is holy. He’s the moral voice of the novel, Casy articulates many of its most important themes, among them the sanctity  of the people and the essential unity of all mankind. Therefore, we feel that Jim is almost a member of the Joads6. This brief introduction of the Joads family paints in our minds a wonderful image of a perfect family unit, also through reading the story, we feel like they can’t never be separated, even if some of their family members ran away and others died, they seem to be related deeply to each other; for example, through the whole journey uncle john still blames himself for letting his wife die because of his negligence, another example of their strong relationships to each other is when they reached California, they all kept wishing if grandma and grandpa were still alive to see it. Now, what’s the cause that made some members of the Joads ran away and leave their family and made others die? 2. The Great Depression and its effect on the Joads family In the story of The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads were Going west on Route 66 towards California, on their way, they encountered many barriers and difficulties, the worst one was the death of two family members; along the road, Grandpa died and was buried in a camp 6 SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Grapes of Wrath.† SparkNotes LLC. 2007. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grapesofwrath/characters.html (accessed June 26, 2012).  where they stopped for a while, Also Grandma died close to the California state line, and both Noah and Connie split from the family and ran away. The remaining members, led by Ma, realized they have no choice but to go on, as there is nothing remaining for them in Oklahoma. In other words, the cause that made them leave their home is the same one that affected them and caused to some of them death and others to run away; it’s The Great Depression and all the sorrows it brought to the American families. The Great Depression era was an awfully challenging period for the American  family, the effects of The Great Depression, both during and after, seriously impacted the structure, finances, and employment of the American family unit. What was known as â€Å"The Dust Bowl† pushed thousands of immigrants to leave their homes to other states, especially California State, and made them obliged to find a humble job with an average wage to live a simple life and survive during the economic crisis that broke their life to pieces by causing more starvation, poverty and death7. The Joads are one of the thousands of victims in the Great Depression era. First of all, they had to leave their home and the whole state of Oklahoma to the state of California because of the dust that transformed their farms from fruitful fields to dust yards, as a result of that, food was very hard for poor people to get so that they had to fight for it, in addition to that, jobs became extremely scarce and the land owners had to push out the tenants farmer from their lands, this is what exactly happened to the Joads, the responsible authorities obliged them to leave their land and home town, therefore, they sold what they’ve already got, and bought an old decrepit truck which they are going to use as their transportation on their way to California, the second effect of what happened in the great depression was on family itself; a traditional family are known by its strong union and unity, exactly like the Joads family, but what happened in that disappointing era has split many families and destroyed their unity, only strong ones survived but with many losses and sacrifices; The Joads finally gathered after the return of their son Tom from the penitentiary,  they already decided to leave Oklahoma, on their way to California, they faced many troubles, and they witnessed their family fall apart many times  because of the bitter realty and the cold hearted people they encountered during their trip, grandpa died of old age and also grandma died of sickness by feeling sorry for her old poor husband who didn’t want to leave to California in the first place, he decided not to go there in the last minutes while they were packing their needs and getting ready to leave. Feeling abandoned by the family, Noah left also the family as Connie did for their selfish dreams and aspirations. By reaching California, the Joads became shocked and disappointed by the reality of the place they’ve sacrificed everything they got to be in it. The situation there is just the same as the one in Oklahoma if not saying it’s worse than Oklahoma. Finally, after a long while and through many impediments, The Joads reached California with numerous dreams and ambitions, but they faced the unforeseen and witnessed the unexpected; the realty tells a different story and the ideal golden California was just a fantasy, the hand bell that brought them there worth nothing at all, but did they lost their hope of living a happy life as a happy family? Did they give up all their dreams and aspirations? These questions have answers in the last section of this Part. 3. The unity and the strength of the Joads In his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck portrays the theme of Joads’ strength through their unity in order to comment on the relationship between the dissolution of individual families and the unification of migrant people. Steinbeck also aims to prove to us that the unity of the traditional family is the only motivation that drove the rest of the Joads to California and helped them to stand in front of any obstacle that they faced in their quest to a better life. 15 â€Å"The family became a unit [†¦] Pa was the head of the family now.