The Grapes of Wrath - Joads Journey- Through out history man has made many journeys, far and wide. Moses's great march through the Red Sea and Columbus's transversing the Atlantic are only, but a few of mans great voyages. Even today, great journeys are being made. Terry Fox's run across Canada while having cancer is one of these such journeys. In every one of these instances people have had to rise above themselves and over come emence odds, similar to a salmon swimming up stream to fullfill it's life line. Intense drive and extreme fortitude are qualities they had to possess during their travels. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck shows the Joads endurance by his use of extended metaphors in intercalary chapters. Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes in the novel. This effectively forshadows upcoming events by telling of the general state of the local population in the intercalary chapters and then narrowing it down to how it effects the main characters of the novel, the Joads. Setting the tone of the novel in the readers mind is another function of Steinbeck's intercalary chapters. In chapter three, Steinbeck emaculatly describes the long tedious journey of a land turtle across a desolate highway. From the onset of his journey, the turtle encounters many set backs. All along the way he is hindered by ants, hills, and oak seeds under his shell. The turtles determination to reach his destination is most apparent when a truck driven by a young man swerves to hit the turtle. The turtle's shell was clipped and he went flying off the highway, but stop the turtle did not. He struggled back to his belly and kept driving toward his goal, just as the Joads kept driving toward their goal. Much like the turtle from chapter three, the Joads had to face many great hardships in their travels. The planes of Oklahoma, with their harsh summer weather, was the Joads desolate highway. The truck driver represe...
