Tom Joad the main character of the movie returns to his home in Oklahoma only to find that there is no work left due to the uprising of machine farming. The government placed no appropriate action of helping the Joad family in many different ways. First, when the Joad family was first getting kicked out of their land, the bulldozers just came barging in with no warning, and no time to prepare to pack up and leave. Second, as they are on the Highway to California, Grandpa sadly passes away and yet again Tom mentions that, “the government cares more about a man when he’s dead then alive “. This important quote out of the movie indicates that the government has not been paying any attention to any of them, but only when someone dies, they care. Third, the Joad family reaches the so called “Hoovervilles” this inaction of government proved to be unacceptable due to “none to prosperous” land. Lastly, they arrive at a camp ruined by sheriffs and locals. Every new arrival at the camp is very desperate for any amount of money so they work for a small 5 cent wage. Where is government here?
During this time of suffering for the Joads, the rich quickly took advantage of these people. Most people were out of work and looking for a new place to live and new places to work for their family. This allowed for the wealthier to take advantage of the situation for them to up their wealth/power. This process was simple, first the wealthy man would buy the land, then he or she would hire a mass amount of men or woman to plant and harvest the land. What is a result of this process? The answer is, a rich man that just gets richer. Where does this leave the lower class? This leaves them out in the street begging for more jobs that pay very minimal.
The Joad family finds themselves on the road again. This time they come across a “too good to be true” camp. This symbolizes how government is not always a bad. Even though government seemed to be really unreliable and...