浅析《愤怒的葡萄》中汤姆的转变本科论文

本科生毕业论文（设计）册学院汇华学院专业英语专业班级 2007级9班学生赵兴凯指导教师南方河北师范大学本科毕业论文（设计）任务书编号： 2011230401339论文（设计）题目：浅析《愤怒的葡萄》中汤姆的转变学院：汇华学院专业：英语班级：2007级9班学生姓名：赵兴凯学号： 2007512264 指导教师：南方职称：副教授1、论文（设计）研究目标及主要任务研究目标：通过对目标人物转变的分析，加深对作品的理解，通过对人物转变原因的分析，体会作者的人物塑造技巧主要任务：研究目标人物的转变及其转变的原意2、论文（设计）的主要内容汤姆的转变及其转变的原因，转变主要涉及汤姆由一个个人主义者变为一个集体主义者，由一个无信仰的囚徒变为一个坚持信仰的信徒。

3、论文（设计）的基础条件及研究路线基础条件：对作品的整体阅读，对人物命运的具体研究，对背景知识的理解和把握研究路线：以人物命运的转变为主线，着力表现时代大背景下的人物命运，4、主要参考文献1. 斯坦贝克:(愤怒的葡萄》，胡仲持译，上海译文出版社，2003年版。

2. 常耀信.美国文学简史.天津:南开大学出版社，20033. Benson Jackson. The True Adventures of John Steinbeck. New York:Viking,1984.4. John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath(New York: Viking,1996),p428指导教师：年月日教研室主任：年月日注：一式三份，学院（系）、指导教师、学生各一份河北师范大学本科生毕业论文（设计）开题报告书汇华学院英语专业 2011 届河北师范大学本科生毕业论文（设计）文献综述本科生毕业论文（设计）册学院汇华学院专业英语专业班级 2007级9班学生赵兴凯指导教师南方本科生毕业论文设计题目浅析《愤怒的葡萄》中汤姆的转变作者姓名赵兴凯指导教师南方所在学院汇华学院专业（系）英语专业班级（届） 2011届9班完成日期 2011 年 5 月 8 日The Analysis of Tom’s Transition inThe Grapes of WrathByZhao XingkaiProf. Nan Fang ,TutorA ThesisSubmitted to the Foreign Languages Institute in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts atHebei Normal UniversityMay 8th, 2011ContentsIntroduction (1)A. The life experience of Steinbeck (2)B. The background of the story (3)Chapter One From an individualist to a collectivist (3)A. To make life by himself (4)B. To achieve through unity (7)Chapter 2 From a worldly prisoner to a disciple of Christianity (7)A. A prisoner with no belief (8)B. A disciple baptized by Jim Casy and re-baptized by himself (11)Chapter 3 The causes for the transition (11)A.The biblical influenc e (13)B. The naturalism and social surroundings (14)Conclusion (15)Bibliography (16)Notes (17)摘要约翰.斯坦贝克生于1902年加利福尼亚的山谷，并攻读于斯坦福大学（1919-1925）。

一生著作超过30本，斯坦贝克早期出版了两部短篇小说《煎饼评》和《人鼠之间》。

斯坦贝克的主要的贡献还包括《珍珠》《罐头工厂街》，《伊甸园以东》和《愤怒的葡萄》。

斯坦贝克于1962年获得了诺贝尔文学奖，而他最为人所知的作品《愤怒的葡萄》被认为是20世纪的经典作品。

这部作品描写了移民乔德一家，被驱赶离开自己的土地，由俄克拉巴马州移民到加利福尼亚州的历史史诗，深刻的讨论了流动工人的悲惨生活。

许多美国人，尤其是加利福尼亚州人对这些移民一直持有歧视和偏见，对他们进行虐待和剥削，使得移民在加利福尼亚州的生活十分悲惨：在《愤怒的葡萄》中，通过把一家的故事生动地再现了移民们的经历。

