How Does Steinbeck Use Intercalary Chapters In The Grapes Of Wrath

The book The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family who are migrating towards the west because there is no hope to be found if they stay in Oklahoma. Steinbeck follows the Joads mostly through the book, but there are some chapters that don't fit in with the normal Joad family. They are choppy, fast paced chapters that don't seem to have any correlation with the Joad family, but these chapters provide steinbeck's view on what is happening. These chapters are usually referred to as intercalary chapters and they mostly talk about the other migrants apart from the Joad family, and what kind of struggles they were going through because of what the banks had done to them. Steinbeck had a purpose to these chapters and the book as a whole which was

During the Great Depression, many citizens faced an arduous lifestyle of unemployment. However, many people managed to entertain themselves by reading literature such as The Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck witnessed an injustice towards farmers during the Great Depression, and this inspired Steinbeck to present his perspective of the maltreatment to the open through The Grapes of Wrath. The fictional novel describes how unfortunate conditions, during the Great Depression, force an Oklahoma farmer family to travel to California in search for an easy life, job opportunities, and a bright future. John Steinbeck represented and connected his tones through his trope, making it an excellent read. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

The novel The Grapes of Wrath is in many ways a one-of-a-kind piece of literature. This work is set up unlike any other book, written in a series of chapters and inter-chapters, which do a remarkable job of informing the reader of the travels the characters in the book are going through. Not only does the story focus on the problems one family goes through, but explains the problem is happening to many more civilians than the story focus's on. Steinbeck does not leave out a single detail about the Joad family and their journey to California, and that in itself is what makes his writing so entertaining. Not only is this a very powerful topic to write about, but the remarkable writing style of author John Steinbeck makes this book a

The next section of chapter 21 offers an explanation of the hostility that the migrants meet upon arrival in California. Steinbeck describes:

The intercalary chapters in The Grapes of Wrath, also known as 'inner chapters,' are the chapters that do not concern the Joads directly, but provide some sort of indirect commentary on their struggles. The intercalary chapters are a literary device designed to show the general social and economic elements of America at the time. Steinbeck uses this device to show his belief that the story is not limited to the tale of the Joads only, but an entire mass of migrants. The interchapters predict events and sometimes explain the events of that specific time period, and then the following chapter describes the previously mentioned concept in specific relation to the Joad family.

When examining John Steinbeck’s, Grapes of Wrath’” he details the story of the Joads an Oklahoma family on their way to California in the midsts of the Dust Bowl. As he discusses their journey towards the american dream he inserts several intercalary chapters that break up the discussion of the Joads and shifts the focus towards the things that symbolizes them. In the novel there are several intercalary chapters that are used to depict the lies and deceit that occurs to the Joads right under their nose.

Steinbeck decided to write his novel The Grapes of Wrath by using intercalary chapters. This method of writing was a good idea on Steinbeck’s part for both the reader and the novel itself. The ways in which this was successful is that it slows down the story, gives readers the chance to make connections, gives readers a better visual for the following chapter and depicts the most important parts. Although, intercalary chapters can also have a downfall to the book. One of them is that it does not progress the story of the Joad’s and instead interrupts their journey with the unnecessary historical and social backgrounds.

In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck depicts the stories of migrant families during the Dust Bowl, where dust covered plantations, resulting in barren fields with incapabilities to grow crops. Due to barren lands, landowners forced the farmers off the fields, which causes the farmers to lose all of the reasons to stay. Therefore, the farmers set out onto a new journey that will hopefully lead them to a place where life can restart. However, this journey is not a perfectly smooth path; on the journey, the farmers face various adversities. Out of the countless families, John Steinbeck highlights the Joad family, who suffers through numerous misfortunes on the way West, toward California. Through the Joad family, Steinbeck portrays the novel as a form of social protest by emphasizing the unjust treatments the families receive , the deterioration of the false allusions the families hold of the American Dream, and by suggesting a future revolt of the working class.

In the American epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, there are pivotal and dynamic changes that occur in the various significant characters of Jim Casy, Ma Joad, and Tom Joad. Steinbeck specifically uses these characters to show their common realizations about all of humanity, in order to demonstrate his underlying meaning about the importance of people coming together, helping each other out, and surviving. Ma Joad illustrates this idea clearly when she speaks to Tom mid-way through the novel: “Why, Tom, we’re the people that live. They ain’t gonna wipe us out. Why we’re the people--we go on.” (350)

Throughout the book, Steinbeck discredits individualism by highlighting the adverse effects that he sees in it. Steinbeck, draws a specific line through the population - a division of the rich from the poor - and identifies the division as the primary cause for evil and suffering in the world. Much of the adversity experienced by the Joads and the other migrants stem directly from selfishness. Self-interest is what motivates the landowners and capitalists to use a system in which thousands of families sink deep into poverty.

The tone set forth in The Grapes of Wrath, was a quiet, sad tone from the start, based on Steinbeck's description in the very first sentence of the book, "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth...." Another tone portrayed early on was anger by sellers and businessmen, "Spend all their time looking. Don't want to buy no cars; take up your time. Don't give a da** about your time." Every other chapter he set a tone, a mood, a sense of being, and what the time was like by taking the reader away from the Joad family, and painting a picture not through a specific subject, but through random description. He conquered it through his writing style. Steinbeck often used short sentences, fragments as a matter-of-fact, but he used them craftily and well to where they made sense. He used this to

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is mainly written in third-person omniscient, but changes variably within the intercalary chapters. By writing most of the novel from the point of view of an all-knowing being, Steinbeck offers his readers insight into all of his characters’ emotions, opinions, and hardships. Because the author wishes to expose the reader to as many different stories and points of view as possible, some chapters are written in first or second person. This gives the chapters an unsteady feel and mimics the unpredictable issues that plagued the Joads and other families during the 1930’s.

He does this with the organization of the chapters. In the Introduction to the Grapes of Wrath it states that, “His ‘particular’ chapters are the slow-paced and lengthy narrative episodes that embody traditional work at another level of cognition by expressing an atemporal, universal, synoptic view characterization and advance the dramatic plot, while his jazzy, rapid-fire ‘interchapters’ of the migrant condition," (DeMott Paragraph 8). Many of the “interchapters” are very well detailed and provide the readers with imagery such as the changing landscape and life outside of the Joads. In Steinbeck’s other “particular” chapters the readers are provided with a more in depth view of a life of a southern family, the Joads. The use of juxtaposition helped Steinbeck to portray both the life a migrant family and events happening around

   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.

The journey of the Joads represents Steinbeck's message of respect for the poor and oppressed on three levels. The first is literal: he used the journey and its ever-changing environment to put the Joads through many situations. The second level is general: the journey of the Joads can be seen as the same that forced farmers to become