Literature analysis

Literature Analysis

The Grapes of Wrath

By John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a fiction novel about a poor farming family’s very difficult migration from the drought stricken dust bowl of Oklahoma in the late 1930’s to the “promised land” of California where their survival was equally challenging and difficult.  The depressing theme of the novel was consistent from beginning to end in that difficulties and challenges followed the characters, with any hope and salvation in the novel abiding in the individual choices that each character makes and the struggle of the small (but perhaps more moral)communities against the overall oppression of the larger (but perhaps immoral) establishments.

The story begins as the main character, Tom Joad, is hitchhiking back to his family after being released from prison.  He had served four years of a seven year sentence for killing a man “in self defense”.  The unfairness theme of the novel begins, as we sympathize with the ex-convict, who seems like a decent person.  He meets up with an ex-preacher, Jim Casy,from his home town near the Joad family farm.  When they get to the farm, they find out the family has been forced from their land, because they had not been able to pay their mortgage during the drought conditions.  The family is at an uncle’s house preparing to head to California with the hope of better fortune. But even on the way and in California the Joad family faces difficulties and challenges.  Greed and abuse of power are the main antagonists and come in the form of big banks, large landowners, those that work for them including individuals and government entities like police; and even religion and nature.  With so many antagonists, Steinbeck appears to have a pessimistic view of society.  Steinbeck’s hope comes in the form of a few selfless acts of kindness within the disaster and a hope that the individuals who can act with empathy and compassion could unite without losing their empathy and compassion in the process.

An example of Steinbeck’s helpless disdain for big banks can be found in chapter 5, when he describes the bank as a “monster”.  “It’s the monster.  Men made it, but they can’t control it.” (P.33) Despite the recognition that the banks does stuff that the people don’t like, the people are helpless to change it. In contrast to the institutions that can’t seem to be controlled by the ones who created them, individually, Steinbeck creates characters that have deep flaws, and sometimes have trouble controlling their behavior, but at least have the ability to change and to be kind and compassionate.  Steinbeck introduces this theme of unity of individuals early in the story when ex-preacherCasy tells Tom why he doesn’t preach any more, but that he’s convinced that “Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’spart of.”  Casy repeats this unity philosophy when he gives race at the Joad family breakfast in chapter 8. The Joad familystruggles to remain together throughout the story.  The theme of an individual’s commitment to something greater than himself works both ways in the story.   The commitment to something greater than you is used as an excuse to carry out orders that hurt other people as well as to help them; it just becomes the individual’s choice.  

Steinbeck uses many literary techniques to bring depth of understanding to his story.  He uses the conversations between Tom and the truck driver and Jim and Tom in the beginning as backstory to allow the reader to understand the Tom’s past experience in prison.  Tom sum’s up his prison experience in the passage “You don’t look for no sense when lightning kills a cow, or it comes up a flood.  That’s jus ‘ the way thins is. But when a bunch of men take an’ lock you up four years, it ought to have some meaning.” Tom’s speech style shows that he is not sophisticated by formal education, but his reasoning is sound and profound. By the end of the story, life in prison didn’t seem as challenging as the hard times afterward.  Steinbeck uses a lot of foreshadowing for example when Rose of Sharon worries in chapter 13 that seeing their dog be killed by a car is bad for her baby and then the baby is stillborn later.  The dark tone of the store is evident in the imagery and symbolism from the following

 passage describing a sunset on the drought ravaged landscape: “A large red drop of sun lingered on the 

horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going.”  Steinbeck uses personification in the passage that “..darkness crept over the land from the east.” 

Steinbeck uses mostly direct characterization to develop the main characters.  Tom Joad and Jim Casy spend many pages talking a philosophizing and although they don’t have a lot of formal education they say some deep and profound thins.  For example Jim experience as a preacher left him wondering about Jesus and God, but when he just spent more time reasoning about Jesus and God, he was able to come up with concepts for them that gave him more comfort.  Characters like Uncle John are developed using indirect characterization.  We understand Uncle John from Tom’s story about how his wife died after he down played the stomach ache she complained about.  Uncle John was not able to forgive himself for her death. Tom is a dynamic character.  He is able to adapt to the negative circumstances of his life and really learns to connect to the present and to other people.  Tom matures throughout the story becoming more connected and involved in helping the oppressed migrant workers in California. Tom’s mother is also a strong and dynamic character.  She holds the family together in the tough times.  

Steinbeck does an excellent job of eliciting emotions from the reader and his style makes the story real and believable.  Despite the general darkness of the story with so much suffering and hardship, there are moments of hope and salvation.  The story is about a specific set of event in America’s history, but the theme, that an individual’s purpose involves believing and behaving with the conviction that you are working for something bigger than yourself, is timeless.