A Brief Introduction to The Grapes of Wrath and Uncle Tom's Cabin

Grapes of Wrath: Tom Joad was released from Oklahoma prison, where he served time for killing in self-defense. He passed through a barren land caused by drought and sandstorm. On the trip, he met Jim Casey, a former missionary. When they came to Tom's house together, they found that Joad's hometown was deserted. Just when they were confused about this situation, a stubborn tenant named Molly Graves came over and learned from him that all the families in this area had gone or planned to go to California. Molly also told them that Tom's relatives moved to a relative's house and were going to the west. Molly is the only tenant farmer who stayed. Due to various reasons, such as land reserve, weather, mechanized farming, etc., farmers in all central and western States in the south who can't make a living have either sold their land or been forced to withdraw from their leased land. Businessmen who do second-hand goods business and sell used cars have made a windfall. Thousands of families have set foot on the road to the promised land-California. Tom and Kathy found the Joads at Uncle John's house and saw that they were also busy packing for California. Among the people who agreed to leave together were Joad's parents, their mentally retarded son Noah, Tom and Noah's underage Al, Tom's sister Sharon Ross and her brother-in-law Connie. Joad's children, Rozel and winfield, Grandma Joad and Grandpa Joad. Al bought an old truck and drove them all the way to the west. The family asked Jim Casey to go with them. Along the way, I saw many leaflets saying that California urgently needed agricultural workers. Encouraged by this news, the Joads rode an old car and took thousands of families along a winding road, across the plain and headed for the mountains. When they stopped for the night on the first day, grandpa suddenly had a stroke and died. The suffering does not stop there. The returning refugees told the Joads that there were no jobs in California, and the situation there was even worse than that in Oklahoma. However, the dream of a rich west coast inspired the Joads to move on. When they approached the state boundary of California, they stopped to take a bath in a river. Noah felt that he had become a burden to others and slipped away. It was in this place that the Joads first heard people call them Okay, which is another name for wandering agricultural workers. On the night of crossing the desert, grandma died. After they buried their grandmother, they walked into Hoover Village, another name for the refugee camp. There, they heard that it is almost impossible to find a job. A contractor came to the camp to recruit people to pick fruit in another county. When these Okeyi asked him to show his license, the contractor handed over several Okeyi leaders to the security team who accompanied him to the camp. Tom got involved in the subsequent conflict, but he escaped. Kathy turned herself in instead of Tom. At this moment, Connie, Sharon Ross's pregnant husband, suddenly left everyone. The family is on the verge of collapse in the face of difficulties and hardships. Joad's mother tried her best to unite the whole family. The Joads left Hoover Village and went to the camp set up by the government for passing migrant workers. For the first time since they came to California, the Joads felt that they were treated as human beings. However, the environment finally forced the family to leave the camp because there was really no job in this area. They drove to a big farm that needed labor. There, they found that there was propaganda, trying to stop the refugees from going to work because the wages given by the farm were unfair. However, the Joads, who just wanted to fill their stomachs, were escorted into the farm by police on motorcycles. The whole family picks peaches for 50 cents a box, but the money earned by working all day can only buy one meal. Tom thought of the picket outside the camp and sneaked out at night to inquire about the situation. He met Kathy, who was already the head of the instigators. When they were talking, they were surrounded by security guards who had been looking for Kathy. The two men fled, but unfortunately they were trapped. Kathy was killed and Tom got a knife on the head, but he finally knocked down a security guard with the handle of an axe. The family hid Tom in the shed. During this period, the salary for picking peaches dropped to 25 cents a box. Tom is in danger, and picking peaches at the same time can't make a living, so the Joads have to go back to the road and hide the injured Tom under the mat behind the truck. Finally, the family saw a group of refugees camping in an abandoned van beside a small river. They joined the gang and soon found temporary jobs picking cotton. Joad's mother realized that Tom was in an unsafe situation and sent him away. The autumn rain began. Soon, the river flowing next to the camp flooded