Grapes Of Wrath - Stereotyping :: essays research papers

Stereotyping and Its EffectsStereotyping, brought on by the organism of a class system, has many positive personal effects in can buoy Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath. This class system, made up of migrants and affluent people, is present due to the fact that many of the affluent people class the migrants as poor, uneducated, and well agitated human beings. Thus, this sets a boundary between the educated individuals and migrants. At first, most migrants ignore the effects stereotyping has on them. But towards the end of their journeys to California, the migrants wrath that had been gradually building up inside lets out and the migrants take action. The effects are more positive as the migrants strive for an education, receive sympathy, and sedately deal with conflicts. Farm owners, successful businessmen, and generally all inhabitants of the Mid-West subscribe a sense that all migrants are dumb, uneducated people in 1939. They depress wages for fruit-picking at farms which were t he and jobs offered to the migrants because of their proposed lack of intelligence. But migrants do not necessarily choose not to educate themselves. Ma Joad announces to her family that she will trip out her two youngest children to school once they are settled. Connie, Rose of Sharons husband, similarly plans out his goals with Rose of Sharon saying, An hes Connie gonna study at home, mayhap radio, so he can git to be an expert . . . The migrants have their mind already set on education and chose not to be ignorant all of their lives. Often in Grapes of Wrath, the affluent people stereotype the migrants as poor and penniless(prenominal). As the Joads pull into the gas station, the attendant straightaway asks, Got any money? He vox populis the Joads as one of many poor, migrant families arriving to beg for some gas. But not all people who view migrants as poverty-stricken, hungry people see them in such a way. Mae, a waitress at one of the restaurants pities a family asking f or colewort and shows her compassion by letting the children have candy for much less than its worth. Instead of the anticipated let-down, the migrants receive pity from those with compassion and sympathy. Not only do affluent individuals see the migrants as uneducated and penniless, but in like manner as easily agitated human beings. Because farm workers are horrified that these migrants may someday take over their farms, they try to make the migrants stoppage more unwelcoming.