In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck brings alive many universal themes. One theme that involves someone taking advantage of another is the cruel exploit the weak. This is a very important theme to the story because the story is about a families or more inclusive a migrants struggle to find stability. These migrants are oppressed by many different factor along their journey. Some ways that Steinbeck shows this through the Joads' and the general migrants can be categorized into two classifications, oppression before beginning journey and oppression on way to California.

The first example of cruel exploiting the weak comes when the bank forces the Joads of their land. This is because the land isn't producing enough crops for the Joads to pay off the loan. In chapter five, the book describes the banks as cruel "creatures [that] don't breathe air, [and] don't eat side-meat. They breathe...