The Grapes of Wrath - 9

The novel The Grapes of Wrath has so many things that can be learned from it, and it offers so many life lessons. From reading this book you can learn to stay together. You can also learn to do what you think is right. You may even gain from this book the realization that there is value in good character. Grapes of Wrath is a superb book that teaches many life skills and lessons.

Staying together with other people is so important. This book presents to the reader the value of other people. The Joad family stuck together through many hard situations. Because of it, however,they were able to appreciate each other more and learn to care about each member of their family more than they could before. Also, at the government run camp that the Joads got to stay at for a little while, there were no authorities. The people all lived together and made decisions together and all helped each other. Police officers were not even allowed in the compound. The police officers tried to shut it down, but because all of the migrants in the camp were united and working together, the police officers could not shut them down. It is very clear after that, that working together for a common good can be so much more beneficial than one man fighting alone.

From this book, we can also learn to do what we think is right; to listen to our instincts. An example of this in the book is Tom. In seeing that working together can make such a difference, Tom realized that he needed to use his leadership skills to organize people to stand up against the people that were in their way. Tom knew that his instinct told him not to let other people starve so that his family could eat. After he realized that, he decided to take action. Taking action is something that a lot of people struggle to do. Many people are convicted by things and realize that they should change, but not many people actually take action and initiative and change, like Tom did.

Tom is the protagonist in the story, and his character is attractive. In reading this, you feel like you want to spend time with a guy like Tom and get to know him, because he has great character and just seems like an all around likable guy. This attractive and respectable character in Tom is an encouragement for the reader to want to live like Tom lives and have character like his.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.