The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Grapes of Wrath is a classic literary piece for several reasons, one of them being that Steinbeck is renowned for his ability to develop characters to their fullest. It makes perfect sense that he would weave the characters and the economic / social conditions into a logical tapestry of descriptive narrative in alternating chapters. Indeed, it is likely true that Steinbeck's characters were designed to basically be in readers' faces, the way the Dust Bowl and additional grim social and economic challenges of the times were in the characters' faces. Times were not just hard they were nearly impossible.

In fact, the way Steinbeck put this novel together, one chapter in most cases sets up the next, rather than being simply progressive linkage of tone, setting, plot, theme and irony. In Chapter 14 (p. 150) Steinbeck's narrative paints a picture of the land, the powers that be, the plight of the people and the challenges, without mentioning the Joads. "The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunder storm," Steinbeck writes. He embraces metaphor after metaphor in his desire to show the reader the big picture. "...Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments." No matter that theories "change or crash" or that the "...narrow dark alleys of thought...grow and disintegrate," mankind stumbles along. As to the plight of the folks who lost their land because the bank came and took it, the "Western states are nervous under the beginning change."

And then in Chapter 15, Steinbeck brings the people back into the story as "Joe or Carl or Al" are cooking in the diner and Mae is the waitress, "smiling, irritated, near to outbreak," looking past new customers and when they leave she tells Al, the cook, that those customers are "*****heels." Readers get a feel for the grim world of the Depression, where hearts are heavy, people are irritable and life on Highway 66 consists of people with nice cars whizzing by to get to California, and people with battered old broken down cars are stuck in poverty and wishing they could have a better life. So in Chapter 14, Steinbeck has set the stage, and in Chapter 15, the characters step out onto that stage and recite their lines, filling in the blanks from the previous chapter.

Question #2: The style of language used in the novel seems perfectly suited to the times in which the story took place. It is not so realistic that it becomes offensive. The times were desperate and people's lives throughout the areas hardest hit by the Dust Bowl - Kansas, Oklahoma, eastern Colorado and New Mexico, and the Texas panhandle - were hanging by a thread. In addition, the drought was a huge factor that caused people to resort to extreme language reflecting their anger and gloominess. The rainfall average in areas of the Great Plains had been around 20 inches per year, but during much of the 1930s, only half that much rain fell. And temperatures in South Dakota rose as high as 121 degrees during the summer and down to 61 below in the bitter winter season. People already were out of work and short of money and food due to the Great Depression. So Steinbeck is painting an accurate portrait of the way things were.

On page 175 Al wants to get "a couple beers" but Tom says "...Pa'd crap a litter of lizards if we buy beers." That's pretty gross, but in the context of the times, it doesn't seem so severe. On page 178, a man blows his nose into his hand and wipes the discharge on his pants. A man says he hates his boss and "...Some day, by God - some day I'm gonna have a pipe wrench in my pocket...An' I'm gonna, I'm gonna jus' take his head right down off his neck with that wrench, a little piece at a time...right down off'n his neck." Grim language to be sure, but given the desperation of the times and the angst of the people who are out of work and on the move like homeless people, it isn't too surprising or shocking.

On page 255, blatant violence is discussed almost in passing; "Better not fool with him. He killed a fella." "Did? What for?" "Fight. Fella got a knife in Tom. Tom busted 'im with a shovel." Turns out the police let him off of the murder charge since "...it was a fight." That's pretty raw, but again, the times were raw and rough, and death was a daily affair."

Question #4: Ma Joad gets her strength from her family, and ironically, it is Ma Joad who keeps the family together. Yes, Steinbeck has written a novel about the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and what happened to those people who were driven from their homes and took to the road to find a better world. But this book is also at its core about how a family struggles to survive, and about how individuals within a family struggle to assert their strongest personality traits. Ma has a down-to-earth passion to create a better world, and as they move along the road in their trek west, she doesn't just worry about the family sliding into the black hole that a lot of families have fallen into, she insists on the family keeping its dignity.