Tim Flynn
English 3 Honors
Comparative Essay
Period 8
Through the “The Ghost of Tom Joad” and The Grapes of Wrath, Springsteen and Steinbeck, in their respective works, comment on the state of social distress and despondency existent within their individual societies. Through making parallels with the depression related issues of the 1930’s addressed by Steinbeck and those of the early 1990’s recession, Springsteen connects the people and social quandaries of both time periods to remark on the necessity of man’s spirit. To this end, through investigating each work’s characterization of human resolve and unification, employment of Tom Joad and Jim Casy to embody man’s spirit, and similar social atmosphere, the connection between the thematic force of the novel and Springsteen’s subsequent writing is made evident.
Throughout his lyrics, Springsteen consistently parallels ideas presented by Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath in order to exhibit past American spirit in social struggles and the need for such resolve to engender change in his own time. Springsteen achieves this rhythmically through keeping the refrain in a constant ABAB rhyme scheme and other stanzas in an AABB rhyme scheme; this provides a consistency and repetition in the speaker’s message to the reader, and links his own dilemma in “Searchin’ for the ghost of Tom Joad” (R), or man’s spirit, to the overall plight of the people made evident the non-refrain stanzas. Additionally, this mirrors Steinbeck's effort in The Grapes of Wrath to characterize the migrant struggle through both the microcosm of the Joads and then more broadly in the intercalary chapters. Moreover, Springsteen’s actual description of the current plight parallels Steinbeck’s ideas on the downtrodden American. In saying “Men walkin’ ‘long the railroad tracks, Goin’ someplace, there’s no goin’ back…” (1-2) the speaker is alluding Steinbeck’s writing of “…the tenant men came walking…maybe we can start again…But you can’t start. Only a baby can start” (119). Additionally, like The Grapes of Wrath, the depiction of social struggles in “The Ghost of Tom Joad” becomes gradually stronger in tone and more visceral in visualization as made evident by both artists’ use of various literary devices. The speaker’s description “In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass, Got a one-way ticket to the promised land, You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand”(12-14) provokes imagery of man ready to bring about change through violence. This is also concurrent with Steinbeck’s depictions of the migrant as said in one intercalary chapter “ –the rifle? Wouldn’t go out naked of a rifle. When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, we’ll have the rifle.”(120) Also, Springsteen’s employment of personification “The highway is alive tonight”(R) and metaphors “Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock” (15) augments his attempt to connect and make more vivid, the plights of those depicted by the speaker in the song. Overall there is a building that occurs within the stanzas; from the beginning depictions of the disposed to the pledges made by Tom in the last non-refrain stanza, there is a progression toward exhibiting the need for man’s unification. As Steinbeck builds this idea through the exploits and sacrifices of Ma, Tom, Casy and Rose of Sharon, Springsteen does likewise through his lyrics to transport that idea to the modern day.
