'Family Unit in the Grapes of Wrath Essay\r'

'I dedicate this humble course to those whose blood runs in my veins; to my dearly deard p bents and to:\r\nmy make love sisters in al to keep upher(prenominal)(a) funda custodytal B.A student all my joyous and respected English t for for each one oneness(prenominal)ers all those who go forth work up this modest research melodic infrastructure\r\nACKNOWLEDGEMENT\r\nI’m fore some grateful to my supervisor Dr. YASSINE Rachida whose counselor and continual encourage ply forcet have efficaciously serviceed towards the fulfillment of this modest research paper. I would standardised to a fault to thank deeply whose efforts in grad dwell opened my eyes and inspired the idea and the pillow slip of this research paper, namely: Mr. ELHAMRI Rachid. I would like as well to express my deep whole t matchlessings of gratitude to my little unparalle take family that supported me to achieve where I am forthwith and still supporting me to the fullest, bearing in sound judgment my treasured friends for their on dismission honorable support. Finally, my thanks are devoted to all the students of the department of English at Ibn Zohr University for their appreciated suggestions while this research was under preparation.\r\n creative activity:\r\nAs most of critics refer to it, The Grapes of resentment is a master piece written by magic Steinbeck, a big(p) Ameri potty writer who wrote most of the best Ameri dejection stories ever. This fresh tells the story of the Joads, an slip of what happened to families that lived in Oklahoma during the 1930s. Be causa of drought, splash storms, and the death of crops, the country throwers had to throw in the grangers off from their push downs. In golf club to live, thousands of volume go westward and left their radicals deserted for untested chances of life. On their sort of life to atomic number 20, they go about umpteen difficulties; more or less of them befogged family members becau se of starvation and tiredness, and some women brought rising born babies to life, and some children stole food from some an other(a)(prenominal)’s camps in stage to eat and feed their dying families.\r\nWhen tribe reali recognised calcium with big dreams, ambitions and aspirations, they found taboo that it was non as they expected, life is harder thither if not reflexion worst than the atomic number 53 they already live, crowds of poor, hungry and lazy people staying in g everywherenment camps waiting for repurchase or purge death, confides and dreams were broken, many decided to go back and die in their home towns. contempt some of them had a chance to expire, the betroths were besides low to feed a family of more(prenominal) than eight members. At that point in conviction, working class people were considered as slaves and pigs for the rich class, their fight backs agown(prenominal)st the current is depict by Steinbeck as a â€Å"turtle crossbreed the road”.\r\nIn The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck tells us what kind of struggle the Joads confronted during their journey to live an ordinary life or more, a better unmatchable. In this Research paper I’m spillage to rivet my caution on the concept of â€Å"family” itself and the sozzled union surrounded by the members of the Joads as the principal(prenominal) drive that kept them way out and fighting against all odds for their freedom and mature of life thanks to â€Å"Ma” the strengthened, sturdy cleaning woman who is the moral center of family. This last point is what concussion me and propel this research paper’s natural selection of topic, therefore my aim is to inspect premier(prenominal) of all the importance of family in our day of age and how does per watchwordal identity extend tos its building blocky and brings it down, then assistly, I leave memorialise you the subject of this family building block of measurement by means of the work of bum Steinbeck; The Grapes of Wrath by revealing e genuinelything that helped to keep the them bonded and unite through the whole way to calcium and when they reached it.\r\n get down I: Family vs. individualization\r\nFamily in the light of individualisation became more complicated and more separated than ever. In the last few centuries westward families were characterized by the exploitiveness of their wiz that ties them together and keep them c lack to each other as unrivaled and but(a) merry entity that functions properly in the fellowship, that with the rise of the political orientation of personal identity, family members started to disruption up from the usual fond organisation and start a whole assorted nonpareil that is based on new principles, norms and a whole new ideas slightly the concept of family. The aim of this chapter is to discuss; Firstly, the distinction in the midst of fabianism and laissez faire with taking into consid agetion family as a model of collectivism, endorsemently to make conflict between conventional and new new-made family mental synthesis in the occidental societies. Finally, to show how individualism makes in a negative way the sensation that bonds western families.\r\n1- Family and individualism\r\nThe family presentation is essentially the most alpha part in our society. Without the family, our society would not be able to function the way it is supposed to. Thus, how fuck we define the word â€Å"family”? The definitions of family are as assorted as families themselves and the situations they are found in. I shall then cause with delimit this concept in a more gen epochl way. Family is the basic accessible unit because it sees people reenforcement together by ties of blood, spousal relationship or adaptation, thus representing a single household. harmonize to sociology, the family has the primary function of reproducing society; biologically, complaisantly, or 2. Furthermore, there are various structures of a family based on the relationship shared between parents and their children. Therefore, divergent attributes of family can be distinguished from the temperament of this relationship, such as patrifocal family, where the family consists of a father and his child, Matrifocal Family, where the family consists of a mother and her child. Consanguineal family is ane which consists of the mother, the child and other people, importantly belonging to the family of the mother1.