The Grapes Of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath is a classic book published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel and the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes. A celebrated Hollywood film version was made in 1940, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.

Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath (as well as Of Mice and Men) at his home, 16250 Greenwood Lane, in what is now Monte Sereno, California. Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry. In a nearly hopeless situation, they set out for California along with thousands of other "Okies" in search of land, jobs, and dignity. The novel is meant to emphasize the need for cooperative, as opposed to individualistic, solutions to social problems brought about by the mechanization of agriculture and the Dust Bowl drought.

The narrative begins from Tom Joad's point of view just after he is paroled from prison after serving four years for manslaughter. On his journey home, he meets a preacher, Jim Casy, whom he remembers from his childhood and the two travel together. When they arrive at Tom's childhood farm home, they find it deserted. Disconcerted, he and Casy go to his Uncle John's residence a few miles away, where he finds his family loading a truck with everything they own for a move; he learns that his family's crops were destroyed in the Dust Bowl and they were forced to default on outstanding loans. With their farm repossessed, the Joads seek solace in hope; hope inscribed on handbills that are distributed everywhere in Oklahoma, describing the beautiful country of California and high wages to be found out west. The Joads, along with Jim Casy, are seduced by this facade, and invest everything they have into the journey (although leaving Oklahoma would be breaking parole, Tom decides that it is a risk, albeit minimal, that he has to take).

En route, they discover that the roads and highways are saturated with thousands of other families making the same trek, ensnared by the same promise. As the Joads continue and hear stories from others, some coming back from California, they are forced to confront the possibility that their prospects may not be what they had hoped. This realization, supported by the deaths of Grandpa and Grandma, and the departure of Noah (the eldest Joad son) and Connie (the husband of the pregnant Joad daughter, Rose of Sharon), is forced from their thoughts: they must go on as they have no other choice.

Upon arrival, they find hordes of applicants for every job and little hope of finding a decent wage, due to the oversupply of labor, lack of rights, and the collusion of the big corporate farmers. The tragedy lies in the simplicity and impossibility of their dream: a house, a family, and a steady job. A gleam of hope is presented by "Weedpatch," the clean, warm camps