The Grapes of Wrath - 1939
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands of other "Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
Many reasons exist why this Steinbeck Pulitzer winner is still considered 80 years later as one of the greatest American novels, and still required reading in many high school classes despite attempts to have it banned during the years of fear of Communism.
ReplyDeleteThe message of unity and fighting back, as seen from the oppressed class against the rich and powerful, echoes in 2020 as Socialist politics of the far Left. It was this fear of impoverished newcomers in GoW that caused agents of government to use law enforcement to keep the masses poor and dependent. Banks and business used land to keep profits while workers and small farmers starved and suffered in their attempt to feed their families and maintain a shred of dignity. Over time the consequence of a culture of self interest over compassion will result in the ultimate destruction of all.
Unity is a lesson and a theme as Ma focuses on keeping her family together at all costs. This broadens to all families helping each other for the common good. Likewise the other main character, Tom, concerned with his own survival, realizes people must stand up for one another in order to save them all.
Hope is the ultimate theme that permits dreams of a home and food to combat being “tard” and giving up. In the end Rose, having lost her newborn to the cruelty of Nature and man-caused hardship, nurses an elderly stranger who is dying of starvation. This is the ultimate hope left for the goodness of man being victorious over evil.
Steinbeck brilliantly employs tension between the rich powerful banks and large landowners versus the immigrants whose small farms were stolen, forcing them to flee both the Depression and drought in search of sustenance. Tension also exists among the poor as they are forced to compete for scarce jobs, food, and camps just to survive. Lesser tension exists within the Joad family as individuals cope, each in his own way. Ma is the glue that holds them together by sheer force of her will and her love for her own. Steinbeck uses short chapters to explain and beautifully describe the overview of the land and the times, while the Joads personalize and allow the reader to care.
The tug between good and evil is universal truth that we feel every day. Suffering exists in much of our world as well as close to home. Despite the horror of the Dustbowl and Depression, they also warn of the possibility of today’s environmental disaster. Man’s inhumanity to man exists today in the faces of those stopped at our southern border, seeking better lives for their families as they risk the unknown to leave behind the only homes they have known. Steinbeck kindly leaves us with an act of supreme goodness in Rose’s mysterious smile, not closure but permission to hope.
Really enjoyed your thoughts and take-away. How many essays on this book did you have to grade I wonder?
DeleteIt is interesting that the actually county in CA that the Joads settled in banned the book for slander!
ReplyDeleteThis book was a testimony and tribute the majority. The resilience, tenacity, values, and spirit of the American people during the Depression are all embodied by the Joads. Steinbeck's use of the vernacular and colloquial writing style made this accessible to the same and its warm reception by the masses and rejection by the elites show that is was on target. The 'Red Scare' hadn't yet taken hold but it is funny to me today that the accusation of socialist propaganda was as prevalent in the 1930's as it is today and how that still manages to disturb people. Socialism at its core is the the movement and governance of people for the good of the whole. I am not sure why that scares us but it might have to do with the weight of organized numbers of people acting in a unified manner. The camps run by the people as opposed to as those organized by the law are a great example of this.
ReplyDeleteYour review makes me want to read the book!
DeletePlease do! Lots to be taken away from the book but inspirational in almost everyway though some evils of our society are shown to be constant as opposed to recent.
DeleteIf Steinbeck was writing for the people and the masses, giving them a voice when their situation was dire and imposed upon them by a tiny minority of elites, who is talking for us now? There are more voices but there are less ears. The success of this work and why it is on this list is that it did have an audience that accepted it, lived it, and acted on it. I am not sure this is possible any more.
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