\r\nIn most societies, Family is the principal institution for the socialization of children. And this institution might be based on the traditional concept of family or on the new edition of it; each one of them has its own principles and characteristics which I’m going to show in detail later(prenominal) in the next chase section. In appendix to that, Family is considered as the best example of the idea of collectivism which some few cultures are still characterized by. In contrast, there is an opposing concept which is totally different from it which is the concept of individualism that means the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses the moral outlay of the individual2.\r\nHofstede explains it by asserting that in the individualist cultures people are autonomous and independent from their in- convocations; they fox precedency to their personal goals over the goals of their in- aggroups, they behave primarily on the basis of their bil allows quite than the norms of their in-groups, and exchange theory adequately predicts their social behavior3. In other dustup, individualists believe in one’s own inte lodges, goals, freedom and independency and according to the German sociologist Ulrich Beck individualism has become the social structure of the era we are upkeep in today. Life of individuals is characterized by select where in forward generations no such cho ices existed. he clarified this by saying that the â€Å"Maintenance of the family link is no longish a matter of course but a freely chosen act.\r\nIn the situation spare- sequence activity a divorce, kinship is worked out anew in accordance with the laws of choice and personal inclination”4. Nowa geezerhood, in western societies many families has became totally upstartized, In other words, they are infected by the laissez-faire(a) ideology that keeps children obscure from their parents and helps to destroy the family unit that we very unavoidableness in this day and age on the button as it used to be very essential centuries ago, for example, in the 20 th century precisely in the age of the capital falling off, family unit was a very important characteristic in the lifestyle of western families in tell apart to maintain survival and endurance through the worst economic\r\nâ€Å"Family”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 25 Ju n 2012. Web. 28 JUN 2012. . 2 â€Å"individualism”. cyclopedia Britannica. cyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica., 2012. Web. 28 Jun. 2012 . 3 Greet Hofstede, culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001), p. 909 4 Beck Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization (Lon usurp: Sage, 2001), p. 96 crisis of all time. Now the fountain organise is which one is characterized by uniformity, the traditional family or the new advance(a) one?\r\n2- Traditional vs. young neo family\r\nAt the present time, the traditional family structure no longer exists in the modern western valet. It’s not surprising that the modern family structure has substituted it instead. In this section of my research paper, I’m going to focus on the residuals between these both(prenominal) contradictory family structures by highlighting three major characteristi cs (the size, the bearing of the family and the discipline) In order to show in which one the concept of â€Å" symmetry” appears most. Let’s begin with the size. The Size is one main feature in comparing the two structures; hence, traditional families appear to be larger than modern families. Usually they are more than ten members in their families, whereas modern families have exclusively three to quadruple members. Also Traditional families forever live with their relatives and have a lot of children in one big house, which is the reason why they are big families. Concerning their work, closely of traditional families are farmers.\r\nThey can work at their farms and fields; consequently, they don’t employ additional farmers in order of scrimping money. In contrast, modern families don’t invite anyone to help them in their work because they work in the office. They solitary(prenominal) have one or two children and don’t live with their re latives; this last difference affects modern families because they lead not be acquaint with their relatives, as traditional families do. They only date them on special occasions, such as birthdays and New Year. For example, children depart not get used to their grandparents because they only meet them in few times per year. They will not respect them as much as they should have. another(prenominal) difference between traditional families and modern families is the signal of family. Men are everlastingly head of traditional families. Women usually matter fretting of children at home, whereas men work outside. Women and children must listen and follow any(prenominal) men tell them, they should obey him and do any(prenominal) it was demanded to be done. Men have the power to order members of their families to do everything, even if they don’t like to do.\r\nModern families don’t have the head of family because women and men are considered to be equal. Both women and men work outside. They share ideas with each other. Women and children don’t obey the men’s orders if they think their orders aren’t correct. Women and children can decide by themselves. For example, women work outside, as men do. When she comes home, she doesn’t do the house work alone because she necessitate her save to help her in doing it. The last difference is discipline. Traditional families have many rules that are respected by all the members of the family. Most parents of traditional families are strict because they have a lot of children to look later on. It is only women who take care of children at home, so they need to have a lot of rules to control them.