2.+Confronting+Injustice

**The Role of the Individual in Confronting Injustice:**
 * Injustice: **

Injustice is witnessed in this chapter through a young man purposely hitting a turtle with his truck. This instance of injustice also has a symbolic meaning in the novel. The turtle and young man symbolize the farmers and the government. In the novel, the farmers are unfairly pushed off their land by the government showing the obstacles the farmers must go through.

A second injustice faced in the chapter is great change withouth the proper means of dealing with the change. The truck presented in the chapter symbolizes the quickly changing nation. Industrialization is the major change being faced and the truck is just one of the many aspects. The industrialization of the time led to a more fast paced society, one in which families like the Joad's are unequiped and unprepared to handle.

**Individuals Response to Injustice:** After being hit by a truck driver, the turtle picks himself up again and tries to cross the road. "Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over. Its front foot caught a pieve of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright"(15). After lying defeated in the road, the turtle regains its strength to get back up and restart its journey. The response of the turtle to the injustice he faces symbolizes the similar response by the farmers. The farmers' land is taken from them by the government, however, instead of giving up, the farmers try again. By packing up their lives, the farmers move their families to California, a place they feel will be more prosperous, in attempt to restart their lives. This restart by the turtle and farmers shows the readers their persistence and unwillingness to give up even after being subject to such injustice.  As a response to the second injustice presented, it is the dutie of the individual to distribute the effect of the injustice amongst the others it effects. The turtle described in the chapter is unharmed after being hit by a truck. This is because it's shell is divided into different plates and when hit, the impact is distributed to the different plates leaving the turtle unharmed. With the society in the novel being subject to the injustice of industrialization without the proper infrastructure to handle such great change, it is the dutie of the individual to distribute the impact and unite inorder to successfully deal with the change. .