此文讨论了斯坦贝克对乔德的人物塑造，当作者写《愤怒的葡萄》时，美国仍旧处在经济大萧条时期。

大萧条不仅是经济上的灾难，而且也造成了精神上的危机。

这部小说展现了压迫者和受压迫者之间激烈地冲突，《愤怒的葡萄》是美国文学里程碑式的著作，描写了经济萧条时期人们对于公正和平等本质的探讨和人们在这一时期的恐慌。

整篇文章可分为4部分，介绍的主要是书的作者和作品的主要背景，第一章，介绍了乔德由个人主义到集体主义的转变，第二章，介绍了乔德由世俗中人向坚持自我信仰的转变，第三章，主要描述了造成这种转变的原因，是由当时的社会环境和主导思想所决定。

关键词：转变，个人主义，集体主义，信仰，自然主义AbstractAn American novelist, story writer, playwright, and essayist, John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902 and attended Stanford University intermittently. As an author of more than thirty books, Steinbeck achieved his first popular and critical successes for two short novels, Tortilla Flats and Of Mice and Men . His major contributions to literature also include The Pearl, Cannery Row, East of Eden, and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He is best remembered for The Grapes of Wrath , a novel widely considered to be a twentieth century classic. The epic about the migration of the Joads , driven from its bit of land in Oklahoma to California, touched off a wide debate about the hard life of migrant laborers, and helped to put an agricultural reform into effect. "A portrait of the bitter conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of a people's quiet, stoical strength, The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature, one that captures the horrors of the Great Depression as it probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America."'（1）(Benson,1984:376)The study of John Steinbeck in this thesis centers on the figures of The Grapes of Wrath, and the whole thesis is divided into four parts: Introduction of the author , the man and his works; chapter one , From an individualist to a collectivist ; chapter two ,From a worldly prisoner to a christen , chapter three, The causes for Tom‟s transition. The introduction has provided some basic information about Steinbeck and his literary creations, including his status in and contributions to American literature.The chapter one shows some ideas about the individual and collective thoughts of Tom Jo ad, the one show the changes take place on Tom‟s body and mind, and the results of the changes brought about. The chapter two provides the basic information about the Tom‟s changes from a worldly prisoner to a disciple. The chapter three shows the causes for the transition, and analysis the social surroundings and the dominant ideas in that period.Key words: transition：individualist：collectivist ：worldliness ：discipleIntroductionA The Life Experience of John SteinbeckAn American novelist, short story writer and journalist, John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902 .His father was a government official ,and his mother a school teacher. He grew up at home reading British and French classics. He attended Stanford University intermittently between 1919 and 1925. Steinbeck did not graduate from the University , but instead chose to support himself through manual labor while writing. Steinbeck worked as an assistant chemist and a road-building worker and was once employed on ranches, which enabled him to be familiar with the land and the laborers there. These experiences among the working classes in California provided firsthand observation of the attitudes, manners and language of the working men, and consequently lent authenticity to his depiction of the lives of the laborers who are the central characters of his most important novels. It is clear that environment, whether the accident of his birth and growth in the Salinas Valley of California or his own selection of various laboring jobs, figures largely in the source material of Steinbeck's writings. In an age when so many Americans turned away from their native country as a source of inspiration, Steinbeck was an important exception. A commitment to his native California, especially to its rural poor, shines through his works. Judging from both the quality and quantity of his writing in 1930s, John Steinbeck's residency in California ranks as the most professional element of his entire life .Finding his inspiration and subject matter mainly from his own land and his own people, Steinbeck is surely one of the most American of all modern American writers.Critics have tended to divide Steinbeck's literary career into four phases. The first phase (1929-1935) marked his first appearing. In these early books, Steinbeck seems to be a writer of adventure romances and a symbolic realist. When Steinbeck's first novel Cup of Gold, a romantic historical novel of adventure, appeared two monthsafter the stock market crash of 1929 and the depression, it attracted little attention. His two subsequent novels,The Pastures of Heaven and To a God Unknown, again brought Steinbeck neither fame nor fortune. All these three novels were unsuccessful both critically and commercially. Steinbeck's reputation as a writer had been firmly established owing to the circulation of such books as Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle and Of Mice and Men. It was with the publication of Tortilla Flat that Steinbeck achieved his first popular and critical success. Utilizing in Tortilla Flat the regional