Quotes about Industrialisation & Capitalism:

‘A huge red transport truck’

-          First line- shift from agricultural to industrial – they are becoming intertwined

-          Transport- foreshadowing movement form Oklahoma to California

-          Huge= language of abundance- the commercial side of life is more successful

This concept is rejected by tom- creating tension

Through the truck we are introduced to the abundance of Capitalism, yet also tehlack of human emotion.

Steinbeck villainised mechanization: Mechanization was changing farming practices & farmer was digging themselves deeper into debt= ‘economical collapse’- Steinbeck

Diner

-          Microcosm for US Society- collective community

-          Diners were constructed as a result of Capitalist system so a microcosm for the system

-          E.g. there is a lack of connection- metaphor for how capitalism breakdown human connection.

“You hear anything?” “No”

-          Driver trying to connect and interact but is ignored.

-          Drivers created industry of Capitlsim

-          Driver tries to find connection- lack of connection (metaphor for society)

Lack of collective- a very individualistic society- no connection

‘But sometimes a guy’ll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker’

-          Driver is offered with a choice

-          A small action & revolts feels like a rebellion against the entrenched system of capitalism

-          Smale acts makes a difference- they maintain human nature & hope for humanity

-          = small little American Dreams- a moment that seem insignificant

-          Reliance on companionship- almost a revolt against Capitalsim- 2 different men continue to help each other- a force of humanity

 

-          Dichotomy between driver & tom even though they help each other out- Capitalist system creates tension due to boundaries & enforced rules

 

Steinbeck introduces Capitalism & the revolts as it limits connection & humanity creating tension

‘his hands were shiny with callus’

-          Contemporary readership recognise he is a labouring man- one with the land

-          He has evolved with the land- it is one with him

-          This puts him at odds with the driver who represents industry

-          Direct association of hands being a symbol of something larger

-          Whilst FG wrote about money, Steinbeck wrote about hands and how people had to work for a living- not everyone was born into the leisure class and had to labour to survive.

CONTRAST

‘Soft fingers began to tap the sill of the car window’

-          Link to the image of hands

-          Hands= representative of the person

-          Those involved with the land lack connection with the land & humanity

‘window’- physical & metaphorical barrier between business-men and farmers- capitalism encourages apathy

‘ as though the Bank or the Company were a monster’

-          An entity

-          Has tangible being

-          Instead personified as a predatory monster

-          The extended metaphor means that the bank has to be ‘fed’ with profits

-          its life is priorities over the livelihoods of farmers

It supersedes over everything

-          First direct reference to metaphorical monster

-          Unable to conceptualise

It is hard to kill a concept & intangible thing

‘some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do […] and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.’

-          The gradual loss of humanity & empathy due to Capitalism

-          Isn’t their fault

-          Survival of the fittest mechanism

-          Building up of apathy & disconnectedness

‘they’- unlike ‘farmer’s. lack of identity and individuality

‘some of the owner men were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters.’

-          Link to ‘serfs’ in GG- if you are appealing to masters of the Capitalist system to look down on those below you

E.g. Myrtle & Driver are happy to be in servitude because they have some status

‘But the monster’s sick.’

-          ‘sick’- chilling- the unknown consequences

-          Contradictory- mix of human language & monster

-          Perhaps changing & adjusting their narrative to persuade the farmers.

-          Association & comparison with the bank- a cooperation & concept imbued with humanism

-          Perhaps to ensure farmer & reader can engage & understand it- tangible imagery= notion of human sympathy to understand the bank

Capitalism- abuses human sympathy

‘The man’ ‘the driver’

-          Contrast

-          Example of the dehumanisation from a person into a thing0 the means in which the bank will function

Referred as an undefinable thing

‘Why, you’re Joe Davis’s boy!’

-          Unlike previous, the tenant farmer knows who he is- consequence of capitalism

= disconnected from your community & destruction for your community

‘A huge red billboard stood beside the road ahead, and it threw a great ooblong shadow.’

ch 16

-          The mass production of advertising

Red= a large warning and ominious sign to the migrants, which they are ignorant of

-          Echoes Dr T.J Eckleburg’s billboard.

“If I say pay you a half a dollar I ain’t a vagrant huh?”

-          Joads Vs Institution

-          Use of institutionalised system to exploit and manipulate the migrates

Vagrant Crisis- the exploration of desperation- paying is blatant capitalism

“But they’s still five hundred that’ so goddamn hungry they’ll work for nothing but biscuits”

-          Hyperbolic- the extent of their desperation

-          Reduced to animals who are repaid with food.

Abuse of power & the migrants situation- constantly being exploited by Capitalist system

VALLEY OF ASHES: ‘grey land and spasm of bleak dust’

1.      A direct result of industrailisation- a consequence of the wealthy & capitalism

2.      Immorality is happening everywhere, but the wealthy are able to cover it up with a façade

3.      The reailty & corruption of the American dream

4.      Immorality will lead to punishment- decline in relgion & prohibition

5.      East= Romantic, West= modern, Valley= Realism (midpoint)

6.      Representation of Manifest Desitiny and it’s reality

v  How those in poverty suffer as our society spends money to make the rich richer

v  Mirros how a small percentage of people benefit from Capitalism whilst everyone else suffers

v  Reality of American dream

v  Effect of Capitalism on nature & people

Bleak, decay, hopeless

‘unfold the shing secrets that only Midas, Morgan and Maecenas knew’

Nick talking about his new job as a bond man in the city

v  Nick is intertwing classical Greek figures with Morgan à idea of alining wealth with education

Midas Touch= he turns everything to gold- but it corrupts him= no amount of money can make you happy

CONTEXT

-          - conveying it is an ‘entity’ making the decision- there is no one to blame

-          Charles Cunnigham views that Chapter 5 considers the Marxist notion of capital accumulation: capital cannot be in equilibrium; it must always be in motion and producing more money. “The system cannot be made humane because its operations are inherently monstrous”

-          “The novel describes capitalism as producing super-exploitation, dislocation and violence for the dispossessed, but it's also comments on the alienation experienced by the middle class and the ‘great owners’ as well”- Charles Cunningham

-          “ownership is thus associated with the profound alienation from others and with the delusion that acquisition starves of death. It brings existential if not material suffering”- Charles Cunningham

-          “besides registering moral outrage at profiting from another suffering, the narrative argues that private ownership stands against the process of history and nature”- Charles Cunningham

Critics

Charles Cunnigham:

GoW is a proletariat novel which give us an “Insight into capitalism that illuminates every chapter of the book”

“the system as a whole can be changed because it is social”- Charles Cunnigham