The American 1940 film, The Grapes of Wrath, is based on the 1939 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the same name. John Ford directed this John Steinbeck remake and won an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Director. The film opens up in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl with Tom Joad hitchhiking his way back to his family home after recently being released from prison. His family is very happy to see him, but soon inform him that the bank recently foreclosed on their farm. They explain to him their plans to head out west for California, the place they call “The Land of Milk and Honey”, to search for employment. The large family, which includes Ma, Pa, Grandma, Grandpa, and various other family members, leaves the next morning at daybreak to California via Route 66. The trip is found to be very grueling and takes a huge toll on the Joad family as Grandpa and Grandma Joad both die before even making it to California. Once the family reaches California they find the work is not what they were hoping it would be. They are forced to work just above slave labor, barely making enough to live. They find themselves moving from camp to camp hoping to luck upon “The American Dream”.
Most generally the American Dream refers to the thought that one’s affluence depends on their ability to work hard and be successful in society. Many aspects and goals must be considered before someone's life or lifestyle can be deemed a success or failure of the American Dream. The dream can be America seen as an Eden, or a Utopia in a character's thoughts. Chances of such thoughts are rare due to the fact that not everyone can have what they want and be happy. Individually, however, someone could feel triumph no matter how society feels together as a whole, or their thoughts about the independent character. The final aspect, possibly the most important, is finding a sense of optimism for the future. Even if the goals are not being met, as long as there is will to succeed, there is a way to succeed.
The Grapes of Wrath obliterates all chances to thrive and live the American Dream. The Great Depression had hit rock bottom, the times were at their worst. The family worked well below living wage and had to buy supplies and food from the company market that charged three times the amount than elsewhere. The whole family worked, the kids and even the pregnant sister. Promise of jobs and a new life were around every corner. But they all led to false hopes and a poorer family. In the film Ma Joad says, “Up ahead there’s a thousand lives we might live, but when it comes down to it, it will only be one.” This shows the optimism of the family at the time. As the family moves on and on you get a desperate feeling from the family that they are soon going to loose more members if their luck doesn’t turn over soon. America at this time was not a Utopia for the Joad family. It was displayed that the only way to succeed, was to succeed individually, for society was at an all time low.
The film never showed a successful family, or even a successful couple. The ones we saw with jobs were the gas station attendants. In today’s and most standards these people would not be ones that are look up to. This was a contrast at how bad the family had gotten. The lack of any great wealth is a great sign of the ideology of the film. The film was not out to make it look like the American Dream was possible leaving wealthy people out added to the despair.
Tom Joad, “I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled...”
Ma Joad, “Oh, Tommy, they'd drag you out and cut you down just like they done to Casy”
Tom Joad, “They'd drag me anyways. Sooner or later they'd get me for one thing if not for another.”
Tom Joad, “They'd drag me anyways. Sooner or later they'd get me for one thing if not for another.”
This quote from the film was the only mention of the rich and wealthy, and it is eluded that this could be only one person and everyone else is left with nothing but to starve. The people taking over the land are never seen and the workers that come and run everyone out do not know who they are working for either, they are just getting by like everyone else.
America was definitely not seen as an Eden, more of as a living hell. The Grapes of Wrath shows the story of a family who fails at almost every sense of the American Dream. One part they hold onto strong is optimism for a better future. This optimism is brought to the last lines of the film, Ma Jode says, “Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people.” Optimism is all the family has as they continue their journey onward looking to find work and strike the American Dream. As a viewer you want to root for the family to succeed but in the end agree that the American Dream is just an allusion of a place filled with milk and honey.
Related Links:
Grapes of Wrath at The Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032551/
http://www.filmsite.org/grap.html
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