folk material of his California wanderings which was first introduced by him in The Pastures of Heaven, he gained a sudden fame that was to grow throughout the rest of the decade. when Dubious Battle appeared and Of Mice and Men appeared. Coming out in the midst of the Great Depression, these books fulfilled a strong cultural expectation of the reading public and created a climate for Steinbeck's first "big" book The Grapes of Wrath.All of them were immensely popular and closely associated with the social and political environment of 1930s America. The Grapes of Wrath , when published, made a tremendous stir in the country. Owing to the success of these books, Steinbeck was once considered as "the young American novelist whose future seems most exciting and most assured."2(Ibid:35) With The Grapes of Wrath, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Steinbeck arrived at international renown, became the foremost novelist in American fiction and won such a label as the spokesman of the 1930s and one of the representatives of the 1930s .This period (1936-1939) is often mentioned as the second phase and books written then produced the stereotype of Steinbeck's criticism. Much of the body of criticism of Steinbeck's writings has been founded on the works produced by him in this period. On the whole, it was a period when Steinbeck became mature in art, and produced his representative works. From Dubious Battle to The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck wrote the history of 1930s America in his specific way, interpreting his contemporaries' dreams and pursuit, reflecting on the sharp contras between illusion and reality. It is evident in retrospect that he was most successful in his creativity during the Great Depression in the 1930s, After the Great Depression in the third phase (1940-1952) Steinbeck'scareer demonstrated a gradual break from the fiction of the late 1930s. "His works were highly varied but less well-received. When the Second World War broke out in Europe, he went to North Africa and Italy as a correspondent, out of which came several journalistic books. "3(Ibid:56) The fourth and last phase (1953-1968) of his career was not so productive. At the time of his death Steinbeck's literary reputation in America was at its lowest ebb. He had produced no new work of fiction for seven years; his last full-length work, American and Americans, had not been widely reviewed, being mistakenly regarded as merely a glossy coffee table book.B The Background of the StoryThe 1930s is a turbulent times ,strikes took places in several big cities because of industrial depression and uneven distribution of wealth; the rate of unemployment went up due to the oversupply of goods ;farmers were driven off their land owing to the poor harvest of the crops ---all this culminated in the collapse of the Stock Market in 1929,known as the Crash ,which marked the beginning of the Great Economic Depression in the 1930s.Besides, political corruptions ,organized crimes ,the growth of radical labor force ,and the terrorist drive of the Ku Klux Klan made an already disorderly world even more turbulent. The Grapes of Wrath proves to be a symbolic journey of man on the way to finding some truth about life and social conditions, and a record of the dispossessed and the wretched farmers during the Great Depression as well.The title of the book comes from …The Battle Hymn of the Republic ,‟ a war song of the Civil War, in which there are the lines …Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. The Great Depression throws the country into country into abject chaos and makes life intolerable for the luckless millions. One of the worst stricken areas is the central prairie lands. There the farmers become bankrupt and begin to move in a body toward California, where they hope to have a better life. The movement to the west areas is a most tragic and brutalizing human experience for families like the Joads .There is unspeakable pain and suffering on the road , anddeath occurs frequently .Everywhere they reach California and try to settle down, they meet with bitter resistance from the local landowners. What the novel presents us is the classic tale of the Great Depression in the Sun-belt and the animating myth that of the Garden and man's struggle to get back to it.Besides, In November 1933, a gigantic dust cloud rose over area of the United States stretching from Texas to South Dakota; it was a symbol of the horror in store for mid-western and southwestern tanners. As the drought worsened, the topsoil of this region was lifted and blew away by the constant winds. We have a very detailed, impressive description of this phenomenon in the first chapter of the novel. The opening line of the novel is panoramic as it evokes "the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth." Following this panoramic, generalized opening, the paragraph begins to focus on "the plows crossed and re-crossed the rivulet marks." And finally, from the vague, impressionistic opening image, our vision moves from the distant, "the growing corn", to the very close description, the "line of brown" that spreads “along the edge of each green bayonet." And then the novel begins to register broader details of clouds and generalized "weeds" until the paragraph ends where it begins, with a panoramic image of the earth, which "became pale, pink: in the red country and white in the gray country."4(Ibid,256).The influence of the Great Depression and the natural disaster seem to show the appearing of the story, the life experience of the farmers in this period is the sources of the farmers in the story. They are the stereotypes of the figures in the story.Chapter I From an Individualist to a collectivistA．