everywhere and poured into the boxcar. In this case, Sharon Ross gave birth to a dead baby. The rising water is unbearable for this family. The heavy rain for several days made their old car unusable, so the family had to leave the camp on foot. They passed a barn where they were huddled with a boy and his hungry father. Sharon Ross lost her child. She fed the hungry man with her own milk. In this way, in the years of the Great Depression, the poor lived together. The introduction of Uncle Tom's Cabin has been translated into The Sail of a Black Slave and Uncle Tom's Cabin by American woman writer Mrs. Beecher Stowe (181-1896). Beecher Stowe was born in a pastor's family and used to be a teacher. She lived in Cincinnati for 18 years, just across the river from the southern slave village, which gave her the opportunity to get in touch with some escaped slaves. The sufferings of the slaves aroused her deep sympathy. She has been to the south herself and learned about the situation there herself. Uncle Tom's Cabin was written under this background. This book was serialized for the first time in National Times magazine on 1852, which immediately aroused strong response and was welcomed by people unparalleled. In the first year alone, more than 0/00 editions of/kloc-were printed in China, and more than 300,000 copies were sold. Later, it was translated into more than 20 languages and published all over the world. Critics believe that this book has played an important role in stimulating people's anti-slavery sentiment and is regarded as one of the causes of the American Civil War. When President Lincoln met Mrs. Stowe later, she jokingly called her "a little woman who wrote a book and caused a big war", which fully reflected the great influence of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Uncle Tom's cabin: The story begins with a deal between a slave owner and a slave trader. Shelby, a slave owner in Kentucky, failed to speculate in the stock market. In order to pay off his debts, he decided to sell two slaves. One is Tom who was born in Shelby Plantation. Xiao Jiayou, who was the master when he was a child, won the favor of his master. When he became an adult, he became a slave manager of his master, loyal and committed to safeguarding his interests. Another slave who was trafficked was Harry, the son of Eliza, a mulatto slave. Eliza is not a slave at the mercy of his master. When she overheard that her master was going to sell Tom and her son Harry, she took her son and jumped into the Ohio River overnight with the help of slave traders, fled to a free state and then fled to Canada. Her husband, george harris, was a slave in a nearby plantation. He also waited for an opportunity to escape, joined his wife and took the children, and finally arrived in Canada with the help of the abolitionist organization. Tom is a different story. He knew and supported Eliza's escape, but he didn't escape himself. He was taught by slave owners since he was a child that he feared God, resigned himself to his fate, was loyal to his master, and had no complaints about the master selling him to pay his debts, so he was willing to be at his mercy. He was resold to New Orleans and became a slave of the slaver Harry. In a drowning accident, Tom saved the life of a slave owner's little daughter Eva, and the child's father St. Clay bought Tom from Harry. When I was a domestic servant, I drove a carriage for my master's family. Tom developed feelings for the little girl. Soon the little girl died suddenly, and St. Clay decided to liberate Tom and other slaves according to her last wish. However, before the legal process of liberation was completed, St. Clay was killed in an accident. St. Clay's wife did not liberate Tom and other slaves, but sent them to the slave auction market. From then on, Tom fell into the hands of Legelli, a slave owner of an extremely vicious "Red River" plantation. Legelli treated slaves as "talking animals", flogged them at will and lynched them. Tom endured this inhuman torture, but still did not think of finding a way out for himself, but silently pursued the principle of being a man. In order to survive, two female slaves in this plantation decided to run away, and they hid. Legelli suspected that Tom had helped them escape, tied Tom up and whipped him to death. But Tom finally rebelled against the slave owners and said nothing. When Tom was dying, George Shelby, the son of his former master, sold his slave owner for the first time to buy Tom, because Tom was a childhood servant and playmate of Little Shelby, but Tom could not accept the late help of his former master and passed away with a black face. George Shelby knocked Legelli to the ground with a heavy punch. Buried Tom on the spot. After returning to his hometown of Kentucky, Little Shelby liberated all the slaves under his name in the name of Uncle Tom and said to them, "Every time I see Uncle Tom's cabin, I should think of your freedom."