Power Relating to Standing Rock and The Grapes of Wrath

Power is the ability to force a person, or a group of people, to complete an action whether they wish to complete the request or not. Being in power often leads to being able to further your own agenda. This can be used for good, or bad, however in the case of Standing Rock, the government is destroying land in order for the short term benefit. Although putting in oil pipelines will benefit financially, it will destroy the land, and home of many Indian tribes. The current showing of power put together by our government could end up being disastrous. It is imperative to stand up for the powerless. If we all sit back, it’ll end up giving the powerful more power. This in turn ends up taking away the little power everyone else has.

In the excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath, it expresses the importance of keeping the land clean and useful. The excerpt stresses the importance of the human’s connection with the land they live on. When man treats land poorly, it ends up destroying the very place we live. It is very important to take care of our land. Without acceptable living conditions, there will be no healthy foods, the atmosphere will be destroyed, and eventually it’ll kill the country. However, if people don’t use their land for good, the land quickly loses it’s importance, “The houses were left vacant on the land, and the land was vacant because of this”. Human’s should have a symbiotic relationship with the land they live on. However, it is obvious that our relationship with the land has become quite parasitical, causing gain for humans, but harm for the land. If this relationship stays in this manner, the results will end negatively for both parties.

The Standing Rock tribe wants to have a symbiotic relationship with the land they live on, but the American government wants to lay down an oil pipeline down in the middle of their land. This will poorly affect the land they live on, and the water they drink. The members of Standing Rock’s tribe have put out a cry for help, and it is our responsibility to stand up for the powerless. Because our government is exerting their power, our land is being destroyed. In order to protect the people of Standing Rock, we need to protect the powerless. If we don’t, the people who live in Standing Rock could be homeless, and in turn the powerful gained more power.