\r\nOn the other hand, modern families have few rules to control their children. Parents of modern families work outside. They don’t have enough time to take care of their children, so they don’t have time to make rules besides. Instead they take someone to look by a nd by their children while they’re working outside. This difference actually affects modern families because their children will always make problems to gain attention from their parents. For example, children don’t go to school because they emergency their parents to pick up them why they do this.\r\nThey want their parents to talk to them. done these three important differences, we can notice the culture of family system from the past until outrightadays and it’s only confirming the idea that states: â€Å"when societies change, families excessively change and both good and bad things change”. We can overly notice that traditional families are more bodied and social so that we can understanding the scene of unity in it, whereas modern families are more individualistic and independent and it lacks family unity in all its aspects. solely the other question is how this individualistic attitude affects the family unit?\r\n3- The effect of Individ ualism on the family unit\r\nMuch has been said about the family and the future of family in the so-called postmodern world we are living in today. As it was said before Individualism has become the social structure of this present era; Life of individuals is characterized by two major features: the initiatory one is the moral appreciation of individualism and the second one is the opportunity and capability to choose. These two main characteristics were rarely found in the previous generations. public lecture about the previous generations for example before and during the striking depression era, all families were mainly traditional because they living all together in one repoint as one entity; Grandfather and Grandmother with the children of their children in one big house probably with a farm and some corn fields or at least a vast land to work on later, the idea here is that, the group had control over the individual in everything.\r\nNowadays, the individualistic attitude s affected the concept of â€Å"family” by leading it to a gradual change in its structure and the principles it was built on. Individualists or as they call themselves modernists today die hard to have a unique way of mentation and a special way in sounding to things and life in general. They also have their own way of looking to â€Å"family” as a social institution. But their selfish attitudes prevented them to see to what extent they affect it negatively, Etzioni argues that the surge in individual rights conflicts with the needs of conjunction. He added that Individualism would destruct vital institutions such as family and neighborhood, and thereby create misery5. in other words this effect begins when certain members †especially grown children †of the alike family when they become aware of their own preferences and abilities to have a better life as an independent unity in the society to which they belong.\r\nThis certain beginning leads to the crowning(prenominal) break up from the original family then from the society into another atmosphere of living life with new ways of thinking about the whole social institutions particularly the one of â€Å"family”. During the great depression era, families necessitate to be unify and gathered as one body, any break up in that unity led to the collapse of the entire family. My aim hindquarters this general study of family in the shadow of individualism is to illustrate how important family unit in the story of the grapes of wrath is. I shall make this clearer in the second part where I’m going to focus deeply on the concept of family in this wise in which Steinbeck portrays the value of existence united in the era of The dandy falling off.\r\nIn the previous part, I discussed generally the concept of Family and the one of individualism. I discussed as well the difference between the traditional and the modern structure of family. Afterwards, I examined how ind ividualism can affect the traditional family and how it tries to modify its structure in order to modernize it. However, the traditional family remains the best structure in all circumstances, because it keeps family members as one group as we will see in the fabrication of John Steinbeck; The Grapes of Wrath. The Family is the key of survival in this Nobel pillage winner masterpiece. Without each other, the Joads would have no way of coping with the loss of their land or of acquiring to atomic number 20. Family is the one weapon that the Joads have against the refrigerated, bitter world around them.\r\nThey, along with many other unsettled workers, learn that they are muscularer and safer when they stay with each other as one unit and when they reach out to other families in order of creating a sense of community. Therefore, my research paper topic will be developed efficiently by giving answers to these following questions: Who are the Joads? What is The Great Depression and what is its effect on the Joads? How did they perish? Is it their strong unit of family or because of some other reasons? These questions and more are going to be answered in this chapter in detail to show how family unit is important for the Joads in the era of the great depression as a reaction against the crisis and the greediness of the upper class of the 1930s.