The Grapes of Wrath The bank

As there is no real clear antagonist in the story, the bank can be considered the next best thing. It is the reason so many farmers are being forced from their homes, and migrating west. It has accomplished this by making the few remaining farmers tractor people off their land. "I know. Had to keep the line straight. But I'm going through the dooryard after dinner. Got to keep the lines straight. And well, you know Joe davis, my old man, so I'll tell you this. I got orders wherever there's a family not moved out if I have an accident you know, get too close and cave the house in a little well, I might get a couple of dollars. And my youngest kid never had no shoes yet." (Steinbeck 38) The bank is only doing this because there is no profit being made, and without profit there is no way to pay all it's farmers. Thus ending in bankruptcy, and having to shut down the farms all together, causing all the farmers to be jobless. So in retrospect, what the bank is doing needs to be done, but it doesn't have to be done in this exact way, as there is probably a better way to evict the farmers. I don't know what exactly this way would be, but the current way only caused everyone to go west and be homeless there. While what the bank was doing was strictly business, the farmers saw the bank as a monster that feeds on taxes and has to keep growing. "We can't depend on it. The bank the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size." (Steinbeck 32) While personifying the bank may seem irrelevant, this metaphor is a good description as to how the bank is operation. As in it always wants to be profitable, but if it isn't making a profit it does whatever is necessary to make the profit happen.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.