The Parodox of Democracy as seen in The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is without a doubt, a remarkable novel. The vivid

realism employed by Steinbeck is nothing short of a masterpiece well deserved of all its accolades.

However, it can not be overlooked that Steinbeck is telling much more than the story of the Joad's

family misfortune. This is far more than their journey to California. Clearly, this novel peers into our

own misfortunes as a people striving for Democracy. Just as this family must grow and do something

different; so must we. Just as sure as the Joads have to overcome their own fragile misguided

intentions so must we as a Democracy. This novel has a voyeuristic feel in its overwelming realism.

Only to find, I'm looking into my own life; each of us. We see hypocracy and cruelty. Look there!

Greed has reared it's ugly head and look here; it's me. Winning at the expense of everything and

everybody. Steinbeck has told their story; the history that no one would publish and this is the paradox

of Democracy.

All philosophies and mathematical systems have paradoxes when pushed towards clarity.

Democracy reluctantly fits firmly into this category. America was founded out of British imperialism

as a move towards personal freedom for all while using the slave trade and Western expansion of

indeginus people as tools to facilitate this Democracy. Yet we as a country are seemingly different than

our British bullies. As Cornel West observes in his book “Democracy Matters”, “We are exceptional

because of our denial of the antidemocratic foundation stones of American democracy. No other

democratic nation revels so blatantly in such self-deceptive innocence, such self-paralyzing reluctance

to confront the nightmare of its own history. This sentimental flight from history – or adolescent

escape from painful truths about ourselves – means that even as we grow old, grow big, and grow

powerful, we have yet to grow up.” Our self-deceptive innocence is very hopeful. Steinbeck parades

this theme throughout The Grapes of Wrath. This theme blossoms in chapter nineteen. “Once

California belonged to Mexico and it's land to Mexicans...Americans poured in...such was their hunger

for land that they took the land-stole Sutter's land, Guerrero's land...and these things were possession,
 The Parodox of Democracy as seen in The Grapes of Wrath

and possession was ownership” Steinbeck clearly portrays the greed of the early Californians.

Now as we contrast this with the modest requests of the migrant workers, we begin to see the

onset of both Xenophobia and the underside of Capitalism.