To Make Life by HimselfIn the Grapes of wrath, the Joads experience the process from the pursuit of happiness to the break of the hope. The great changes take place in Tom‟s mind. In chapter one, he returned from jail, at that time, his ideas was limited in the interests of the whole family, that is to say , Tom in this period was individual, in the early time, he cares about his economic situation very much , and show little sympathy on the broken farmers who driven off their land , the indifferent thoughts about them was evidenced that Tom think himself as an island , in some degree , he is separated from the social surroundings and environment, he was so individualistic that he refuses to discuss Casy‟s concern all the people moving west ,for example,.In chapter Four, when Casy explains his beliefs to Tom, the latter shows no real in them, because at that time he was just been released from prison and he carries in his mind the disturbing nature of that experience. And in the latter part of the novel , when repairing cars , he refuse s to discuss Casy‟s concern over all the people moving west:“Goddamn it !” Tom cried. “how‟d I know? I am just puttin‟ one footin front a the others. I done it at Mac for four years , just marchin‟ in cellan‟ out cell an‟ in mess. Jesus Christ . I thought it‟d be somepindifference when I come out ! Couldn‟t think a nothin‟ in there, elseyou go stir happy , an‟ now can‟t think a nothing 5(Steinbeck,1996:23)He expresses the individualistic thoughts on the west movement that he is separated from the world, he is self-centered and indifferent on the business of the others., Tom is seen as a selfish prisoner and an individualistic farmer, when they arrived in California , they do not trust the other farmers, and so they do not unit together to fight for their rights and dignity in the early times, and the economicindividualism bring Tom the selfish behavior and choice until he follows Jim Casy , another aspect of Tom‟s individualistic behavior was that Tom‟s hesitation in the murder of Jim Casy, Tom was frightened by the devil policemen, the only reason is that he can not accept the collectivism deep in his heart.In the migrant lifestyle portrayed in the book, Tom is motivated by the actualization of the individual dreams. And Such an individual consciousness first exists in the Joads themselves. The Joads are close to the natural processes and rhythms of life. They are farmers who have always farmed and hunted. They have little education and little association with town or city. Their intense and instinctive commitment to family unity and preservation is a superficially attractive but nevertheless narrow and limited form of self-absorption. This is exemplified by their preparation for the journey. Well before the arrival of Tom and Casy the able members of the family have joined in work to prepare for life on the road, which is only limited to their family.B To Achieve Through UnityTheir miserable experiences teach them that unity will empower them to overcome difficulties. In the face of adversity, the livelihood of the migrants depends upon their union. the description show the starting point of the transition of Tom, for example,Chapter 14 states the growth of the group concept as a shift in the thinking of Tom from an individualist to a collectivist , The narrative context is Grandpa's illness and death and the unity of the Joads and the Wilsons. "We are thankful to you folks." 6(Steinbeck, 1996:356) Pa said. "We are proud to help." 7(Ibid., 357) Said Wilson. Chapter 15 suggests that the Joads' ordeal is a moral experience that affects the society at large. Chapter 17 continues the theme that the experiences on the road further the growth of the group concept:"In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became onefamily, the children were the children of all. The loss of home becameone loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream………:Everynight a world created, complete with furniture-friends made and enemiesestablished; a world complete with braggarts and with cowards, withquiet men, with humble men, with kindly men. Every night relationshipsthat make a world established; and every morning the world torn downlike a circus emerged, then laws were made, then codes came intobeing.”8(Ibid ,458) And as the worlds mo ved westward they were morecomplete and better furnished, for their builders were more experiencedin building them.As Tom eventually realizes, "his" people are all