1. The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

2. John Steinbeck Born in California in 1902
Attended Stanford, but did not graduate
Worked at various odd jobs
Many of his novels are set in California
Received the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath; he also received a Nobel Prize for literature
Wrote 16 novels, and many works in other genres
Died 1968

3. His concerns
He work reflects an “awareness of an essential bond between humans and the environments they inhabit” (Cox).
He believed that we do not live in a man-dominated universe, but an interrelated whole.
He was drawn to the communists' sympathy for the working man.

4. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
The novel was published at the apex of the Great Depression.
It “captured the decade's angst as well as the nation's legacy of fierce individualism, visionary prosperity, and determined westward movement” (Cox).

5. Epic Saga
The novel captures a terrible and devastating crisis in American history: the Dustbowl and the Great Depression.
The Joads’ pilgrimage to California, which they see as the promised land, represents the fate of countless Americans who were dispossessed during the Depression.

6. Dorothea Lange
She is one of the most important and well-known documentary photographers of the Depression.

14. Part Documentary
Steinbeck did much research to write the novel: he worked closely with The Farm Security Administration, was familiar with government reports and photographic documentation, and covered worker strikes in California as a journalist.
This story was inspired by his research.

15. Capitalist System of Ownership
Steinbeck is commenting upon a shift in the American economic order, from one based on small, independent farms to huge corporate farms owned by distant banks.
From agrarian (horses and mules pulling plows) to industrial (tractors as monsters).

16. The Importance of the Land
The Joads and the countless other tenant farmers like them have a fundamental connection to the land—it contains their history.
When they are forced to leave their land, they are forced to leave behind an important part of who they are.

17. Owners and Workers At War
Steinbeck shows us the economic upheaval during a time when America was a place of border guards, brutal strike riots, and people desperate for work and starving to death while fertile land stood unplanted and good food that could not be sold was thrown away.
California was not the Promised Land the Joads hoped for.

18. Westering
This is Steinbeck’s term for the great move westward during the 1930’s.
This novel is the story of a pilgrimage, and echoes earlier pilgrimage stories, including Pilgrim’s Progress, The Odyssey, and the biblical story of the search of the Jews for the Promised Land (Weinstein).

19. Praised for its scope and intensity
Reflects author’s zeal to address social ills.
Traces mythic and biblical patterns.
Is an outcry against the ill treatment of all migrant workers.
Pleads for an end to man's inhumanity to his fellow man.

20. Other themes Tom symbolizes the Biblical theme of growth
all people have the potential of growth (rebirth)
Casy's concept of all souls being one, which relates to the Transcendentalist idea of the Oversoul.

21. More themes Selfishness versus altruism
The connection between dignity and rage (wrath)

22. More themes
love of the earth; earth imagery performs a dual function of signifying love and of signifying endurance.
The saving power of family and fellowship
human dignity

23. Style
The novel is written in two distinctly different types of chapters.
One type focuses on the Joad family
Featuring traditional narrative, dialogue and description

24. Intercallary chapters
Highly poetical and lyrical
We hear the voices and echoes of these times that act like a Greek chorus.
They are like pieces of a quilt that produce a picture of that America (Weinstein).

25. The Novel’s Title
Can be seen as an ominous suggestion that revenge and retribution will follow the social injustices experienced by so many during the Depression.
A line from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

26. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

27. Glory, glory, Hallelaujah!
His truth is marching on.

28. I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

29. Glory, glory, Hallelaujah!
His truth is marching on.

30. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,
While God is marching on.

31. Religious Symbolism
Jim Casy, who has the initials of Jesus Christ, plays a Christ-like role.
He is a simple man, who believed that everyone is connected.
Casy tried to change things, and died in that effort.
“You fellas don’t know what you’re doin’”

32. Tom Becomes a Social Activist
Inspired by Casy’s death and on the run because he killed the man who killed Casy, Tom dedicates himself to work for social justice.
“I’ll be there” speech reflects “the need for a new kind of individualism—one committed to the lives of others” (Weinstein).

33. “Then it don’t matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark
“Then it don’t matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Werever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Werever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad—an’

34. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there. See? God, I’m talkin’ like Casy. Comes of thinkin’ about him so much. Seems like I can see him sometimes” (572).

35. Ma and the Family Ma is the fierce protector of the family.
Gradually she comes to understand that they are experiencing a new kind of that goes beyond that encompasses everyone: the family of man.
Rose of Sharon’s final act reflects that new family, shared by all.

36. The novel was not liked by all
Oklahomans said that the dispossessed Joads’ story was a "dirty, lying, filthy manuscript.”
Californians claimed the novel was a scourge on the state's munificence (generosity).
Kern County banned the book well into World War II.
The righteous attacked the book's language or its crass gestures.

37. Steinbeck’s constant belief
"In every bit of honest writing in the world," he noted in a 1938 journal entry, "...there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love”(Cox).

38. Works Cited
Cox, Martha Heasley. Center for Steinbeck Studies. San Jose State University.
Weinstein, Arnold, Ph.D. Classics of American Literature, Part VI. The Great Courses on Tape: Teaching That Engages the Mind. Springfield, VA: The Teaching Company, 1997.