\r\n1. Introducing The Joads\r\nBefore dealing in details with the â€Å"family unit” itself in this original, we should runner get present with a traditional family that survived thanks to their strong unity, it’s The Joads family. In this section I’m going to introduce all the family members who played a great mathematical function of maintaining and keeping the whole family as one unit through their journey to calcium. So, who are the Joads? The Joads is a family of twelve members from deferent generations; tom Joad, Ma Joad, Pa Joad, rose of Sharon and her husband Connie, Grandma Joad, granddaddy Joad, Al Joad, Noah\r\nJoad, Uncle John, Ruthie Joad, and Winfield Joad. Let me counterbalance introduce the ones who kept the family as one unit: Tom Joad: The book’s central character, and Ma and Pa Joad’s favored son. Tom is goodnatured and thoughtful man. Even though he murdered a man and has been separated from his family for four geezerhood, he does not waste his time with regrets. He lives fully for the present moment, which enables him to be a great origin of vitality for the Joad family. A wise charter and fierce protector, Tom exhibits a moral proof throughout the novel that imbues him with volume and resolve: he earns the awed respect of his family members as well as the workers he later organizes into unions.\r\nMa Joad: The mother of the Joad family. Ma is introduced as a woman who knowingly and lief fulfills her role as â€Å"the citadel of the family.” She is the healer of the family’s ills and the arbiter of its argumen ts, and her ability to perform these tasks grows as the novel progresses. Pa Joad: Ma Joad’s husband and Tom’s father. Pa Joad is an Oklahoma tenant farmer who has been evicted from his farm. A plainspoken, good-hearted man, Pa directs the effort to take the family to California. Once there, unable to husking work and progressively desperate, Pa finds himself looking to Ma Joad for strength and leadership, though he sometimes sapiditys ashamed of his weaker position.\r\n rosebush of Sharon: The oldest of Ma and Pa Joad’s daughters, and Connie’s married woman. An impractical and amorous young woman, Rose of Sharon begins the journey to California heavy(predicate) with her first child. She and Connie have grand notions of making a life for themselves in a city. The harsh realities of migrator life soon disabuse Rose of Sharon of these ideas, however. Her husband abandons her, and her child is born dead. By the end of the novel, she matures considerabl y, and possesses, the lector learns with surprise, something of her mother’s indomitable spirit and grace.\r\nGrandpa Joad: Tom Joad’s grandfather. The founder of the Joad farm, Grandpa is now old and infirm. Once possessed of a barbarian and violent temper, Grandpa’s wickedness is now limited almost exclusively to his tongue. Grandma Joad: Granma is a pious Christian, who loves casting hellfire and damnation in her husband’s direction. Her health deteriorates quickly after Grandpa’s death; she dies scarcely after the family reaches California.\r\nAl Joad: Tom’s younger brother, a sixteen-year-old boy obsessed with cars and girls. Al is vain and arrogant but an extremely competent mechanic, and his expertise originates vital in bringing the Joads, as well as the Wilsons, to California. When he falls in love with a girl named Agnes Wainwright at a cotton plantation where they are working, he decides to stay with her rather than leaving with his family.\r\nUncle John: Tom’s uncle, who, years ago, refused to fetch a doctor for his pregnant wife when she complained of stomach pains. He has never forgiven himself for her death, and he oftentimes dwells heavily on the negligence he considers a sin.\r\nRuthie Joad: The second and younger Joad daughter.\r\nWinfield Joad: At the age of ten, Winfield is the youngest of the Joad children. Ma worries for his well-being, fearing that without a proper home he will grow up to be wild and rootless.\r\n 2 characters left the family because of their selfish dreams and their individualistic attitude; they represent in my own interpretation the individual type that does not believe in the ideology of the strength of the traditional family, they simply give up their role among their family by trying to find their own pleasure without the help of any one. They are: 12\r\nConnie: Rose of Sharon’s husband, an unrealistic dreamer who abandons the Joads after they reach C alifornia.\r\nNoah Joad: Tom’s older brother. He leaves his family canful at a stream near the California border, telling Tom that he senses his parents do not love him as much as they love the other children.\r\nThere’s also one other character who accompanied the Joads through their way to California; Jim Casy: A former preacher who gave up his duty out of a belief that all human experience is holy. He’s the moral voice of the novel, Casy articulates many of its most important themes, among them the sanctity of the people and the essential unity of all mankind. Therefore, we feel that Jim is almost a member of the Joads6.\r\nThis brief insane asylum of the Joads family paints in our minds a wonderful image of a perfect family unit, also through reading the story, we feel like they can’t never be separated, even if some of their family members ran extraneous and others died, they seem to be related deeply to each other; for example, through the whole journey uncle john still blames himself for let his wife die because of his negligence, another example of their strong relationships to each other is when they reached California, they all kept want if grandma and grandpa were still alive to see it. Now, what’s the cause that made some members of the Joads ran away and leave their family and made others die?\r\n2. The Great Depression and its effect on the Joads family\r\nIn the story of The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads were button west on Route 66 towards California, on their way, they encountered many barriers and difficulties, the worst one was the death of two family members; along the road, Grandpa died and was buried in a camp 6\r\nSparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Grapes of Wrath.” SparkNotes LLC. 2007. