Conflict

The conflict in the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is external- mostly man vs. man, but necessarily two specific people against each other. The protagonists and the 'good guys' are the characters like the Joad family, and many of the families that are in the same situation as they are- displaced and jobless and homeless because of the storms of the Dust Bowl. The several antagonists in the novel are simply the people these families meet along the way and set them back even further.

One example of this is the corrupt cars salesmen, who sell unsuspecting families awful cars and pretend they are getting a really good price, when the car is really just a piece of junk that has tons of things wrong with. Another example are the bank owners that have to take the land away from the people affected by the Dust Bowl. Although this is their job, it still makes them against the main characters. The biggest antagonists, however, are the landowners in California who exploit the displaced people from Oklahoma, giving them tons of hard work and poor pay and refusing to let them join unions, keeping them from getting some of the benefits and justice that they deserve.

Because of the various points of view and narrations, the reader sees the reasoning behind both the protagonists actions and (some) of the motives behind the actions of the various antagonists reactions. The protagonists and truly just trying to get their lives back on track after great loss and destruction. But the antagonists know this, and are using this knowledge to exploit their workers and get everything they can from them, even if it is totally unfair to the poor working class.

The conflict is mostly resolved in the end of the novel, even though the protagonists end up going through more loss and troubles because of the fact that they simply want justice and fair and equal treatment.