The Grapes of Wrath question 3

The universal theme I found consistently throughout this book would have to be death. There are an extraordinary amount of deaths in this novel, such as the death of Grandpa, Grandma, the dog, Casy, and the baby, with each death having a special significance to the story. The dog for one, while relatively unimportant, was merely to show us that death was there, and that more death would probably follow. Seriously, the dog was never mentioned again, they even stated that when they got a new house they would get a dog, and made no mention to this one. The Grandpa's death helped to reinforce the fact that Tom was technically a fugitive who was on parole, and also reinforced the fact that their trip was going to be very costly to them. The Grandma's death was seemingly as unimportant as the dogs, simply showing that people were dying, and that they all weren't going to make it through the trip. Then Casy died, and his death was a major turning point in the Joads life. It caused Tom to go into hiding and also caused him to want to follow in Casy's footsteps and try to lead the people against the banks and such. "Tom," Ma repeated, "What you gonna do?" "What Casy done." he said." (Steinbeck 419) Then Rose of Sharon's baby died, which caused her to go into a state of depression. This also signified the point when the Joads had no work, and had nowhere else to go. Death was a very important theme as each death not only helped to move the story alive, they also carried some significance to the story. After reading this novel it was clear that Steinbeck understood that humans are determined, and are inconsistent. Also that they die very often, but we learn from death, such as if a dog were to walk out in the road and be hit by a car, we learn to not walk into the road. It is also understood that the old are more likely to die than everyone else.

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