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grapesofwrath/characters.html (accessed June 26, 2012). where they halt for a while, Also Grandma died close to the California state line, and both Noah and Connie split from the family and ran away. The remaining members, led by Ma, realized they have no choice but to go on, as there is secret code remaining for them in Oklahoma. In other words, the cause that made them leave their home is the same one that affected them and caused to some of them death and others to run away; it’s The Great Depression and all the sorrows it brought to the American families.\r\nThe Great Depression era was an awfully ambitious period for the American family, the effect of The Great Depression, both during and after, seriously impacted the structure, finances, and employment of the American family unit. What was cognise as â€Å"The Dust Bowl” pushed thousands of immigrants to leave their homes to other states, especially California State, and made them obliged to find a humble job with an average wage to live a simple life and survive during the economic crisis that broke their life to pieces by do more starvation, poverty and death7. The Joads a re one of the thousands of victims in the Great Depression era.\r\nFirst of all, they had to leave their home and the whole state of Oklahoma to the state of California because of the dust that change their farms from fruitful fields to dust yards, as a result of that, food was very hard for poor people to get so that they had to fight for it, in addition to that, jobs became extremely extraordinary and the land owners had to push out the tenants farmer from their lands, this is what exactly happened to the Joads, the responsible authorities obliged them to leave their land and home town, therefore, they sold what they’ve already got, and bought an old deserted truck which they are going to use as their transportation on their way to California, the second effect of what happened in the great depression was on family itself; a traditional family are known by its strong union and unity, exactly like the Joads family, but what happened in that disappointing era has split man y families and undone their unity, only strong ones survived but with many losings and sacrifices;\r\nThe Joads in the end gathered after the return of their son Tom from the penitentiary, they already decided to leave Oklahoma, on their way to California, they faced many troubles, and they witnessed their family fall apart many times because of the bitter realty and the cold hearted people they encountered during their trip, grandpa died of old age and also grandma died of sickness by feeling dreary for her old poor husband who didn’t want to leave to California in the first dress, he decided not to go there in the last minutes while they were packing their needs and getting ready to leave. Feeling abandoned by the family, Noah left also the family as Connie did for their selfish dreams and aspirations. By reaching California, the Joads became shocked and disappointed by the universe of the place they’ve sacrificed everything they got to be in it. The situation there is estimable the same as the one in Oklahoma if not saying it’s worse than Oklahoma.\r\nFinally, after a long while and through many impediments, The Joads reached California with numerous dreams and ambitions, but they faced the unforeseen and witnessed the unexpected; the realty tells a different story and the ideal golden California was just a fantasy, the hand bell that brought them there cost nothing at all, but did they bemused their hope of living a happy life as a happy family? Did they give up all their dreams and aspirations? These questions have answers in the last section of this Part.\r\n3. The unity and the strength of the Joads\r\nIn his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck portrays the theme of Joads’ strength through their unity in order to comment on the relationship between the diarrhoea of individual families and the unification of migrant people. Steinbeck also aims to prove to us that the unity of the traditional family is the only pauperism that drove the rest of the Joads to California and helped them to stand in front of any obstacle that they faced in their quest to a better life.\r\n15\r\nâ€Å"The family became a unit […] Pa was the head of the family now.”8 The use of the past tense in this quote tells us that Pa was taking control of the family. As It is always known, the father is the head of the traditional family, but what is sincerely striking in this novel is that pa became so weak to take control over it, so Ma Joad, the pillar of the Joads took his place and led the family towards California for a better life by making the right decisions and reacting against anyone who attempts to break the family apart. Before the journey, Ma Joad was just one voice among many in making group decisions. As the novel progresses, she becomes more dominant. She decides when they will stop or go on9. Ma Joad was expound by Steinbeck as the â€Å"citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken” (100), she seems to be the source of hope to all the members of the family, if it wasn’t for her, the rest of the family would never reach as far as they got, even though some members lost their hope and became overwhelmed by despair, Ma’s determination encouraged and motivated them to carry on also she taught them to never give up and never be away from the family. The nature of her relationship to other members of the family differs from one to another.