Through out the Novel The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses many different symbols to represent a bigger picture or even to give us an image and help us picture a scene more vividly.
The Bank
The bank is a symbol of power , it controls the people and turns them against one another, even during a crisis like the dust bowl, it is able to cause some farmers to pitch against each other. An example of this is Joe Davis's boy. He had to go against the farmers and use the tractors so that he could earn himself three dollars a day everyday to support his family.
'If a bank or a finance company owned land, the owner man said, The Bank-or the Company-needs-wants-insists-must have-as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. ' (pg 31)
The tractors cannot be controlled. Nobody likes them, but they can't control it. it is the result of the greedy banks. These tractors are monstrous tools the banks used in order to gain more money.
The farmers describe these machines as monsters and the drivers as robotic and without emotion.
'Snub-nosed monster, a robot in the seat.' (pg35).
California
To the people of Oklahoma, California is like a safe house to them. They think they can go there when their farm is taken and have work when they get there. They are uncertain about what will happen, but they are told of work. Many of the drivers and owners suggest the farmers find work in California. Work is sometimes picking cotton or other similar tasks.
'Maybe you can go on relief. Why don't you go to California? There's work there, and it never gets cold.'
