3.+Government+Justification

Government Justification

The individual’s role in confronting injustice is to use the resources that are available to stop the injustice before it grows to such an extent that we no longer have the proper resources to confront it. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing chapter nineteen in his novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” is to show how the history is repeating itself and how we participate in this reoccurrence and yet we still act as though we are the victims. The Chapter opens with the brief history of the land of California and how it is first stolen from Mexico and then taken by greedy American Squatters. “And such was their hunger for land that they took the land.” Indulging the reader in the past history of the land foreshadows how the land will once again be taken away from the people that live on it. This injustice of repetitive history is an injustice that can not be confronted by one mere individual. If we do not wish to be the victims of a repetitive history then we must use the resources we have available to us now to confront it. For the American people in this instance we have the resources of democracy. Our democracy allows the individuals voice to count on ballots. If there are grievances that the public has it is their duty to voice it to the government so that they can act on it. What good is a government based on the ideal,” By the people for the people,” if the people do not participate.