A discussion into the importance of the American Journey in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Content Warning: Unsettling moments in both novels, including cannibalism, starvation, and death.

Mark Robert once stated that ‘the American dream has been deeply rooted in the concept of a journey’ [Robert, P.2] and how ‘it is about motion and progress, it is about optimism, and it is about finding success and fulfilment along the way’ [Robert, P.2]. Although I agree with this to an extent, the importance of journey in both John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) shows the journey towards this dream and not the dream itself. Both novels detail the journey of two families on the quest for a better life after some form of disaster. Here, the journey not only represents the physical act of moving from one place another but also shows the human experience and resilience in the face of extreme circumstances.

The Grapes of Wrath details the Joad family in their quest for a better life, new beginning and employment in California after the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma leaves their farm desolate therefore forcing them off their land and out of their home, thus starting a migration movement. This migration movement was the reality for many real Americans during the time of the Great Depression. Around ‘315,000 to 400,000 migrants from the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas headed to California’ [Wald. P.52]. Wald states that ‘According to American mythology, national prosperity resulted from the availability of land. White settlers could find a place to farm, and with work, they could build a successful life for themselves’ [Wald. P.53]. Signifying that this movement, the journey would signify a new hope for these migrants, a way to escape their poverty and head towards the American Dream.

The human resilience in The Grapes of Wrath is shown through the physical journey the Joad’s take. Just like McCarthy’s The Road, the Joad’s go through hardships when travelling west to California. Firstly, going through the Dust Bowl region and eventually through the desert. Their homeland turns in to nothing but ‘a hard thin crust’ [Steinbeck, P.1]. This paints their home as a now desolate, unlivable land and not somewhere the family ‘b’long’ [Steinbeck, P 127]. This sets up the reasoning for their journey. However, this journey is met with resistance. Grampa Joad is one of the only characters that firmly states ‘I ain’t a-going’ [Steinbeck, P. 129]. The need to for the journey, however, outweighs his concerns as he is soon put to sleep by some ‘soothin’ sirup’ [Steinbeck, P.130] in his coffee.

Immediately, the journey set’s off on a dark tone. After resisting the journey, Grampa dies. With Casy stating that ‘grampa didn’ die tonight. He died the minute you took him off the farm... he was that place’ [Steinbeck, P. 171]. The alignment of Grampa to the farm highlights the detachment to their former home. The farm, along with the idea of home, dies along with Grampa. By having casualties on this journey highlights the importance of it. Their desperate need to get to the west is shown through how casually they discuss what to do with the body after watching a family member die. This is also seen through the note they write with the body, ‘jus a stroke and he dyed’ [Steinbeck, P. 167]. This doesn’t seem like it’s coming from a family who needs to mourn a loss.

The journey the Joad’s undertake within this novel is a turning point for ex-convict, Tom Joad. Tom Joad goes through an extreme transformation from ex-convict to the leader of the migrants when it comes to workers rights. At the beginning of the novel, he guilts a driver into letting him catch a ride and shows no regret for the manslaughter he committed, even going as far as to say ‘I’d do what I done – again’ [Steinbeck, p.30]. Towards the start of journey, we see Tom take on a very “one day at a time” approach to life, saying ‘I climb fences when I got fences to climb’ [Steinbeck, P.203]. This transformation starts when the family are denied somewhere to camp. He gets angry at the exploitative landowner who thinks he should pay more leading him to claim ‘if I pay you a half dollar I ain’t a vagrant, huh?’ [Steinbeck, P. 218]. Here, we can see how a disruption in the journey is starting this change on mindset. Just after this he reveals that he is ‘bolshevisky’ [Steinbeck, P. 225], this of course relating to the communist party of Russia, the Bolsheviks.

