Grapes of Wrath

Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck, Robert Demott (Introduction).

Penguin USA; New York.

Reissued Edition (Oct. 1992).

619 Pages.

Reviewed By: Kevin Kearney, 2001 April 22.

Reviewed For: Professor George Browne.

Kearney 1

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate

conditions under which the migratory farming families of America during the 1930's

lived, through a personal approach and heavy symbolism. The novel tells of one family's

migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The

bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The

novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California, and how they survive

the cruelty of the landowners that took advantage of them, their poverty, and willingness

to work.

The Grapes of Wrath combines Steinbeck’s adoration of the land, his passionate

hatred for corruption; resulting from materialism (money), and his abiding faith in the

common people to overcome the hostile environment. As it opens with a retaining

picture of nature on rampage, the novel shows the men and women that are unbroken by

nature. The theme is that of a man verses a hostile environment. His body may be

destroyed, but his spirit is not broken.

The method used to develop the theme of the novel is through the use of

symbolism. There are several uses of symbols in the novel from the turtle at the

beginning to the rain at the end. As each symbol is presented, examples of the good and

the bad things that exist within the novel are shown. The opening chapter paints a vivid

picture of the situation facing the drought-stricken farmers of Oklahoma. Dust is

described as covering everything, smothering the life out of anything that wants to grow.

The dust is symbolic of the erosion of the lives of the people. The dust is synonymous

with "deadness", as Steinbeck puts it.. The land is a ruined way of life (farming), people

Kearney 2

uprooted and forced to leave. Secondly, the dust stands for profiteering banks in the

background that squeeze the life out the land as the people are actually forced from their

land. The soil, or the people (farmers), have been drained of life and are exploited: The

last rain fell on the red and gray country of Oklahoma in early May. The weeds became

dark green to protect themselves from the sun's unyielding rays. The wind grew

stronger, uprooting the weakened corn, and the air became so filled with dust that the

stars were not visible at night.

The book continues with a turtle, which appears and reappears several times

early on in the novel and which can be seen as standing for survival, a driving life force

in all of mankind that cannot be conquered by nature or man. The turtle represents