The Grapes of Wrath

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The Grapes of Wrath

• John Steinbeck

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INTRODUCTION

• Critics have called John Steinbecks masterpiece
  The Grapes of Wrath propaganda, sentimental, and
  obscenebut half a century later, we are still
  moved by the story of the Joads and the thousands
  like them who lost their land in the midst of the
  Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the
  mid-Thirties. Think about this happening
  today?????????????

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• In an age of concern over the plight of Americas
  farmlands, earths fragile environment, and the
  growing problem of pollution, The Grapes of Wrath
  is still relevant. In an age when Third World
  peoples are the new Okies, when people step
  over the sleeping homeless in our major cities,
  and the gap between rich and poor widens, The
  Grapes of Wrath is still relevant. The movement
  from I to we (this novels major theme)
  challenges every new generation of readers.

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VALUES

• An appreciation for our common humanity
• The need to work together to achieve a common
  goal
• The need for compassion and justice for the
  oppressed
• The importance of avoiding stereotypes and labels
• The need to share what we have with others,
  especially the poor

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VALUES

• The importance of commitment to our beliefs
• A respect for our religious heritage and that of
  others
• The realization that change is part of the human
  condition
• The importance of caring about the earth and our
  environment
• An understanding of the role of technology in
  society

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CONTROVERSIAL NOVEL

• When first published, religious leaders denounced
  it as obscene.
• Oklahomans resented the portrayal of their
  citizens and their state.
• Californians insisted they were not as cruel as
  the picture Steinbeck painted of them.
• Many people called Steinbeck a Communist.

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SUPPORTERS

• Believed his novel told the truth and were
  concerned enough to demand government action
• As a novel of social protest, The Grapes of Wrath
  was a great success. As a movie, it is a
  classic. In todays catalog of literature, it
  ranks as a timeless work of art.

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STRUCTURE

• The novel is somewhat unusual in structure. The
  general story of the dust storms, the road west,
  shady business practices, and the migrant camps
  is told in chapters which alternate with the more
  specific story of one particular migrant family,
  the Joads. You will receive a factual history
  along with a fictionalized example of how the
  historic events affected one family.

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THE JOADS

• The Joads represent all migrantsand in fact all
  poor, uneducated peoplein 1930s America.

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KEY FACTS

• full title  The Grapes of Wrath
• author   John Steinbeck
•  
• type of work   Novel
•  
• genre   Epic realistic fiction social
  commentary PROTEST NOVEL
•  
• language   English
•  
• time and place written   Late Maylate October
  1938, Los Gatos, CA
•  

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NARRATOR

• narrator   An anonymous, all-knowing,
  historically aware consciousness that is deeply
  sympathetic, not only to the migrants but to
  workers, the poor, and the dispossessed generally.

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POINT OF VIEW

• The narrative shifts dramatically between
  different points of view. In some chapters the
  narrator describes events broadly, summarizing
  the experiences of a large number of people and
  providing historical analysis. Frequently, in the
  same chapters, the narrator assumes the voice of
  a typical individual, such as a displaced farmer
  or a crooked used-car salesman, expressing that
  person's individual concerns. When the narrator
  assumes the voice of an anonymous individual, the
  words sometimes sound like what an actual person
  might say, but sometimes they form a highly
  poetic representation of the anonymous
  individual's thoughts and soul. The chapters
  focusing on the Joad family are narrated
  primarily from an objective point of view,
  representing conversations and interactions
  without focusing on any particular character.
  Here, the characters' actions are presented as an
  observer might witness them, without directly
  representing the characters' thoughts and
  motivations. At certain points, however, the
  narrator shifts and presents the Joads from an
  omniscient point of view, explaining their
  psychologies, characters, and motivations in
  intimate detail.

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KEY FACTS

• tone   Mournful, awed, enraged, sympathetic
•  
• tense   Mainly past
•  
• setting (time)   Late 1930s
•  
• setting (place)   Oklahoma, California, and
  points along the way
•  
• protagonist   Tom Joad

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MAJOR CONFLICT

• The disastrous drought of the 1930s forces
  farmers to migrate westward to California,
  pitting migrants against locals and property
  owners against the destitute. Moreover, Tom
  Joad's story dramatizes a conflict between the
  impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by
  focusing on one's own needs and the impulse to
  risk one's safety by working for a common good.

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RISING ACTION

• Tom is released from prison, determined to mind
  his own business Tom encounters the devastation
  of the Dust Bowl Casy presents Tom with his
  philosophy of the holiness of human beings in
  general Tom is drawn into the workers' movement.
•  

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THEMES AND MOTIFS

• THEMES
• Man's inhumanity to man
• the saving power of family and fellowship
• the dignity of wrath the multiplying effects of
  altruism and selfishness
• MOTIF
•  Improvised leadership structures

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MAIN THEMES AND IDEAS

1. RELIGION
2. TRANSCENDENTALISM
3. AGRARIANISM (AGRICULTURE)
4. COMMUNISM
5. ISOLATION AND LONELINESS
6. FAMILY AND THE EDUCATION OF THE HEART

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Title

• The novels title is taken from Julia Ward Howes
  Battle Hymn of the Republic (second stanza)
  with its militant spirit that urges an oppressed
  group to strive for victory over its oppressors.

