Archetypal+Situations

- Composed of 5 stages: departure, initiation (enters the dangerous world and gains a different perspective), road of trials (tests of strength and endurance), innermost cave (the hero is reborn physically, emotionally, or spiritually), return and reintegration with society (uses his new wisdom to restore order).  Steinbeck’s purpose in writing //Grapes of Wrath// was to portray that not all of migrant’s hardships were not caused by enviornmental forces, but also because of man’s inhumanity to man. Steinbeck all stresses that family unity and the power of fellowship are ways in which one can deal against man’s inhumanity against man.
 * Call to adventure: The hero is called to adventure.
 * The Quest: when the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the character revolve around their search for something (this can be consciously or unconsciously). Usually quest for identity or vengeance.
 * The Journey: Usually sends the hero in search of information or intellectual truth (combined with other situational archetypes). A common pattern is the depiction of travelers on a sea voyage, walking trip...etc in order to isolate them and use them as a microcosm of society.
 * The Task: In order to save the day; the hero must identify himself so that he reassumes his rightful position. (The Hero usually performs some some nearly superhuman deed).

**__Tom Joad’s call to Adventure:__** ** - [Lookie Ma. I’ve been all day an’ all night hidin’ alone. Guess who I been thinkin’ about? Casy! He talked a lot. Used ta bother me. But now I been thinkin’ what he said, an’ I can remember-all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderess to find his own soul an’ he found’ he diddn’ have no soul that was his’n. says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ‘cause his little piece of soul wasnt no good ‘less it was with th rest an’ was whole. Funny how i remember. Didn’ think I was ever listenin’. But I know a fella ain’t no good alone.] ... [I’ve been thinkin’ how it was in hat government camp, how our folks took a care of themselves, an’ if they was a fight they fixed it theirself; an’ they wasn’t no cops wagglin’ their guns, but they was better order than them cops ever give. I been a-wondering’ why we can’t do that all over. Throw out the cops that ain’t our people. All work together for our own thing-all farm our own lan’.] [Tom,] Ma repeated, [what you gonna do?] [What Casey done,] he said. [But they killed him]. [Yeah,] said Tom. [He didn’ duck quick enough. He wasn’ doing nothin’ against the law, Ma. I been thinkin’ a hell of a lot, thinkin’ about our people livin’ like pigs, an’ the good rich lan’ laying faloow, or maybe one fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan’ good farmers is starvin’. 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.] ... [Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be around’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where-wherever you look. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’- I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build-why, I’ll be there.] (Steinbeck XXVII, 418-419).

At the beginning of //Grapes of Wrath//, Tom Joad (newly out of prison) only worries about the present moment. The future does not concern him because he is afraid of what it yet to come. After his journey to California (which can be seen as a biblical journey), Tom goes through a significant transformation as he becomes interested in the future. He begins meditating on Casy’s preachings that stated that to achieve wholeness one must help other human beings. To Tom this is a truth because he recalls all the hardships that he and his family suffered through on their journey to California. This realization calls Tom to adventure and he decides to stand up for the world’s injustices against his people. By including Tom’s call to adventure (an archetypal situation) Steinbeck achieves his purpose because it shows and adds more depth to the idea that even though man’s inhumanity to man exists, the power of fellowship will not go down without a fight. **