†8 The use of the past tense in this quote tells us that Pa was taking control of the family. As It is always known, the father is the head of the traditional family, but what is really striking in this novel is that pa became so weak  to take control over it, so Ma Joad, the pillar of the Joads took his place and led the family towards California for a better life by making the right decisions and reacting against anyone who attempts to break the family apart. Before the journey, Ma Joad was just one voice among many in making group decisions. As the novel progresses, she becomes more dominant. She decides when they will stop or go on9. Ma Joad was described by Steinbeck as the â€Å"citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken† (100), she seems to be the source of hope to all the members of the family, if it wasn’t for her, the rest of the family would never reach a s far as they got, even though some members lost their hope and became overwhelmed by despair, Ma’s determination encouraged and motivated them to carry on also she taught them to never give up and never be away from the family. The nature of her relationship to other members of the family differs from one to another. Her favorite one is her relationship to her desired and beloved son; The arrival of Tom also revived the unity of family, she lost him once when he was in prison, then she became so happy when he got paroled and came in the appropriate time to move with his family to California. By the end of the story she accepted his loss for the sake of the rest of the family, she was so afraid that cops would take him back to jail then she let him run away with a broken heart. For Ma Joad, family is everything, from the beginning of the story until the end, all what she cared about was the unity of her family. ‘We got nothing’, now,’ Pa said †¦ ‘Seems our life is over and done!’ ‘No it ain’t, ‘ Ma smiled. ‘it ain’t, Pa. An’ that’s one more thing a woman knows. Women. I noticed that. Man, he lives in jerks – baby born, an’ a man dies, an’ that’s a jerk.Women, it’s all one flow, li ke a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Women looks at it like that. We ain’t gonna die out. People is goin’ on-changin’ a little, maybe, but goin’ right on!† (577) She saw her family falling down but she acted rapidly and pulled it up before it touched the ground. She consistently proves to be the novel’s strongest supporter of family and togetherness. In other words, when we first met Ma Joad, she was a strong woman. When we saw her in the very last chapter, she was the same strong woman. We didn’t think it possible, but her strength only grows throughout the course of the novel. In fact, her initial strength is transformed into a different one. We can’t really pinpoint exactly what is this new kind of strength, but we know it’s the one who kept the rest of the family together until the end. Furthermore Steinbeck presents Ma Joad’s growing power as a source of communal strength sheltering human dignity from the antisocial effects of individualism 10. On their way to California the family continued to meet obstacle after obstacle, it seems like Pa Joad did not quite know how to keep it together. But Ma Joad knew how to do it. Thanks to her strength again, and when they reached California Ma Joad was the only one who didn’t feel shocked, because she knew it from the beginning before no one else did, her only objective is to keep the family together, she told them that all what matters is that they are together and no one can separate them from each other, her belief in this unity is so pure and strong, and that’s what made her so special as a women belonging to a traditional family. In this part, I dealt with many aspects in treating the concept of family in the respected work of John Steinbeck’s â€Å"The Grapes of Wrath†, the essential step to understand how he dealt with it in his novel is firstly to introduce all the members of the joads one by one and understand their roles in this work, secondly it’s important to deal with the concept of family by discussing how the great depression affected it and showing an example of a strong family that resisted that impact by being so strong and focusing on the family unit such as the Joads Family, then finally, I dealt with showing you the source of strength of the Joads: the fountain of wisdom and  knowledge and the center of strength Ma Joad. CONCLUSION: In drawing conclusions for this study, I shall start summarizing what was said since the first page of my research paper beginning with the first part in which I emphasized the most important institution in our society which family that is also the main issue of this paper. I started by defining it along with another challenging concept which is individualism that affected negatively the family institution and made it lose its traditional values and acquire new modern thoughts and opinions about family in general. This prelude to the main issue of my research paper is made necessarily to help understanding these two different concepts before dealing with their appearances in the novel of Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath in which I concentrated on the theme of â€Å"family unit†. In the second part, I developed this theme in details by introducing first of all the main characters of this story in order to understand each one’s role in the changing of events, and then I talked briefly about the Great Depression era by acknowledging it and showing its strong effect on the traditional family structure. Then finally I discussed the center and source of strength that helped the Joads to get through their problematic journey and achieve their destination without falling apart when they faced the bitter truth and after making many sacrifices that hurt every one of them especially Ma Joad, the pillar of the Joad family. Taking seriously what was going on during that depressed era and how did this family survived, is really what we need to do in our days of age, in other words, families must be united if they want to survive and live life properly. REFERENCES: Bibliography: Beck Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization. London: Sage, 2001. Cederstorm, Lorelei. The great mother in the Grapes of Wrath. Canada: Brandon University, 1993. Etzioni, Amitai. The spirit of community: The reinvention of American society. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Hofstede, Greet. Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Modern Library, 1939. Steinbeck, John and Harold Bloom, ed. The Grapes of Wrath â€Å"Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations†. Chelsea House Publishers, 2006. Webliography: â€Å"Family†. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 25 Jun 2012. Web. 24 JUN 2012. . â€Å"Individualism†. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica., 2012. Web. 24 Jun. 2012 . Shmoop Editorial Team. â€Å"The Grapes of Wrath†Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 24 Jun. 2012. SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Grapes of Wrath.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 26 Jun. 2012.