people. This indicates the transition of their consciousness from an individualist to a collectivist. In terms of this, it is an impassioned story of the ironic exodus not only from home to homelessness, but in the meantime from individualism to collective awareness, from selfishness to communal love. They undergo both geographical and spiritual journey. Joad is not merely representative of the Dust Bowl migrants but symbolic of the injustice he has received and the impotence of individual actions in the face of huge social and economic systems. Through an emphasis on the hopelessness of individualism, the narrative suggests that the unity of the migrants is the key to regaining their dignity, their proper place in society. Tom will be better able to cope with the situations that confront him only when Tom sees those as problems facing him a group and not as individuals or separate families. In other words, ordinary people, though defenseless as individuals, can change the direction of their lives by collectively changing the world. To a large extent, the impassioned story of the Joads' brutal migration from Oklahoma's dust bowl to California's corrupt promised land is represented as their ironic exodus from home to homelessness, from an individualist to a collectivist.The tension between the primitive folk individualistic thoughts of the Joads' commitment to family and their tentative reaching toward the collective thoughts continue on the road.Another cause of the transition is the new conditions and experiences impress on the Joads a greater sense of the meaning and validity of "collective thoughts. On the way to California Joad encounter families like them in intent and need, such as the Wilsons, and thus begin to move out of their isolation. In the wayside camps the Joads begin to realize the benefits of being a collectivist. Perhaps most of all begin to sense the potential strength in the fact that so many share the same condition. "I lost my land" becomes "we lost our land. "9(Steinbeck, 2003:165) This is another point showing the transition from an individualist to a collectivist.The formation of a group is a "technique". As with the Joads, the experience of building produces a new stature and a redefinition of the family.The third section of their conscious education is the California experience of the Joads, which can be further divided into four segments. The first two demonstrate concretely to the Joads the opposition between the individual and the collective ways of life; the second two demand them a conscious allegiance either to individualism to colledtivism. The Hooverville and the government camp at Weedpatch represent an intense contrast. The Hooverville is an allegorical representation of anarchistic animalism, of the anger and cruelty, and desperation of men seeking to survive in a world in which they are pitted against each other. On the other hand, the Weedpatch camp is maintained on the principle of the surrender of some individual rights for the greater good of the whole. Its method is through organization to achieve group aims, and its operative unit is the committee. The Joads are almost immediately involved in the destructive violence in Hooverville; at Weedpatch they flourish and contribute to the suppression of violence. In the novel, the ethical distinction between the "I" of the Hooverville and the "we" of the Weedpatch is revealed by the treatment of children in the two camps. When the Joads arrive in the Hooverville, Ma prepares supper and soon finds herself surrounded by starving children. She is torn between her commitment to her own family and her responsiveness to the silently begging children and can only cry out "I dunno what to do. I got to feed the family. What'm I gonna do with these here?" In Weedpatch the problem of hungry children is resolved not by depriving one's own-not by the "I" principle in the conflict between mine and yours,but by maintaining a camp fund which dispenses loans to those in need.The first significant change in the Joads' attitude occurs in the Weedpatch government camp, where a family named Wallace share their work with Tom, although they may thereby cut their own meager earnings. The self-governing arrangement at this camp also makes the Joads feel like decent people again. Evaluating her recent experiences, Ma says, "We were farm people till the debt. And then-- them people. They done somepin to us. Every'time they come seemed like they were a-whippin' me-all of us. An' in Needles, that police. He done somepin to me, made me feel mean. Made me feel ashamed. An' now I ain't ashamed. These folks is our folks-is our folks... Why, I feel like people again."10(Ibid,537) But she still prefaces her remarks with the reminder "We're Joads."