Tom Joad’s first impression of California isn’t one of “American Dream” standard. Compared to what Rank writes; ‘The American dream is ‘ a guiding force reflecting the manner in which we see our lives unfolding’ [Rank, P. 2]. And yet, all Tom can see is ‘tough mountains’ and ‘a murder country’ [Steinbeck, P. 268]. Opposite to what was promised. This pushes this transformation more as he knows he’s going to have to fight even more for this dream. Once he finishes the journey and starts work he points out that ‘them people got together an’ says, ‘let ‘em rot’’ [Steinbeck, P. 325]. Here, you can see how the journey has awoken Tom Joad’s consciousness and thus starts an inner journey for him to bring his people justice. Moreover, his time in prison has not only given him a strong sense of resilience but an even stronger defiance against a prejudice authority. We see this when ‘Tom put his foot for [the deputy sheriff] to trip over’ [Steinbeck, P. 311] when defending a fellow migrant, Floyd Knowles. These hardships have positioned him in the center of not only the journey but the novel.

Furthermore, the journey is also a journey of growth for Ma Joad. As she tries to keep the family together you see her slowly shift to a leadership position. Since the start of the novel, she has been established as the matriarch of the Joad family, after all, without her ‘the family will to function is gone’ [Steinbeck, P. 86]. At the beginning of the novel, she falls in to the traditional “housewife” of the time, the one who cooks and looks after one, but in a demurer way. This is shown when Tom Joad returns home and she immediately asks ‘Tommy, you ain’t wanted? You didn’t bust loose?’ [Steinbeck, P. 86]. Or when she states ‘It’s women’s work’ [Steinbeck, P. 123] when making the breakfast. And yet, once the journey begins you see her take a stronger stance. When the suggestion of splitting up the occurs in order to fix the cars, she states she would ‘wait till [Pa Joad] had [his] back turned’ [Steinbeck, P. 197] and then knock him ‘belly up with a bucket’ [Steinbeck, P. 197] should they split the family up. She convinces everyone to stick together as Steinbeck writes ‘in a moment the group knew that Ma had won’ [P.197] against her husband. Although she stays within the traditional feminine boundaries, the journey allows her to protect her family in ways she’s never been able to do so.

The journey in The Grapes of Wrath is not only a physical one but mental one for the Joad family. The reason for the journey is to get to California in hopes for a better life and yet when they arrive, they are met with prejudice and exploitation. This is a critique of the American Dream; it shows that no matter the journey you take there is still the option of not achieving the “perfect” life. However, even after this disappointment you still see moments of resilience the Joad family built up during the migration. This is seen when Rose of Sharon feeds a starving man with the milk from her breast. Spurred on by her mother, the matriarch of not only the family but the journey. The journey in The Grapes of Wrath is also one of despair. During the journey the Joad family, along with the other migrants, experience loss and betrayal. In both novels the families lose their identity on their journey. When Steinbeck writes ‘How can we live without out lives? How we will we know it’s us without our past?’ [Steinbeck, P. 103], this leads the family to spiral about leaving the farm. This highlights the important of the journey to California as they are prepared to lose their identity in doing so.

Similarly, we see the same loss of identity in The Road. Throughout the whole novel the identities of the man and the boy are never revealed. No one’s name is. Unlike The Grapes of Wrath where the family already had established identities at home. We see the inner turmoil on the pages when it comes to the loss of identity in The Grapes of Wrath. They are only seen as migrants or “Okies” which according to a fellow migrant means ‘you’re a dirty son-of-a-bitch’ [Steinbeck, P.241]. This signifies that soon the Joad’s will also think about themselves in the same way. However, once the mans identity is questioned he simply replies ‘I’m not anything’ [McCarthy, P. 67], showing that this apocalypse has taken everything from him, bar his son.

When looking at The Road the main importance of the journey is the exploration of the complexity of the relationship between the father and son. It is central to the whole novel. The reason for the journey is for survival. The duo head southward in search of food, shelter and safety. In doing so, they come across a bleak post-apocalyptic America filled with cannibals, lawlessness and surviving in the ‘cold glaucoma’ [McCarthy, P.1] of post-apocalyptic America. However, this bond pushes the boundaries of a father’s love. The father often thinks about killing his son and then killing himself to save them both from this life. But his fatherly instincts could not, at the end of novel he confesses this to the so on his death bed stating that he ‘can’t hold my dead son in my arms. I thought I could but I can’t [McCarthy, P. 298] This shows the unwavering commitment he has to keeping his son safe, even if it means no longer living. Although the journey itself doesn’t lead him to think this, it exposes the raw and complex relationship of the father and son.