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TITLE

• Battle Hymn of the Republic
• Julia Ward Howe
• Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
  the LordHe is trampling out the vintage where
  the grapes of wrath are storedHe hath loosed
  the fateful lightning of His terrible swift
  sword                       His truth is
  marching on.I have seen Him in the watch-fires
  of a hundred circling camps,They have builded
  Him an altar in the evening dews and dampsI can
  read His righteous sentence by the dim and
  flaring lamps                       His day is
  marching on.

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TITLE SYMBOLIC LEVEL

• MIGRANTS CLUSTER TOGETHER LIKE GRAPES, IN THEIR
  SHARED MISERY AND ANGER (WRATH). THEY SURVIVE
  PERSECUTION, HARDSHIPS, AND EXPLOITATION ONLY
  BECAUSE OF THEIR INVINCIBLE COURAGE.

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TITLE RELIGIOUS LEVEL

• REVELATION THE EVIL PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW AFTER
  BABYLON (WICKEDNESS) WILL DRINK OF THE WINE OF
  THE WRATH OF GOD AND WILL BE TORMENTED. IN THE
  NOVEL, THIS HAPPENS TO THE WEALTHY LANDOWNERS IN
  CALIFORNIA, WHOSE EXPLOITATION OF THE MIGRANTS
  LEADS TO WORKERS PROTEST AND STRIKES.

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TITLE RELIGIOUS LEVEL

• GRAPES ARE A SYMBOL OF FRUITFULNESS, BOUNTY, AND
  PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE. GRAMPA SAYS, GRAPES.
  THERES ONE THING I AINT NEVER HAD ENOUGH OF.

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SYMBOLS

• The Grapes of Wrath
• Christian symbolism

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SYMBOLS

• Rose of Sharon's pregnancy
• the death of the Joads' dog
• The Tractors

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A TIME OF CHANGE MOTIFS IN THE NOVEL

• Think about the role of technology in your life
  today????
• Think about technology in manufacturing,
  medicine, and information accessibility????????
• Steinbeck wrote this novel before the computer
  revolution, but he was never an anti-machine
  agrarian purist.
• He saw machines as offering possibilities for a
  better life for all people.

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MACHINE AGE COMES TO OK

• The family met at the most important place, near
  the truck. chapter 10
• The novel began with a poetic tribute to the land
  and its people.
• Chapter 2 the red, living earth is replaced by
  a roaring, huge red truck.
• Every chapter but 4 contains references to cars,
  trucks, or tractors (all negative except for the
  above passage).

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MACHINE AGE COMES TO OK

• Machines are replacing the land and the farm as
  America becomes a nation on the move.
• What does it mean to be human in a world that is
  becoming increasingly mechanized?
• Chapter 11 (the 1st paragraph) says the new
  MACHINE MAN has no wonder in his work, loses
  understanding of relationship between people and
  land, is contemptuous of the land and of
  himself.-

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CHANGES

• Times are changing, mister, dont you know?
  chapter 5
• Seems to me we dont never come to nothin.
  Always on the way. chap. 13
• Thus they changed their social lifechanged as
  in the whole universe only man can change.
• The Western land, nervous under the beginning
  change. The Western States nervous as horses
  before a thunder storm. The great owners,
  nervous, sensing a change, knowing nothing of the
  nature of the change. chapter 14

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CONT.

• Theyre gonna come a thing thats gonna change
  the whole country. chapter 16
• For here I lost my land is changed a cell is
  split and from its splitting grows the thing you
  hateWe lost our land. . .This is the
  beginningfrom I to we. chapter 14

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FROM I TO WE

• From the first pages of this novel, the reader
  senses a change has come over the land. The red
  earth is turned to gray dust. The tenant farmers
  are pushed off their land and onto Highway 66 by
  debts and greedy owners. We see characters
  change, such as the service station owner of
  chapter 13, who begins as a whining worrier and
  ends up showing compassion when the Joads dog is
  run over, offering to bury im out in the corn
  field.30

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CHANGE IN THE FAMBLY

• One of the biggest changes is in the fambly.
• They have to leave their farm and Oklahoma.
• They have added Casey and Wilsons to the
  extended family.
• Grampa dies.
• Their pet dog is hit by a CAR.

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CHANGES IN ATTITUDES (JOADS)

• Ma seems to be opening her concept of family by
  allowing Casy and the Wilsons in.
• Tom seems to be reflecting on Casys message of
  universal compassion for fellow human beings.

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THEME FROM I TO WE

• Our only way to survive as a human race is to
  shift from total independence to inter-dependence.