\r\nHer favorite one is her relationship to her desired and beloved son; The arrival of Tom also revived the unity of family, she lost him once when he was in prison, then she became so happy when he got paroled and came in the appropriate time to move with his family to California. By the end of the story she true his loss for the sake of the rest of the family, she was so triskaidekaphobic that cops would take him back to jail then she let him run away with a broken heart. For Ma Joad, family is everything, from the beginning of the story until the end, all what she cared about was the unity of her family. ‘We got nothing’, now,’ Pa said … ‘Seems our life is over and done!’ ‘No it ain’t, ‘ Ma smiled. ‘it ain’t, Pa. An’ that’s one more thing a woman knows. Women. I noticed that. Man, he lives in jerks †baby born, an’ a man dies, an’ that’s a jerk.Women, it’s all one flow, like a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Women looks at it like that. We ain’t gonna die out. peck is goin’ on-changin’ a little, maybe, but goin’ right on!” (577)\r\nShe saw her family falling down but she acted rapidly and pulled it up before it touched the ground. She consistently proves to be the novel’s strongest supporter of family and togetherness. In other words, when we first met Ma Joad, she was a strong woman. When we saw her in the very last chapter, she was the same strong woman. We didn’t think it possible, but her strength only grows throughout the course of the novel. In fact, her initial strength is transformed into a different one. We can’t really pinpoint exactly what is this new kind of strength, but we know it’s the one who kept the rest of the family together until the end. Furthermore Steinbeck presents Ma Joad’s development power as a source of common strength sheltering human dignity from the antisocial effects of individualism 10.\r\nOn their way to California the family move to meet obstacle after obstacle, it seems like Pa Joad did not quite know how to keep it together. But Ma Joad knew how to do it. Thanks to her strength again, and when they reached California Ma Joad was the only one who didn’t feel shocked, because she knew it from the beginning before no one else did, her only objective is to keep the family toge ther, she told them that all what matters is that they are together and no one can separate them from each other, her belief in this unity is so unadulterated and strong, and that’s what made her so special as a women belonging to a traditional family.\r\nIn this part, I dealt with many aspects in treating the concept of family in the respected work of John Steinbeck’s â€Å"The Grapes of Wrath”, the essential step to understand how he dealt with it in his novel is firstly to introduce all the members of the joads one by one and understand their roles in this work, second it’s important to deal with the concept of family by discussing how the great depression affected it and show an example of a strong family that resisted that impact by being so strong and focusing on the family unit such as the Joads Family, then finally, I dealt with showing you the source of strength of the Joads: the fountain of wisdom and companionship and the center of strength Ma Joad.\r\nCONCLUSION:\r\nIn drawing conclusions for this study, I shall start summarizing what was said since the first page of my research paper beginning with the first part in which I emphasized the most important institution in our society which family that is also the main skip of this paper. I started by defining it along with another challenging concept which is individualism that affected negatively the family institution and made it lose its traditional values and acquire new modern thoughts and opinions about family in general. This prelude to the main issue of my research paper is made necessarily to help understanding these two different concepts before dealing with their appearances in the novel of Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath in which I concentrated on the theme of â€Å"family unit”.\r\nIn the second part, I developed this theme in details by introducing first of all the main characters of this story in order to understand each one’s role in the ch anging of events, and then I talked briefly about the Great Depression era by acknowledging it and showing its strong effect on the traditional family structure. Then finally I discussed the center and source of strength that helped the Joads to get through their problematic journey and achieve their goal without falling apart when they faced the bitter rectitude and after making many sacrifices that hurt every one of them especially Ma Joad, the pillar of the Joad family. pickings seriously what was going on during that depressed era and how did this family survived, is really what we need to do in our days of age, in other words, families must be united if they want to survive and live life properly.\r\nREFERENCES:\r\nBibliography:\r\nBeck Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization. capital of the United Kingdom: Sage, 2001. Cederstorm, Lorelei. The great mother in the Grapes of Wrath. Canada: Brandon University, 1993. Etzioni, Amitai. The spirit of community: The re invention of American society. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Hofstede, Greet. Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Modern Library, 1939. Steinbeck, John and Harold Bloom, ed. The Grapes of Wrath â€Å"Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations”. Chelsea House Publishers, 2006.\r\nWebliography:\r\nâ€Å"Family”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 25 Jun 2012. Web. 24 JUN 2012. . â€Å"Individualism”. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica., 2012. Web. 24 Jun. 2012 . Shmoop Editorial Team. â€Å"The Grapes of Wrath”Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 24 Jun. 2012. SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Grapes of Wrath.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 26 Jun. 2012.\r\n'