just+across+the+way+4

Thomas Hart Benton's paintings are painted in a style that is almost exaggerated realism. The top painting shows a twisted road, where beside it there are three people sitting down, one of which is playing the violin, and a man and a woman getting into a fight. In //The Grapes of Wrath// the road is twisted during the Joads journey as well. The road never remains straight or gives them a clear easy road to happiness. Steinbeck makes a comment on the nations divide during hard times of depression and creates a drama where women and men are put into different social norms. The twisted road that shows the times of music and peacefulness can turn into anger and frustration as time goes on. The second painting on the bottom is a really good painting that captures the old days of farming. This image really stood out to me as I think of //The Grapes of Wrath.// The big transformation that occurs from the beginning to the end, how things used to be, to how things are changing. And the Joads change as the journey goes along, but this painting by Benton reminds me of the beginning when they had just started to worry about things and were reminiscing about old times, as Steinbeck creates those images of how the dust bowl brings about changes.