1. Achievable Idealisms Page 1 of 3
Achievable Idealisms According to John Steinbeck
Lindsey Purves
March 16, 2012
Mr. Kabachia Humanities 30

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The theme of Idealism versus Truth is a common one that shows up in many texts,
The Grapes of Wrath included. In this classic, written by John Steinbeck, we are introduced
to many individuals who hold idealisms in their hearts and minds as they travel to
California from their taken-over homes. Rose of Sharon is a soon-to-be mother who wishes
to live in the perfect home with the perfect husband. Jim Casy wishes to unite the
“migrants” to achieve a better life for them in California. Truth about life may stop an ideal
dead in its tracks if those who hold these idealisms do not think reasonably and don’t do
anything to bring their ideals to life.
Throughout The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck describes the ideals everyone has as
they move to “beautiful” California. Every one of the “migrant” people wants to live a happy
life somewhere where they are treated with respect, not like creatures lower even than
horses. The sad truth of it all is that this is not the case in California. The inhabitants of
California see the foreigners to their land as a threat to their way of life and so they use
force through their police forces to beat the people down, often times literally, and in turn
destroying the ideals of the humble people from the eastern states.
The ideals of the Californians are not so different than those held by Rose of Sharon
Joad. Rose of Sharon wishes to live in a fancy house with her husband to support and
provide everything her and her child want. The problem with this ideal life is that Rose of
Sharon is depending on Connie, her husband, to study how to repair radios and get a job in
the city so that he can buy her all of these things. Connie is only dreaming of doing all these
things and never actually makes a move to start studying, ending up leaving his wife and
unborn child to go off on his own. Rose of Sharon is so set on achieving her perfect life that

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not even her husband abandoning her can sway her thoughts on the matter and it takes the
death of her infant, months later, to finally snap her out of her state of mind and realize the
truth: she will never have this picture-perfect life, not unless she does something about it
herself and even then may never reach her goal.
In comparison to Rose of Sharon, the former preacher Jim Casy, has much more
reasonable ideals. Jim Casy had the idea that if all the “migrant” people banded together
and did something together as a group to change their lives in California, they could all live
a happy life. Casy started small by gathering a group of men working at a peach farm to
protest the drop in wages. The protest group was able to temporarily bring the wages back
up to five cents/box of peaches picked, just enough to keep the pickers alive. Unfortunately
Casy soon died from a blow to the head and was unable to reach his goal of uniting the
“migrant” people together.He was able to pass along his message of strength in numbers to
Tom Joad though. Tom later then went on to continue what Jim Casy had started, and in a
way Casy was able to accomplish his idealism. “An’ I been wonderin’ if all our folks got
together an’ yelled, like them fellas yelled, only a few of ‘em at the Hooper ranch…” (pg. 571
of The Grapes of Wrath)
Steinbeck portrays Casy’s ideals as being more reasonable through his action,
compared to Rose of Sharon’s inaction. He holds more faith in idealisms that are within
reason and that are actually trying to be carried out by an individual.