But there wasn't a California as they had imagined. In fact, the world they entered into when they arrived in California was a cold one. The locals excluded the newcomers and forced them to leave. The locals tormented the foreigners, calling them 'Okies' and telling them that they are unwanted. There was no work and when there was, the workers were underpaid and forced to work for low wages. California was hell.

But John Steinbeck creates this novel to fit the "romance" archetype. In this archetype, the hero makes a journey, encounters problems in his path which he overcomes, and reaches his final destination. The hero of the novel must be larger than li

The reality of California is best described by a man who was leaving the state: "She's a nice country. But she was stole a long time ago. You git acrost the desert an' come into the country aroun' Bakersfield. An' you never seen such purty country-all orchards an' grapes, purtiest country you ever seen. An' you'll pass lan' flat an' fine with water thirty feet down, and that lan's layin' fallow. But you can't have none of that lan'. That's a Lan' and Cattle Company. An' if they don't want ta work her, she ain't gonna get worked. You go in there and plant you a little corn, an' you'll go to jail! ... Sure, nice to look at, but you can't have none of it. They's a grove of yella oranges-an' a guy with a gun that got the right to kill you if you touch one. They's a fella, newspaper fella near the coast, got a million acres-."

An example of this theory would be that of the human race and the main character, Wang Lung, in Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. According to the archetype, the human race was happiest during the Romantic Age. This would be the time of Adam and Eve. After Adam picked the forbidden fruit, and man started to use nature and not respect it, man started being corrupt. In the modern world, people who are close to the earth are labeled as 'hippies' and are dismissed.

The characters show an obvious connection to the archetype. The romantic hero in this novel is Tom Joad. Tom is larger than life. On the trip he is the leader of the family, even superior to his father. Tom is feared and respected, for he had once killed a man in a fight.

The owners of the farms in California were the root of the evil. In the romance archetype, the romantic hero must be in touch with the earth. The people who drift from the close connection between themselves and the earth become evil and corrupt.

"Al tried to control his question. 'Did-did you bust out? Of jail?'

The Grapes of Wrath has many obvious connections to the romance archetype, and many subtle connections. One of the more obvious connections is the journey. The main characters, the Joads, embark on a journey from Kansas to California. In the 1930's Kansas was in the 'Dust Bowl', a part of the Midwest where the land dried up, causing fierce dust storms that could kill people. California, on the other hand, was the beautiful, fertile valley, where people could pick peaches, become prosperous, and eventually buy a house to settle down. The fact that the Joads traveled from a terrible

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1683
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)