The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck

Source: The Grapes of Wrath historical context PowerPoint via Google.

Meet the Author-Born in Salinas, California 1902– Much of his inspiration came from here.

-He read the Bible often, which also became an important influence on the style and themes of his fiction.

-Wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939

-The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940.

John Steinbeck“I wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 100

days, but many years of preparation preceded it. It took a long time to

get started. The actual writing is the last process.”

Feb 27,1902-Dec 20, 1968

Historical Context– The 1930s

•Migrant Camps

•The Dust Bowl

•Trouble for Farmers

•The Great Depression

•The novel’s setting is the time in which Steinbeck was writing.

Migrant Camps•Upon taking office in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a comprehensive agenda of government programs to combat the Depression.

•Collectively called the New Deal, these programs included new federal agencies designed to create employment opportunities and to improve the lot of workers and the unemployed.

•Among the many such agencies, the one that most directly touched the Okies was the Farm Security Administration (FSA).•Operating under the authority of the Department of Agriculture, in 1936 the FSA began building camps in California in which the homeless migrants could live.

•Ten such camps were finished by the following year.

•Steinbeck visited several in his research for The Grapes of Wrath.

Migrant Camps Continued

•Steinbeck had the Joads stay at one of these camps—the Arvin Sanitary Camp, also called the Weedpatch Camp, in Kern County.

•The intention was that the orchard owners would follow this example and build larger, better shelters for their migrant workers.

•This never came about, however, and many families ended up staying at the uncomfortable – though infinitely better - federal camps for years.

Labor Unions

•In an attempt to defend their right to earn living wages, migrant workers tried to organize labor unions.

•Naturally, this was strongly discouraged by the growers, who had the support of the police. The police often used brute force to break up gatherings.

•In Kern County in 1938, for example, a mob led by a local sheriff burned down an Okie camp that had become a center for union activity.

•You will see this graphically depicted in the novel.

The Dust Bowl•Six years of severe droughts hit the Midwest during the 1930s, causing crops to fail.

•This, compounded by poor farming practices such as overgrazing and failure to rotate crops, caused the land to wither and dry up.

The Dust Bowl Continued•Great dust storms resulted that buried entire communities in sand.

•More than five million square miles of land from Texas to North Dakota and Arkansas to New Mexico were affected.

•The Midwest came to be called the Dust Bowl.

•Although no one escaped the economic pain this caused, small farm families similar to the Joads were the hardest hit.

•Dispossessed farming families abandoned their land, piled their worldly goods on their trucks and took to Route 66 on an arduous exodus to California. This state seemed to promise ready jobs, decent wages and a decent living.

•Troubles for American farmers had begun years before the story of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath.

•Crop prices were high and favored American farmers when supplies of food were short and European markets were disabled.

•American farmers borrowed heavily from banks to invest in land and equipment.

•After the war, however, prices for wheat, corn, and other crops plummeted as European farmers returned to their businesses, and American farmers were unable to repay their loans.

Trouble for Farmers•Thus, in the 1920s, while much of the country was enjoying economic good times, farmers in the United States were in trouble.

Trouble for Farmers Continued

•Banks began to foreclose on loans, often evicting families from their homes.

•Families who rented acreage from landowners who had defaulted on loans would, like the Joads, be evicted from their homes.

•The situation, of course, became much worse after the stock market crash of 1929.

The Great Depression•In October, 1929, stock prices dropped causing businesses and banks to fail internationally and wiping out the savings of many families.

•Over the next few years, unemployment rates soared up to twenty-five percent.

•Forty percent of the working population in America at the time were farmers.

•Low crop prices meant a lower income for farmers.

•People stopped buying unnecessary items such as radios and refrigerators. This had a ripple effect on the nation’s economy. Manufacturing came to a standstill, people lost their jobs, and businesses closed.

•The resulting pressure on banks to collect on loans caused them to evict many farmers.

