If anything, we should read The Grapes of Wrath because it affords us front row seats to one of the darkest chapters in American history. The Joads are a fictional family, and yet they (and what they represent) are part of the American story. Allusions to this epic tale have surfaced in both South Park and The Simpsons. References to the novel continue to be made in movies, music, art, and TV. It literally changed the face of American labor. The Grapes of Wrath has been banned, burned, and bought over and over again. In short, this novel sent America into a bit of a frenzy.Įleanor Roosevelt took note, and, as a result, she called for congressional hearings on migrant worker camp conditions. Californian farmers loathed Steinbeck's unsavory depiction of, well, Californian farmers. Other (jerks) accused him of being a socialist and of championing communist beliefs (i.e., share the wealth, friends). Some people applauded Steinbeck for capturing so honestly the lives of migrant farm workers during the Depression. When first published, Americans had a love/hate relationship to this novel. It explores the strength and goodness of the human spirit in the face of gruesome, truly dismal circumstances. Published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath vividly portrays life during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in America as it follows a family of Oklahoma tenant farmers traveling westward. That he witnessed, and he channeled that fury as he wrote The Grapes of Wrath. Was infuriated and disgusted by the amount of heartbreak and suffering Various migrant worker camps in towns like Bakersfield and Visalia, and He spent a whole lot of time getting to know families who lived in Series of seven articles about migrant worker communities for the San Francisco Chronicle. To California in search of a better life, Steinbeck was writing a
The time of the Dust Bowl, when tens of thousands of Americans migrated This understanding of society's ills is razor sharp, and cuts deep.Īnd a lot of that has to do with the fact that this novel is brutally honest. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and helped John Steinbeck nab the Nobel Prize in 1962-they gave Steinbeck the Nobel for (among other things) his "keen social perception."Īnd you don't get much keener than the social perception showcased in Grapes.
pass to every "Top 100 Books of All Time" list in the universe. The Grapes of Wrath pretty much has a V.I.P.
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