grapes of wrath
...e government system is best shown through the used cars salesman in Chapter Seven. Steinbeck parallels the government with the salesman and the tenent farmers with the people under the government. Steinbeck creates a strong feeling of hate in the reader by blatantly defining the salesman as the evil one, "neat, deadly, small intent eyes watching for weaknesses." (83). The reader learns to hate the salesman and what he is doing as he sells broken down cars with engines filled with sawdust and cracked batteries to replace perfectly good ones. "Piles of rusty ruins against the fence, rows of wrecks in back, fenders, grease-black wrecks...” (85) cover the lot and it becomes apparent exactly how dishonest these men really are. The farmers become desperate and start believing anything and everything the salesmen tell them, just like the government does every day. A second aspect in which society's popular belief contradicts what Steinbeck highlights in his novel is religion. In society's eyes, religion is one of the most important factors in determining one's status and degree of social acceptance. As the reader learns in Chapter Four, Jim Casy is an "ex" preacher who has recently come to the realization that “the spent ain't in the people much no more; and worse'n that, the spent ain't in [me] no more." (27). In his words, he has "got the call to lead the people, an' no place to lead tem.w(29). As an expression of Steinbeck’s own beliefs, Tom is not taken aback ...