Analysis Of John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, many concepts appear that were noted in How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. However, the three chapters of Foster’s how-to guide that most apply to Steinbeck’s novel were “It’s All About Sex…,” “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not),” and “It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow.” On more than one occasion these concepts are hidden within the book, and two of them actually seem somewhat linked together. After reading between the lines, The Grapes of Wrath has an extremely intricate plot and many ulterior meanings. Foster’s book helps to solve these meanings and make it so that the novel can be completely understood.

His writings were based on his personal experiences during his time of doing manual labor for a living (FamousAuthors.org 2012). He truly understood the difficulties of the working class people during the Depression. Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book, The Grapes of Wrath (FamousAuthors.com 2012). He was also awarded the Nobel Prize for literature (FamousAuthors.com 2012). The Grapes of Wrath was made into a movie, as well (FamousAuthors.com 2012). The book was described as “a portrayal of the merciless agricultural economic system” (FamousAuthors.org

The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is considered by many to be the hallmark of American literature. It covers the journey of the Joad family as they stick together through one of the harshest eras in American history, the Great Depression. The structure of the Joad’s narrative is interspersed by smaller, highly descriptive interchapters, which sets the novel apart from other classics in its ability to make the reader understand and relate to the Joads and everything they went through. The detailed, impactful vignettes foreshadow problems the Joads have to overcome and the overview descriptions in the vignettes contrast with the specificities of the Joad’s story. They contain Biblical allusions, colorful descriptions, and objects that can interact with the main characters later in the narrative. Through the use of imagery and diction, the vignettes make Steinbeck’s message more impactful and meaningful.

“At the heart of every immigrant’s experience is a dream- a vision of hope that is embodied in his or her destination” (Gladstein 685). In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath the migrants imagined the absolute aspects of living care free to the west. However, everything changed once they traveled to the west, realizing the simple concept turned into hazardous problems. John Steinback emphasized the American dream of economic stability and truculent situations towards the Joads family's point of view. Throughout the immigration, the Joads family goes through constant and unpredictable changes in employment, and their eventual failure to find success in California. The novel has been called by critics "a celebration of the human spirit", in several ways it is true due to the aspects of human nature. Despite the hazardous actions people can do, it is important to realize everything around us.

My favorite John Steinbeck novel is Of Mice and Men. This book takes place in California in the 1930s. It is

The classic American book, The Grapes of Wrath, was written by John Steinbeck in 1939. Steinbeck’s purpose was not to write a popular book but instead to accurately portray the lives of southern families during the Dust Bowl. To do this, Steinbeck used rhetorical devices such as colloquialism, juxtaposition, logos, and pathos. Steinbeck’s use of colloquialism is prominent throughout the book. He used Oklahoma dialect to further enhance the reader’s experience while reading and by using this, the reader gets a sense of how people in the south talked and interacted.

That novel was followed by what most people believe is Steinbeck’s best book, “Grapes Of Wrath”, which was based on articles he had written in San Francisco, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. His talks of the poor conditions eventually caught the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, who raised the standards, telling Congress to fix the bad parts of the labor laws and camp conditions. In all 17 of his works became movies or screenplays.

    Steinbeck's political views are quite evident within The Grapes of Wrath. The subject of much controversy, The Grapes of Wrath serves as a social protest and commentary. Steinbeck's views as expressed through the novel tie directly into the Marxist ideals on communism.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck uses numerous literary techniques to advocate for change in the social and political attitudes of the Dust Bowl era. Simile, personification, and imagery are among the many devices that add to the novel’s ability to influence the audience’s views. Moreover, through his use of detail, Steinbeck is able to develop a strong bond between the reader and the Joad clan. This bond that is created evokes empathy from the audience towards the Joads as they face numerous challenges along their journey. The chapters go between the Joad’s story and a broad perspective of the Dust Bowl’s effect on the lives of Mid-western farmers in which Steinbeck illustrates dust storms devastating the land, banks evicting tenant

   When Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, our country was just starting to recover from The Great Depression.  The novel he wrote, though fiction, was not an uncommon tale in many lives.  When this book was first published, the majority of those reading it understood where it was coming from-they had lived it.  But now very few people understand the horrors of what went on in that time.  The style in which Steinbeck chose to write The Grapes of Wrath helps get across the book's message.

During the 1939, when the Grapes of Wrath was first published, which received high praise and also had cruel criticism, where it was caused to be banned in some communities. The novel describes the social inequity that many Americans had when the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. The Steinbeck was award for his "realistic and imaginative writing, combining...sympathetic humor and keen social perception." Steinbeck was choosen for one of the top novels. "It became the bestselling book in America in 1939. By February, 1940 the novel was already in its eleventh printing, and more than 430,000 copies had been sold. That year, it remained one of the nation's top ten bestsellers." Even though it was one of the top selling books back then, it also has

     John Steinbeck wrote about what surrounded him. At the time he was writing, the nineteen-thirties, a great depression was plaguing the United States. Many people were out of work. Many farmers were losing their farms and homes. An extreme drought had also wrecked the farms of the Midwest and made them into what is now referred to as the "dust bowl". It was a terrible time to be poor, and most were. People died of malnutrition every day. In California, where Steinbeck resided, migrant workers dominated the workforce. Thousands traveled from all around to pick fruit in the farms of the Salinas Valley for minuscule wages. Thousands more could not find suitable

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born in the farm and ranch based town of Salinas, California to the county treasurer and his wife on February 27, 1902. Being born into a well-off family, he could afford the luxury of hopping from job to job helping ranchers and later attending Stanford University, only to leave without a degree. Altogether, he appears to be the average college student nowadays from our dreamer generation. Four years he published his first novel, Cup of Gold, and over the course of time he found his niche as a fiction writer with a focus on drawing attention to some real life issues he’d witnessed firsthand, growing up on the edge of the last frontier in the west. He ended up publishing The Chrysanthemums in 1938, recalling the

In my opinion Steinbeck drew the subject matter from his own experience of working on ranches, he was interested in special kinds of relationships among men working on

John Steinbeck is one of the most popular and important authors in American literature. Witnessing some of the darkest moments of the human experience, twentieth-century writers, like Steinbeck, found themselves swept up in the wars, politics, and social movements of the century. Considering the subjects that drew Steinbeck’s notice, and the care in which he wrote about different people groups, one thing seems to be clear: Steinbeck cared about people. With a large majority of his works concentrating on the state of California, Steinbeck found the land, and its people, worth writing about. Published three years apart, the two novels In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) differ greatly, from Steinbeck’s treatment of political themes to his treatment of the narrative’s focus. After the success of his novel In Dubious Battle, Steinbeck would go on to be hired to write seven articles for The San Francisco News, where he experienced the abundance of abuses that would provoke Steinbeck to take a different direction with his next novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Drawing notice to the significant deviations between the two novels, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath, through his treatment of subject matter, character development, and concluding assessments, this period of Steinbeck’s life would go on to identify Steinbeck as an authentic voice for the concealed victims of California’s agricultural valleys.