dehumanisation Flashcards
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‘They live on rice and beans// they don’t need much// look how they live.’
The businessmen have this kind of attitude about the foreign workers because it helps them make peace with the low wages and the dreadful living conditions they force upon them. Admitting that they are human beings might make it difficult and uncomfortable to treat them like animals.
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‘Okie means you’re scum.’
Generally, when the term is used in the text, it is clear that the user is intending to dehumanise the person he’s talking to, such as when a deputy calls Ma an Okie as he is telling the Joads that they are not welcome to stay on the campsite they’ve chosen.
‘ we d - - - w - - - y - - g - - - - - - o - - - - s - - - - - - d - - - ‘
He says, ‘Well, you ain’t in your country now. You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down.’
This is the first time Ma hears the word, but it is immediately clear to her that she is being insulted and threatened.
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After she is extorted at a farm company store, Ma Joad observes that
“go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help’
The poorest characters are often the most generous, and the richest the most selfish.
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When the Joads are about to attempt to cross the desert in their old car (because they have no other options available to them), one of the workers at the service station makes this comment:
‘They ain’t human. A human being wouldn’t live like they do.’
‘ They ain’t a hell of a lot better than gorillas.’
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‘ b - - - is m - - m - - - b - - m - - l - - - c - - - - - - o - - - it; t - - - - - - - - b - - - - n - - c - - - - - - m - - ‘
Steinbeck use the word ‘monsters’ to refer to the banks; In which, he said that
‘bank is man-made but man lost control over it; therefore, banks now control man.
it shifts the responsibility and blame onto a higher force. it turns to the language of profit so that guilt isn’t felt and emphasises the dehumanising effects of these larger institutions as they are inhumane ‘monsters’ that have taken over and can’t be controlled by men that created them. in search of more profits, the land owners completely disregard the welfare of the tenant farmers and their families on the land.
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‘ one tractor and a man can now take the place of twelve or fourteen families’
there is no consideration that this one tractor and one man have the capabilities to remove the livelihoods of these individuals, the sole focus is economic gain. the inhumanity to man is emphasised by the use of machines. tractors can do the work of dozens of people without the connection to the land, death of agrarianism. unfeelingness of the machines reflect the callousness of the tenant farmers.
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‘squirt in a couple quarts of sawdust’
cheating their customers, corrupting the cars in order to get a margin of profit. they lack compassion or care for the tenant farmers, selfish.
‘ i - - c - - - - em, i - - d - - - em or i k - - - em’
‘ill close em, i’ll deal em or i kill em’
predatory and violent, epitomises how greed has corrupted individuals and dehumanised them and twisted their morals
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‘youre not only buying junk, youre buying junked lives’
not just receiving physical item, they were something extremely personal and meaningful to the tenants. each item has high significance and strong emotional attachment and when they are forced to move, they are forced to give up pieces of themselves
