Nourishment as a symbol in The Grapes of Wrath Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In The Grapes of Wrath, families traveling to California suffer from hunger and exhaustion due to malnutrition. The Dust Bowl is the physical embodiment of their hunger. Perhaps more important than physical nourishment are the mental and emotional aspects of nourishment, which pertain specifically to the Joad family. Because of their constant hunger, their problems crossing America and dealing with the law, and Tom's spiritual turn, Steinbeck explores many different types of nourishment in Grapes of Wrath. Physically, the people on the journey are starving because they cannot cultivate the land. that belonged to them. The land itself is starving, as good soil has been swept away, leaving moldy soil and sand. These factors exacerbate each other: bad soil leads to starvation employment, meaning farmers can't reinvigorate the soil, which continues the cycle. In The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad personifies this struggle. He expects to return home and continue farming, but instead finds himself thrown into a world where he cannot work. It is the symbol of birth, in a certain sense. Tom goes from being cared for and raised in prison and becomes accustomed to a life with regular feeding. After prison, he finds himself in a world that can barely support itself, let alone the workers who have starved the land. Steinbeck reveals through these circumstances the corruption of banks and landowners. These men do not care about the people who work the land, or the land itself, rather, their priority is a healthier profit and more consistent profits. They add hunger to those who suffer by greedily claiming for themselves the only nourishment the land and the workers can have. When the Joads attempt to cross into the United States, they encounter many physical hardships and difficulties in dealing with authority, particularly lawmen, landowners, and employers. Economic circumstances are pushing lawmen to the limit, especially with the rapid influx of travelers. Therefore, they are becoming increasingly corrupt by cutting deals and attempting to control travelers more than their positions dictate. In terms of nutrition, these lawmen are a sort of leech that feeds on whatever energy the poor travelers have. Landowners perhaps cause even more problems, but not in the same way as lawmen. The landowners bought all their land with loans and, by defaulting on the loans, created the initial problem for the workers. The landowners' uncontrolled spending and blatant disregard for the common man make them central to the plight of the workers. The workers' struggle emerges in all aspects of their journey: the vendor, the homeless camp, and the general disregard for human life they face from the people they meet along the way. Employers are the ones who often take advantage of the problems at hand by posting job offers en masse, knowing that hungry crowds will flock to them, trying to get any job to feed their families. The supply of workers is huge, and employers can reduce wages while still getting the work done. In essence, they impact the efforts of workers. All of these entities take away nourishment from workers in favor of gaining weight, both mentally and physically. As the novel progresses, the poor become more and more oppressed, like a mother giving to her own.