(Ibid,537)The Hooper ranch to which the Joads are forced to move in order to get work unites the Hooverville and the principles in one volatile setting. Inside the ranch, a kind of prison, are families driven to the individual thinking because of their desperate need; outside are striking migrants who have organized to help all migrants. Casy has been separated from the Joads in the Hooverville when he was arrested for coming to the aid of a man being framed by the deputies. He now reappears as a strike leader and union organizer. Casy explains his conversion to Tom. What he has learned in prison, in the incident of the men acting in union to gain better food, is the principle of group action to achieve just ends.The vigilantes come to attack the strikers and Casy is killed. In defending him, Tom kills a deputy. Consequently the Joads are forced to continue their wandering life. They move on to pick cotton and live in an abandoned boxcar. Musing over Casy's idea and their miserable experiences, the difference between "I" and "we" becomes explicit to them. Almost each member of the family moves, to varying degrees, toward the "we" thinking. Not only Tom and Ma, Pa, Uncle John, and even Rose of Sharon have received the education of the heart and completed their journey from "I" to "we". Pa was once far from Casy's way of thinking-"I can't starve so's you can get two bits," he tells another man during a quarrel about taking strikers' jobs for lower wages. But his idea changes at the near end of their story. Pa learns the lesson ofcooperation during the building of a dam to hold floodwaters out of a cotton-pickers' camp, and he cries, "We can do her if ever‟ body helps." Building the dam renews his spirit, and teaches him that there is much to be gained through the collective attitude. Uncle John does not come to a collective consciousness until the flood and the death of Rose of Sharon's baby. He finally breaks with tradition in order to teach the world a lesson. Instead of burying the stillborn baby, he set the got yellin'. And we all got on the same tone... Then somepin happened! They come a-runnin', and they give us some other stuff to eat-give it to us. Ya see?" At the moment Tom Joad does not; Casy observes, "Maybe I can't tell you... Maybe you got to find out." Then the novel does depict the Joads' "finding out."Tom can be traced through a transition that carries him from ego-centered violence to humanism. In simpler terms, Tom changes from a hard-headed, violent loner to a battered but committed humanitarian.With Tom's introduction at the beginning of the novel, an interrogative mode is established immediately. "In fewer than twelve pages of text, Steinbeck includes nineteen direct interrogative sentences. Most of these occur in Tom's dialogue with the truck driver, to whom Tom responds defensively and sarcastically."11(Meyor,2000:242)The Joad's haughty, isolated attitude is illustrated by Tom's remark to the friendly but nosy truck driver: "Nothin' ain't none of your affair except skinnin' this here bull-bitch along, an' that's the least thing you work at."12(Steinbeck,1996:223) Tom is no thinker. When Casy tells him, "They 's gonna come a thing that's gonna change the whole country," Tom replies, "I'm stil layin' my dogs down one at a time."13(Ibid,395)In the camp, Tom joins a committee to prevent hooligans from starting a riot at the Saturday night dance. With but the show of force, the committee escorts the troublemaker out of the camp without fighting. Tom gains from the experience that there is strength in a will united. The Joads, however, still think of help as only a means toward maintaining their family. When Casy, now a labor organizer, pleads with Tom at the hooper ranch to support a strike against the ranchor.Chapter 2 From a worldly prisoner to a disciple of ChristianityA A prisoner with No BeliefIf we regard Jim Casy as the obvious symbol of Christ in the novel, however, we are forced nevertheless to take Tom Joad into account. Altogether, thirteen people start out to the West, with Jim Casy as their spiritual leader. The twelve Joads family members are identified as Christ's twelve disciples, with Tom Joad as the most faithful one. It is Casy who has baptized Tom Joad, just like John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Bible. When we first meet Tom Joad in the novel, he is a prisoner who has no belief, quick to wrath, and not always kind to others. In Chapter Four, when Casy explains his beliefs to Torn, the latter shows no real interests in them, because at that time he has just been released from prison and lie carries fresh in his mind the disturbing nature of that experience. And in the later pail of the novel, when repairing the Wilsons' car, lie refuses to discuss Casy's concern over all the people moving west:"Goddamn itt" Tom cried, "how'd I know? I'm jus' puttin' one foot infront a the other. I done it at Mac for four years, just mar-chin' in cell an'out cell an' in mess an' out mess一Jesus Christ, I thought it'd be somepindifferent when I come oust Couldn' think a nothin' in there, else you gostir happy, an' now can't think a nothing”He also expresses the same idea to his younger brother Al: "I ruther jus'-lay one foot down in front a the other. ………”14(Steinbeck,1996:214)But with the development of the story, we gradually become aware that lie is different from his kinsmen. In prison, he received a Christmas card from his grandmother, and on it is the verse:。