Jeon 1

Seokhyun Jeon

Mr. Price

APEL

6 September 2017

Oppressive Hopelessness

Overwhelmed, devastated, and frustrated by the bully, the innocents could only suffer

under its regime. Chapter Five of Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath portrays the shadow casted by

the behemoth that is the bank. Innocent tenants, landowners, and drivers were hopeless

controlled by the banks omnipotent-like power. The landowners were forced, by the bank, to

kick the tenants out of their own righteous property to allow tractor drivers, hired by the bank, to

destroy the land. The theme of this chapter is hopelessness caused by unjust yet supreme power.

Steinbeck makes clear of his theme by effectively utilizing repetition, pathos, and language.

Right off the bat, the author uses repetition to direct attention towards certain words and

phrases. For example, the quote ...as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with

thought and feeling (Steinbeck 1) and The bank, the monster owns it (Steinbeck 4) both

contains the diction, monster. The first four pages alone contains more than ten cases in which

the banks were described as such. The Bank is immediately painted as something inhumane to

clarify who the bad guy was in this particular predicament. Further on, the tenants frequently

says Grampa took up the land Pa was born here, and he killed weeds and snakes. (Steinbeck

3) in their complaint towards the landowners. A sense of belonging as well as righteous

ownership can be felt from this phrase. Steinbeck repeats it to emphasis the immense level of

injustice that the tenants were forced to endure. The driver also had a confrontation with a tenant

in which he repeatedly responded with the phrase, Three dollars a day. (Steinbeck 7). In that
 Jeon 2

era, three dollars a day were nothing to scoff at. The driver kept referring back to the phrase to

highlight that the moneys importance for the wellbeing of his wife and kids. Steinbecks usage

of repetition emphasizes important values that add up to the theme along with the appeasement

towards pathos.

Secondly, the writer intelligently conducts emotion of both the audience and the

characters. As the tenants were notified of their eviction, they asked Cant we just hang on?

Maybe the next year will be a good year They looked up questioningly. (Steinbeck 2). They

need to retain their property to have the chance to survive. Not only are they desperate for the

removal of the eviction notice, but also the audience can clearly feel their need for hope. The

tenants also being a father and a husband looked up for a second, and the smoulder of pain was

in their eyes. We got to get off (Steinbeck 5). Men are able to empathize with this quote as the

blanket of disappointment and misery falls upon the tenants. The imagination of having to

announce to the family of their failure, which was beyond them, leaves the heart only with agony

and anguish. The final kicker is when the children, worried yet unable to comprehend the

problem, ask their mother, What we going to do, Ma? Where we going to go? (Steinbeck 5).

Knowing that they have no good response for the poor child, the audience is left with

hopelessness. The overwhelming shadow of The Banks reached and struck the youth, a symbol

for the innocent around the country. The author makes readers feel the hopelessness induced by

monsters, through effective usage of pathos as well as language.

Finally, Steinback utilizes language to evoke certain emotions that departed the audience

with despondency. For example, they thundered when they moved, and then settled down to a

droning roar.(Steinbeck 6). People can not only feel, but hear the impending doom approaching

them by using loud and destructive words like thundered and droning roar. The auditory imagery
 Jeon 3

illustrates turmoil, confusion, and anxiety. Along with anguish came suffocation, for instance,

the monster...goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception, muzzled his

protest (Steinbeck 6). Goggled and muzzled create the illusion of suffocation. The monster,

The Bank, drowns the drivers reality of self. The audience sympathizes with the drivers,

creating the sensation of claustrophobia. Steinbeck takes it a step further using more aggressive

language, to illustrate, ...twelve curved iron penes erected in the foundry, orgasms set by gears,

raping methodically, raping without passion. (Steinbeck 7). The tractor absolutely destroys the

ground thats already dried up from the drought. Words like erected, orgasms, and rape refer to

non consensual sex which paints The Bank as a violent, oppressive figure. Steinbeck

communicates feelings of approaching doom, suffocation, and aggressiveness through effective

language as well as repetition and pathos.

The theme of hopelessness under an oppressive figure is masterfully communicated by

choice of repetition, pathos, and language. The author takes his readers on a roller coaster using

his creativity of words and phrases. He used repetition to create strong emphasis on words that

needed it while making the audience connect with the tenants family responsibilities and issues.

All the while, using ingenious language to go from approaching loud noises to rape.