Previous
Mood
Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Dust:
Dust is a prominent motif throughout the novel, which is set during a period of extreme dust-storms and diminished agricultural yields in the American Southwest now known as The Dust Bowl. The dust, released by both drought and the erosion of topsoil by agricultural practices, covers the property of the Joad family and their neighbors. This motif is introduced in the first chapter of the novel, as Steinbeck describes the pervasiveness of the dust:
In the roads where the teams moved, where the wheels milled the ground and the hooves of the horses beat the ground, the dirt crust broke and the dust formed. Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Connection to the Land :
The notion of a personal connection to the land serves as a motif throughout the novel. Steinbeck presents the tractor drivers who have supplanted the tenant-farmers as working on the land only indirectly through machine tools. As a result, he suggests, those tractor drivers have little connection to the land itself, unlike the tenant-farmers, who work with it directly and who have survived upon the land for generations. In Chapter 5, Steinbeck describes a tractor driver as a robot-like figure operating a monstrous contraption:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The driver could not control it—straight across country it went, cutting through a dozen farms and straight back. A twitch at the controls could swerve the cat’, but the driver’s hands could not twitch because the monster that built the tractor, the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow got into the driver’s hands, into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him—goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception, muzzled his protest.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Dust:
Dust is a prominent motif throughout the novel, which is set during a period of extreme dust-storms and diminished agricultural yields in the American Southwest now known as The Dust Bowl. The dust, released by both drought and the erosion of topsoil by agricultural practices, covers the property of the Joad family and their neighbors. This motif is introduced in the first chapter of the novel, as Steinbeck describes the pervasiveness of the dust:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In the roads where the teams moved, where the wheels milled the ground and the hooves of the horses beat the ground, the dirt crust broke and the dust formed. Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Jesus Christ:
Steinbeck repeatedly suggests parallels between Jim Casy and Jesus Christ, a prominent motif throughout the novel. Though Casy disclaims any similarity to Jesus, Steinbeck nevertheless presents him as a Christ-like figure, and the two share the initials "J.C." When he is asked to say grace at the Joad family’s dinner prior to their journey to California, Casy states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I ain’t sayin’ I’m like Jesus [...] But I got tired like Him, an’ I got mixed up like Him, an’ I went into the wilderness like Him, without no campin’ stuff. Nighttime I’d lay on my back an’ look up at the stars; morning I’d set an’ watch the sun come up; midday I’d look out from a hill at the rollin’ dry country; evenin’ I’d foller the sun down.
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Connection to the Land :
The notion of a personal connection to the land serves as a motif throughout the novel. Steinbeck presents the tractor drivers who have supplanted the tenant-farmers as working on the land only indirectly through machine tools. As a result, he suggests, those tractor drivers have little connection to the land itself, unlike the tenant-farmers, who work with it directly and who have survived upon the land for generations. In Chapter 5, Steinbeck describes a tractor driver as a robot-like figure operating a monstrous contraption:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The driver could not control it—straight across country it went, cutting through a dozen farms and straight back. A twitch at the controls could swerve the cat’, but the driver’s hands could not twitch because the monster that built the tractor, the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow got into the driver’s hands, into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him—goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception, muzzled his protest.
Related Themes:
Chapter 28
Explanation and Analysis—Jesus Christ:
Steinbeck repeatedly suggests parallels between Jim Casy and Jesus Christ, a prominent motif throughout the novel. Though Casy disclaims any similarity to Jesus, Steinbeck nevertheless presents him as a Christ-like figure, and the two share the initials "J.C." When he is asked to say grace at the Joad family’s dinner prior to their journey to California, Casy states:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I ain’t sayin’ I’m like Jesus [...] But I got tired like Him, an’ I got mixed up like Him, an’ I went into the wilderness like Him, without no campin’ stuff. Nighttime I’d lay on my back an’ look up at the stars; morning I’d set an’ watch the sun come up; midday I’d look out from a hill at the rollin’ dry country; evenin’ I’d foller the sun down.
Related Themes:
