Compare/contrast setting of The Grapes of Wrath and The Scarlet Letter - Essay Example

s of Wrath was published in 1939 whereas The scarlet Letter was published in 1850.The Grapes of Wrath is written based on the setting of “Oklahoma, California and the points along the way” (Steinbeck p. 1), on the other hand, the setting in The Scarlet Letter is Massachusetts and Boston. The time on which The Grapes of Wrath is based on is the late 1930s, while the other book portrays a setting of the middle of the seventeenth century. Getting into the details, the first book is set in the time of the Great Depression and it talks about the sharecroppers and their struggles.

The main focus of the novel is on a poor sharecropper family as well as the joads who were driven from their homes because of draught in Oklahoma. The industry of agriculture was then undergoing a lot of changes and this caused various economic hardships to the people such as searching for a place to stay as well as some job to earn minimum income. In the climax of the story, the policeman kills Casy and he is later killed by Tom, who strived hard for the workers right. The resolution of the work is that Tom tells about the insight he gets from Casy to Ma and then he departs from the joad family.

The Scarlet Letter was set in the 17th century in puritan Boston and it tells the story about Hester Prynne, a person who gives birth after the commitment of adultery and who then strives to create a new life, which is full of dignity and repentance. Hawthorne explores sin, legalism and guilt as the main themes in this novel. The climax of the novel is that Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale publicly disclose their secrets and then they are forced to leave the town. The Resolution of the work is that Pearl and Hester continue with their life in the new place “without public shame” (Hawthorne p.1) and Chillingworth and Dimmesdale die.

The characters of the work The Grapes of Wrath are Tom Joad as the protagonist, and the narrator who is “anonymous, all- knowing, historically aware