Chavez And The Joads example essay topic

Migrant workers went through a lot of struggles. They went through life and death situations, prejudice, and one of the most important things of all they had to keep their family and people together and keep believing that they would make it to a better life. The things they go through while immigrating change their views on life forever. Some for the good some for the bad". They said, these god dammed okie's are dirty and ignorant. They " re degenerate, sexual maniacs.

They " ll steal anything. They " ve got no sense of property rights" (Steinbeck 363). One of the hardest things that immigrants went through was prejudice. Cops and towns men where always after the okie's because they where dirty and didn't have a stable home. The immigrants from Mexico experienced the same hardships. The farm owners hated them.

They just wanted them to do their job and leave. The farm owners didn't care that they had a family to feed, they wanted to screw them over and pay them as less money as they could. It's weird how the same prejudice is still around. No matter how nice a person is if they don't dress the same or have the same interests they are disliked. "As usual there had been violent incidents on the picket line. A union member had been run over" (Del Castillo, Garcia 84).

People everyday that went on strikes put their lives on the line. They knew there was a threat when they protested. It was a life and death situation. Fight for your rights, or keep working for the minimal amount and not be able to support your family. Every immigrant has tough choices to make. In the early days they had to make life and death choices.

In both stories they have strikes to give the immigrants what they deserve. In the grapes of wrath as well as Cesar Chavez, somebody dies from a strike". The heavy club crashed into the side of his head with a dull crunch of bone, and Casy fell sideways out of the light" (Steinbeck 495). Casy died because he protested against how much money people should earn. The men came after him and the rest of the protesters.

They killed them in fear of having to raise the prices. Casy was tired of working for 2 cents an hour. He could live off that. The only choice he had was to protest.

Stand for what he thought was right. "They says it's gonna be fi' cents. They was hell of a lot of us. We got there an' they says they " re pay in' two an' a half cents. A fella can't even eat on that, an' if he got kids" (491). Cesar Chavez was famous for leading picket lines and fighter for his people.

The reason why he was so successful was because he kept his people together. He had beliefs in non-violence and he stuck to his beliefs. He knew that the only way to be successful was to get all of his people on the right page, and not to rush into things. Casy also felt strongly about non-violence. He didn't think his calling was in preaching.

He found his new calling in protesting. After he died it rubbed off on Tom and Tom decided to spread the word that Casy was trying to spread". Cesar felt that violence could end only in destruction of the strike. Once the UFW was associated with violence, it would lose its public support: it was essential that the strikers maintain their discipline" (Del Castillo, Garcia 84)". The people on the top of the load did look back. They saw the house and the barn and a little smoke still rising from the chimney.

They saw the windows reddening under the first color of the sun. They saw Muley standing forlornly in the dooryard looking after them. And then the hill cut them off. The cotton fields lined the road. And the truck crawled slowly through the dust toward the highway and the west" (Steinbeck 147). Those things described are the last things that the Joads saw of their land.

That is the hardest decision that every immigrant makes. When they decide to leave their home and their family. A place that there grandma's grandma grew up on. The Joads have never been to another place before. Although the Joads went through a lot of struggles on their way to California, it was the decision to leave that was the hardest of all. They had no choice.

Stay and die of hunger or take your chances and make it to California. Although the Joads dealt with a lot of struggles, they were still better off in California. If the Joads would have stayed they wouldn't of had a job, a house, or food. At least in California they had hoped to keep them alive. Hope that would get them to the next job and survive. Although Cesar Chavez didn't go through the same struggles as being an immigrant his parents and grandparents did.

"The first members of Cesar Chavez's family moved to the United States in the 1880's when Cesar's grandfather and namesake, Cesa rio, with his wife and children, fled the grinding poverty and injustices of the hacienda system" (Del Castillo, Garcia 4). They just like all immigrants left their country in search for a better life. When Cesar became older his parent's land was taken over by the bank. Because of the depression during the time, they couldn't make payments to the bank on their loans, so just like the Joads their land was taken over by the bank. Then the Chavez family was faced with a life and death situation. They had no money, no job, and no food.

They where forced to move into with Cesar's grandmother. It was living at his grandmothers that influenced his morals on life". He was surrounded by people who influenced his formation as a young man. Chavez's mother, for example, shaped his views about nonviolence and morality" (5). In some views Cesar living with his grandma was good. He was brought up around a nice loving family who taught him good morals.

On the other hand Tom Joad had it rough. He was a man with a short temper. A temper, that landed him in jail. Although the trip west was hard for the family, Tom built a lot of character. He has Casy to thank for that. Casy gave Tom his calling that he has been waiting his whole life for.

Tom never knew what he wanted to do with life. After Casy died he made up his mind. He was going to carry out the word of Casy. Immigrants will always be looked upon as bad people and unfit to live in this society. Both stories relate to each other. Both the Chavez and the Joads' go through hardships of loosing their house and money.

The Joads decided to take a chance and head out west in search for a better life. Fortunately the Chavez family had something a little more stable. Both families went through the tuff times of prejudice. Every where the Joads went they where referred to as dirty okie's. They where ripped off and had to work just to live to see the next day. Chavez gave up a lot in order to get his people the money they deserved.

He fasted for many days, and walked for hundreds of miles. Chavez did everything in his power to get what he and his people deserved. He never marched into something without a plane. He knew the only way to get what he wanted was to get things organized go about things the right way, no violence involved. Both families went through life and death situations.

Times when they had no choice but to suffer. Times where they worked all day just to survive. They had had to instill in their minds that they would find that good job with good money, with equal opportunity. The hard part was keeping the faith. Never to give up, stick to your morals. Ma Joad kept her family together.

She was the strong one. "Woman can change better'n a man, women got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in his head" (Steinbeck 541). Cesar was the leader of the UFW. He was always reminding his people of nonviolence. With violence people wouldn't support him and his actions.

Cesar Chavez was a really smart person.