Through out history man has made many journeys, far and wide. Moses’s great march through the Red Sea and Columbus’s transversing the Atlantic are only, but a few of mans great voyages. Even today, great journeys are being made. Terry Fox’s run across Canada while having cancer is one of these such journeys. In every one of these instances people have had to rise above themselves and over come emence odds, similar to a salmon swimming up stream to fullfill it’s life line. Intense drive and extreme fortitude are qualities they had to possess during their travels.
In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck shows the Joads endurance by his use of extended metaphors in intercalary chapters. Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes in the novel. This effectively forshadows upcoming events by telling of the general state of the local population in the intercalary chapters and then narrowing it down to how it effects the main characters of the novel, the Joads. Setting the tone of the novel in the readers mind is another function of Steinbeck’s intercalary chapters.
In chapter three, Steinbeck emaculatly describes the long tedious journey of a land turtle across a desolate highway. From the onset of his journey, the turtle encounters many set backs. All along the way he is hindered by ants, hills, and oak seeds under his shell. The turtles determination to reach his destination is most apparent when a truck driven by a young man swerves to hit the turtle. The turtle’s shell was clipped and he went flying off the highway, but stop the turtle did not.
He struggled back to his belly and kept driving toward is goal, just as the Joads kept driving toward their goal. Much like the turtle from chapter three, the Joads had to face many great hardships in their travels. The planes of Oklahoma, with their harsh summer weather, was the Joads desolate highway. The truck driver represented the Californians, whom Buried food and killed live stock to keep the Joads and others like them away from their dream. And sickness was their ants and hills. But even through all of this the Joads persevered.
They were driven by great motivating powers – overty and hunger. Just as the turtle searched for food, the Joads were searching for paradise, “the garden of Eden. ” The Joad’s journey is second to none in terms of adversity and length. The Joads incredible ability to over come all odds and keep going is epitomized in intercalary chapter three. Steinbeck uses his rendition of facts, the “turtle” chapter, to parallel the Joads struggle to reach the promise land. Just as the turtle endured, so did the Joads. Never digressing from their strait and narrow path to California.