John Steinbeck
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RELIGION

• Traditional, orthodox religion is seen in a
  negative light since it encourages individuals to
  remain isolated and self-centered. Uncle John is
  preoccupied with guilt over his role in the death
  of his wife a migrant woman sees everything in
  terms of sin and punishment. Casey abandons
  orthodox religion in hopes of finding a deeper
  awareness of life and the universe. The
  understanding that he finally achieves is not
  anti-religion, but rather a way of translating
  religion into responsible, humane action.

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Christian Symbolism

• The Joads oppressed, homeless group
  (Israelites) in search of the Promised Land
• Jim Casy withdrawn from the church as Christ
  withdrew from the old religion
• Casy went into the wilderness like Jesus to
  figure out something and form a new set of
  beliefs based on love and unity among humans
• Casy has the same initials as Christ, feels the
  same zest for teaching, gives himself as a
  sacrifice when Tom is about to be arrested, and
  is killed in the middle of a river as in the
  biblical crossing over Jordan.
• Christs last words before dying were Father
  forgive them they know not what they do.
  Casys last words were You fellas dont know
  what youre doin.

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Biblical Imagery

• The novels three sections (drought, journey, and
  California) correspond to the Israelites
  oppression in Egypt, the exodus, and the sojourn
  in the land of Canaan.
• Instead of peace and prosperity, the Joads are
  met with hunger and violence in California. They
  never get the promised land.

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Rose of Sharon

• Rose of Sharons name comes from I (Christ) am
  the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley.
  This thy stature is like to a palm tree and thy
  breasts to clusters of grapes. (Canticles 21
  and 77)
• Christians believe that Christ gives himself,
  body and blood, in the form of bread and wine.
• Rose of Sharon truly gives of herself to bring
  life to the dying man, who would die without the
  nourishment. Christ says, I am the Bread of
  Life. (John 635)

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Irony

• Uncle John puts Rose of Sharons stillborn child
  in an old apple crate and floats it downstream
  and says, Go down and tellem.
• Moses is the baby in the basket in the Bible, and
  the irony is that he saved his people but the
  infant cannot tell them because he is dead.
  Think about the connection between the actions
  that have caused the infants death and
  selfishness.

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Theme

• One of Steinbecks major themes (Of Mice and Men
  also) is humankinds search for the Promise Land,
  a Garden of Eden, flowing with milk and honey.
  
• Concerning Tom and the snake, the devil took the
  form of a serpent in the Garden of Eden in
  Genesis. The snake here is an omen that
  California will not be a Paradise for them.

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TRANSCENDENTALISM

• When Casy says that maybe all men got one big
  soul everbodys a part of, he argues that human
  kind as a whole is more important than any one
  individual. Casy goes so far as to argue that
  perhaps there is no sin, that everything people
  do is holy. Transcendentalists believe that a
  collective unity of souls transcends or goes
  beyond the individual soul. Casy comes to
  believe that people discover lifes true meaning
  only when they see their connection to other
  people and learn to love them. Casys belief is
  expressed in the growing sense of unity among the
  migrants and other dispossed people.

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AGARIANISM

• The novel reaffirms Thomas Jeffersons belief
  that those who labor in the earth are the chosen
  people of God. Steinbeck emphasizes the
  importance of a unified, sharing attitude between
  humans and the earth. Tractors, land
  corporations, and bankers reflect the alienation
  and corruption that result when landownership and
  farming become a business. Migrants believed
  that the land belongs to those who work it
  landowners allowed their lands to lie dormant
  while other were hungry.

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COMMUNISM

• Throughout the novel, migrants are wrongly
  accused of being Reds, or Communists. There is
  no direct evidence in the novel that a larger
  political influence lies behind the migrants
  attempts to organize and protect themselves.
  Their ideal is NOT communism, but a communalism
  or a vague form of Christian socialism where
  people work together for the benefit of all.

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ISOLATION LONELINESS

• Having been isolated in prison, Tom continues
  through most of the novel as a loner.
• Casy feels that his life as a preacher has
  isolated him from the real meaning of life.
• Muley Graves is just wanderin around like a. .
  .graveyard ghost.
• Uncle John is described as the loneliest. . .man
  in the world.
• Steinbeck uses the backdrop of the larger
  isolation of the migrants as a whole.

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PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

• Animals and machines are an important part of the
  novel both at a literal and a symbolic level.
  They unify the novel, help us understand
  characters, and point out major themes in the
  work.
• Animals and characters The people are reduced
  to animal level by the banks and owners the
  people are close to nature, one with the land
  they farmed.

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PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

• In the novel, it is not MACHINES that are evil,
  but the system that allows only the wealthy to
  own the tractors.
• The truck continues to break down and is
  eventually stopped, as it the Joads.
• Life would have been easier if farmers had access
  to tractors. The problem was that they had no
  money and could not compete with farmers who did
  own machines.

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The Controversial Ending

• Rose of Sharon, who so often in the early
  chapters is a whining, selfish, immature girl,
  grows into a woman like her mother, who cares for
  others first, no matter the cost.
• Steinbecks purpose was to have the readers see
  that even when the Joads had nothing, life and
  suffering had taught them to share what little
  they had in this case, Rose of Sharons breast
  milk.