Towards the beginning of the novel, the father and son are awoken by the sound of a ‘diesel engine’ [McCarthy, P.63]. This sound alerts the father to the point where he ‘couldn’t even remember taking’ [McCarthy, P.64] the pistol from his belt. Robert writes that ‘Americas love affair with the automobile is all about personal freedom... the ability to hit the open road and go where you want to go’ [Robert, P.16] and yet, the father and son hide from it, thus indirectly hiding form the “American Dream”. Carrying on from this, they come across a man who was with this truck in the forest. The man offers them to join them as they have food and resources, something the father and the boy are scarce of. However, this meeting ends with the son being grabbed and having a knife being held to his neck.

The Road’s importance of the journey description is also one to not. In this desolate wasteland they find themselves travelling through they encounter deeply disturbing circumstances. McCarthy writes this wasteland as a ‘blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash’ [McCarthy, P.] a ‘sweeping waste, hydroptic and coldly secular’ [McCarthy, P.]. This unforgiving nature depicted in The Road as they travel though the post-apocalyptic land can be seen as a metaphor for not only their resilience but also their desperation. When the father states that ‘there is no God, and we are his prophets’ shows the disparity of their situation and yet they continue south. In classic American Dream spirit, they continue. In her book, Empty Spaces: perspectives on emptiness in modern history (2019) Campbell writes about the journey narrative in post-apocalyptic fiction. On their journey through empty spaces the protagonists not only come to embody the exclusionary logic of migration and the tension between the ‘old’ social order and the need to adapt to a ‘new’ world, but also reveal the problematic nature of what it means to live in a state of permanent uncertainty' [Campbell, P. 147].

This runs prevalent through the man and boy’s story. Constantly adapting to this new way living whilst travelling through desolate lands. This revelation comes when the father finally ‘understood for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien. A being from a planet that no longer existed [McCarthy, P.129]. To the boy this is all he has ever known but to the father, this is new territory. On the journey they come across a man called “Ely”, the only name we get in the whole novel, and even then, it is revealed not to be his name. The son wants to help this old man, but his father is apprehensive, Ely could be a distraction for an attack after all. After giving Ely some food, he states that ‘when I saw that boy I thought I had died’ [McCarthy, P.183]. This can signify the boy being a beacon of hope for others, something to look out for and follow. This is particularly poignant when the boy sees another child, he says ‘we should get go get him, papa, [McCarthy, P.90] and then gets deeply upset if not. This can mirror what people think of him they see him.

Additionally, we truly don’t know whether the boy was real of just a figment of his imagination. This trope of the boy being a beacon of hope is also seen at the end of the novel when he is found by “good people”. Noble not only compares the boy to a biblical figure but also the man. He states that ‘The father's similarities to Abraham are evident in the conflict between his ethical obligation to spare his son from enduring severe suffering’ [Nobel, P.96]. The novel ends in kind of heavenly tone, leaving an ambiguous end for the reader. However, the journey may be over the man, but has it just started for the boy?

To conclude, the importance of the journey in both novels is significant. It highlights the desperation to reach the “American dream”, whatever it may be, whether it is California or the hope of getting to the coast. It also signifies the human resilience when it comes to reaching what you desire. For the Joad’s it was employment in California and for the father and son it was the coast. Both of which end up being a disappointment to both. This not only shows how the journey is more important than the destination but also the character development through the story as well.

Works Cited:

Armstrong. C, Landscape and Identity in North America’s Southern Colonies from 1660 to 1745. 2013. Oxon: Ashgate Publishing

Campbell. C et all, Empty Spaces: perspectives on emptiness in modern history, 2019. London: University of London Press

McCarthy, C. The Road, originally published 2006, 2007. London: Picador

Noble. A, The Absurdity of Hope in Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, South Atlantic Review, Vol. 76, No. 3. Summer 2011

Rank. M. R, Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes, 2014. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Steinbeck. J, The Grapes of Wrath, originally published 1939, 2017. UK: Penguin

Wald. S, The Nature of California: race, citizenship and farming since the dust bowl, 2016. Washington: University of Washington Press