The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in the history of the world. It all began after the financial market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a frenzy and wiped out a large number of investors. In 1933, when the Great Depression reached its all-time low, about 15 million Americans were out of work and nearly most of the country's banks had failed. To make the situation worse, another drastic event occurred, the Dust Bowl, violent sandstorms that hit the southern region of the United States. As strong breezes and choking debris swept across the area from Texas to Nebraska, people and animals were killed and crops collapsed across the district. The Dust Bowl intensified the economic impacts of the Great Depression and forced families into desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. The Okies, farming families who hoped to seek some kind of work from the Southern Plains, moved to California in the 1930s to escape the ruins of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The film, The Grapes of Wrath, opens with Tom Joad, released from prison and traveling home to his ranch in Oklahoma. Tom eventually finds Jim Casy, his old preacher. Casey was Tom's family preacher and was the one who baptized Tom, in the end Jim felt it was time for a change and he lost a bit of himself, he felt he lost his confidence most of all. Tom and Casey go to Tom's house only to find it empty. At the scene they meet Muley Graves. Miley explains how farmers around the world are being forced out by bigger companies. Soon, the entire Joad family, twelve people plus Casy, decides that the best option is to go to California. They keep all their belongings in a small truck and head down Highway 66. The entire journey is daunting and tiring. As time passes along the road, negative events begin to take shape, first and foremost the death of his grandfather. The family is unable to afford or even organize a proper funeral, so they just buried him with a piece of paper, talking about his death, so people don't consider it a murder. Not long after they lose their grandmother, their children Noah and Connie. Eventually, the family arrives at the first migrant work site and finds that the camp is full of other hungry, unemployed, and frantic travelers. Conflicts begin and the Joads advance to another camp, the Keene Ranch. Soon, Tom and Cast decide to go explore a nearby strike. A guard ends up killing Cast and Tom ends up killing the guard. The family decides it's time to leave and creates a clever plan to get Tom out. A few hours later they hide Tom under the cushions of the truck, while the guardians come to ask questions of the family. Tom evades capture and the family escapes safely. Unfortunately the engine fails and the family comes to a halt at the top of a hill. With little gas left, they decide to head to the nearest traffic light. After a couple of hours, the engine started to fail and the car started to run out of gas. The family decided to stop in a third camp, equipped with toilets and showers. After all the events Tom has witnessed, he decides to work for change. Casy's death will not be in vain and he will continue the fight for social justice. He leaves the family and the film ends with Ma Joad discussing the family's situation. The Grapes of Wrath is a successful work of fiction with the goal of giving a voice to thousands of people,the Joads. While the film accurately portrays some historical scenes, there are significant differences between the film and the story that affect the value of the film. These inaccuracies include the portrayal of the future of the Okies, the Joads as a whole, what the Okies experienced in the time they were expelled from their homesteads, through the duration of their westward adventure, and how they were viewed/reacted to their current situation . The film The Grapes of Wrath inaccurately depicted Okie families through the Joads and other children. In the film we meet the members of the Joad family, twelve people originally from Oklahoma. This is very deceptive as the typical Okie family in the Dust Bowl had approximately 2.8 children with an average life expectancy age of thirty. For a good part of the film we meet grandfather and grandmother. Grandpa and Grandma Joad are now in their thirties. In the early stages of the film both are depicted as weak and unable to move at times without assistance. Mom and Dad are both younger, but again, they're well into their thirties. These characters were used to appeal to the public's pity, as they see the elderly unable to live peacefully during their retirement period. Interestingly, when the family arrives at the first camp, they see many families and children dying of starvation. There were many scenes where he emphasized the situation. However, only migrant children and families left hungry were the ones who refused aid from the Farm Security Administration (FSA). These families and children were clearly under the FSA. These inaccuracies are quite significant due to the change in the number of characters that are supposed to be in the film and the current situation of the other characters. While this inaccuracy is quite significant, I don't think it heavily diminishes the value of the film because Joad's number doesn't play a significant role in the film, the grandparents even die early in the film and the family is overshadowed by the rest of the plot . The FSA situation does not diminish the fact that families and children around the world are still starving. Another inaccuracy is the film's portrayal of government and corporations. In The Grapes of Wraththe, the government and corporations are depicted as working together eliminating farmers' wages. Hilariously enough, none of these companies were capable of taking such actions. In fact, it was the Okies who determined the earnings of each worker. The FSA provided camps for workers and the government worked to aid the employment of Okies on farms. Ultimately, this gave the Okies a chance to start their own harvest. These jobs would have allowed the Okies to grow their own crops while getting great wages, but in the film the Joad family is clearly shown jumping from one field to another because of how bad the fields are. This inaccuracy is very significant. Throughout the film, the audience immediately categorizes multinational corporations as guilty of everything. Fifteen minutes into the film we see a fellow Okie demolishing the homes of his peers. He did it because he gets paid well and this made the Joads even more angry. When he was threatened with a gun, he simply said “you won't do it, and if you do there will be fifteen more like me, who will take my place. The entire film depicts other families, who are also forced to leave their settlement due to the government and multinational corporations. This makes it seem like the government and multinationals are behind all this, but that's not the case. Finally, the Joad family and all the okies are considered victims throughout the entire film. It is clearly seen that they are chased away from their farms,/1_70_9_111. ’
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