1. CHOOSE YOUR SEAT.

2. The Grapes of Wrath An introduction

3. Pre-reading ► There are 16 “inter-chapters” in the novel (generally, the odd-numbered chapters, but not always). ► They help create a total picture by establishing the entire social conditions of which these characters are a part  fill in the larger picture to give some historical perspective about the conditions that all of these migrants faced, not just the Joads.  For example, chapter 1 gives background on the Dust Bowl. Chapter 5 describes the process by which mortgaged lands are taken over by the banks; farmers are evicted; and lands are combined into vast holdings cultivated with modern machinery. ► Everything included in the inter-chapters relates to the events of the fictional story.

4. Pre-reading ► We don’t get names of new characters in these chapters, but we get “owners” and “tenants” doing real, dramatic things, rather than a straightforward lecture on how these things occurred. ► These chapters also let Steinbeck work in his own statements, judgments, and denunciations of what is occurring.

5. Themes Man’s inhumanity Effects of technology Casting off old ways The importance of family Government for the people and by the people Endurance “Grapes of Wrath”: Anger

6. Purpose ► This is a novel of social protest. ► Designed to inform the public of migrant workers’ plight. ► A plea for landowners of California and bankers in Dust Bowl states to be more tolerant. ► Shows how migrant workers were used so bankers and California land owners could turn a profit. ► Shows methods they used to cheat migrants and keep them from organizing.

7. Title ► From “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” ► “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.” ► Title is a reference to justice and retribution.

8. “The Harvest Gypsies” ► Seven newspaper articles on migrant workers Steinbeck observed in 1936. ► An eyewitness account of the horrendous Dust Bowl migration, a major event in California and U.S. history.

9. “The Harvest Gypsies” ► Steinbeck toured the squatters’ camps and “Hoovervilles” of California. ► Found once strong, independent farmers so reduced in dignity, beaten in spirit, sick, sullen, and defeated that they had been “cast down to a kind of sub-humanity.”

10. “The Harvest Gypsies” ► From 1935-’38, between 300,000 and 500,000 “Okies” (migrant farmers from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri) arrived in California. ► This provides the factual foundation for The Grapes of Wrath.