Term Paper on "Steinbeck's Okies: Three Critical Perspectives to Gain"
Term Paper 6 pages (1546 words) Sources: 1+
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Steinbeck's "Okies": Three Critical PerspectivesTo gain an understanding of this great American novel, the reader must at some point grapple with the meaning or importance of Steinbeck's indigent farm workers: the so-called Okies. They are at the center of the work, and it is their journey and struggles that make up the living soul of the novel. When one reads carefully through the three critical appraisals this essay will examine, the reader notices a changing magnification.
Each of our three critics has the "Okies" under the microscopic, so to speak, but they employ three quite different lenses to examine their subjects. As we shall see as we move from Reed to Owens to Gladstein, the calibration of the microscope moves steadily away. The movement starts with a narrow aperture, and "zooms out" to encompass a universal perspective: the "Okies" however, remain solidly in the center of our lens' field of vision.
John R. Reed, in his article "The Grapes of Wrath and the Esthetics of Indigence," offers the reader a very close scrutiny of the language employed within the novel; his interests concern the nuances of the migrant workers' speech patterns and actions. He focuses his examination on the specifics of the indigents' life in the west, and celebrates what he sees as their dignity and honor in the face of their daily trials. As Reed argues, the "Okies" must "maintain their dignity and pride [...] and transform the meanness of their lives - the indignities and humiliations of poverty, and abuse - into something larger and more significant" (612). The critic further points out that in his article he is interested in how Steinbeck is "able to transform th
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In contrast, Louis Owens, in his article "The American Joads," widens the lens of his perspective to see the indigent workers as symbolic of the entire American ethos: the westward search for the Biblical "Eden." This writer backs away from the critical observation of minutia; he widens the aperture to embrace the whole of the nation:
The Joads are the representative migrants, and the migrants are the representative Americans. The migrants' westward journey is America's, a movement that encapsulates the directionality of the American experience" (651). The "Okies" must be seen, he contends, within a larger framework: the vast American epic. Biblical yes, but through the American context of the Biblical vision, in which as he says, there is a "crucial association between California and the biblical Canaan" (645). For Owens then the religious reading is the right one because as he notes, Steinbeck keeps "the bible firmly in both the background and the foreground [...] for he is writing about a nation founded solidly upon a biblical consciousness, as the novel's title indicates" (643).
Mimi Reisel Gladstein, in her article, "The Grapes of Wrath: Steinbeck and the Eternal Immigrant," goes one further and backs the lens off even more to make the "Okies" become a universal metaphor for immigrant workers throughout the world. Gladstein, of immigrant stock herself, coming from a varied background encompassing both Europe and South America, naturally sees this story from a universal perspective. She asserts that this is not primarily an American story of migrant trials and sorrows, but something larger: it is a work which encompasses symbolically the hardships of immigrant life wherever it exists throughout the world: "The Joads gain much of their literary cachet from the similarities of the problems suffered by immigrants everywhere. Their experience is universal" (684).
In common with our first critic, John Reed, Gladstein also analyzes the use of language in the novel. She however sees within the conversations and name-calling evidence of the universal methods of exclusion. She examines the ways in which the communities relate to each other: the "in-groups" and the "out-groups." She employs the sociological term "ethnophaulism" (687) to identify the derogatory or de-humanizing use of language and name-calling between the various groups within the novel. As Gladstein notes, "he [Steinbeck] shows his Californians behaving toward the new arrivals in ways that are typical of the in-group's behavior toward the out-group" (688) anywhere in the world.
Reed's examination of language usage in his article is quite different. He is more interested in the use of crude language, and the various meanings this usage implies. He focuses on the language operating within the various communities. This becomes apparent for the reader, in passages like the following: "Just as derogatory language becomes more vile in the mouths of middle class than among the migrants, so unpleasant details are more savage in the established community" (608).
It is interesting to view the "Okies" through these three different lenses. Whether the Joads are just dirty cussing farmers on the move, or representatives of the biblical movement westward towards "Eden," or even as the universal emblem of the eternal immigrant: these characters that Steinbeck has drawn in the novel live as bold, memorable "living" individuals.
What these three fascinating studies do have in common is an appreciation for the work as a whole, and its finally uplifting message: no matter through which lens magnification it is viewed. Thus Reed notes that with these "potentially offensive details of indigent life" Steinbeck is able to transform and unite the "animal necessity with the high achievements of the human spirit" (615). Similarly Owens, with his gaze firmly on the Biblically infused "American Joads" notes that this great novel is able to "expose the fatal dangers of the American myth of a new Eden, and to illuminate a path toward a new consciousness of commitment instead of displacement" (652). Equally Gladstein is ready to commend Steinbeck for adding to the literature of the immigrant a volume which "so tellingly" echoes the "pains and promise of immigration" (691) which her family, like so many others, have endured.
It is fascinating that three separate interpreters of this novel can bring three quite different perspectives to bare on the importance of the "Okies" within Steinbeck's novel. Whether the vision is centered on individual farmers as separate living individuals, or on characters as symbolic of things much larger than themselves, the novel yields up the possibilities of multiple investigations. We can see that whether the lens rests firmly on the subject, or backs away to take in a much larger scope, both methods reveal valid ways of looking at this complex multifaceted work. Thus we agree finally with Galdstein who sees in the Joads trials, the "experience of what immigrants have bourne throughout history" (685).
Works Cited
Gladstein, Mimi Reisel. "The Grapes of Wrath: Steinbeck and the Eternal Immigrant.." The Grapes of Wrath: Text and Criticism. Ed. Peter Lisca and Kevin Hearle. New York, NY: Penguin, 1997. 682-692.
Owens, Louis. "The American Joads." The Grapes of Wrath: Text and Criticism. Ed. Peter Lisca and Kevin Hearle. New York, NY: Penguin, 1997. 644-653.
Reed, John, R. "The Grapes of Wrath and the Esthetics of Indigence."
The Grapes of Wrath:… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Steinbeck's Okies: Three Critical Perspectives to Gain" Assignment:
I need to compare three essays in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath: Text and Criticism.", 2nd. edition, Edited by Peter Lisca and Kevin Hearle. Please contrast the critical essays of Mimi Galdstein, page 682, Louis Ownens, page 643, and John Reed, page 603. (These will also be my sources/works cited). I need an introduction with thesis sentence, and outline also. My outline is two pages, my essay is 5. My outline has a thesis statement with a list of points, standard Trimmer MLA. Do not feed back one essay and then move on to another essay. I need to intergrate, selecting small passages to support main points.
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