•However, this wasn’t the only problem that plagued farm families.

The Great Depression Continued

Chronological Structureof the Novel

3 Logical Parts1. “Oppression” : Drought

and dust in Oklahoma2. “Exodus” : The journey

west on Route 663. “The Promised Land”:

California

Writing Style in The Grapes of Wrath-The Joad narrative is interspersed with chapters that are termed “intercalaray,” or something that is inserted, introduced, or interpolated

-On the surface, these chapters provide commentary or supply historical and social background that led to the present situation .

-The discerning reader, however, will note a highly thematic intention in these chapters as well as a variety of rhetorical techniques.

-Employing a variety of literary styles and techniques, Steinbeck is able to cross-reference details, interweave symbols, and provide outside commentary on narrative events in such a way that the two types of chapters blend together, unifying and enhancing the social and humanist themes of the novel.

Juxtaposition in the Intercalary and

Narrative Chapters•Intercalary chapters • Abuse of entrenched

power, wealth, authority and tyranny

• Violations of migrant civil and human rights, ensuring their continued poverty and loss of dignitythrough threats reprisals and violence.

• The sectioning of America into financial, social, geographical caste system.

• Usually the odd-numbered chapters

•Narrative Chapters• Unity of the family• Challenges of survival• Powerlessness, poverty,

victimization, and fear of the nomadic American migrants

• Community in the struggle

• Desire for dignity, work, and land of their own

• Kept alive by innate resilience and resourcefulness

• Democratic benefits of the government sanitary camps.

• Hope against all odds• Usually the even-

numbered chapters

Symbolism within the Novel

The turtle’s exodus

•The life force that drives the turtle, the toughness that allows it to survive predators, the efficiency of nature that uses the turtle to unwittingly carry seeds and bury them – all traits characteristic of the Joads.

•The Joads, too, will carry their house (the truck) with them, survive natural catastrophe, and see both kindness and intimidation.

•They, too, pick up life in one place and carry it to another. Chapter 4: Tom picks up the turtle as a present for his younger siblings, talks about turtles with Casy, and eventually releases it. The turtle plods southwest – just as the Joads will.

Characters•Tom Joad (main character)

•Ma and Pa Joad•Granpa and Granma

•Rosasharn (Rose of Sharon) and Connie

•The other Joads: Noah, Ruthie, Winfield

•Reverend Jim Casy – spiritual lynchpin

•Ivy and Sairy Wilson

Major Themes•Man’s Inhumanity to Man

•Survival

•Identity—What defines us?

•Decline of Family for the Rise of Community

•The Saving Power of Family and Friendship

•The Dignity of Wrath

•The Multiplying Effects of Selfishness and Altruism

Biblical Allusions

Being able to recognize and analyze allusions is central to your understanding of this novel.

You must consider why Steinbeck would choose to use these allusions.

Keep an eye out for quotes, situations, and even characters.

Rose of SharonIn the Song of Songs, this flower is compared to a humble, young woman. (ordinariness)

•Ironically, an ordinary flower with extraordinary qualities, as seen by her remarkable act of generosity at the end of the novel, gives hope to man.

•How might this connect to our character in the novel?

Pietá: picture or sculpture of Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ on her lap or in her arms

Ruthie

•From the Book of Ruth -- She was a foreigner but was very patient and ended up marrying royalty because of her character.

•How does this connect with the novel?

The Joads/The Book of Job

• Satan visits God and God permits Satan to test Job.

• Satan destroys all of Job’s material possessions and family to test Job’s faith in God

• Job’s faith remains strong despite his misfortunes.

• How is Job’s experience analogous to the Joads?

Noah and the Flood

•Joad’s car (packed with possessions = Noah’s Ark crammed with animals)

•Flood = Dust Bowl (Man vs. Nature)

•Struggle for survival

•Noah spent 40 days afloat on the Ark separated from the world.

Other Biblical Allusions

•California = Canaan (Promised Land of the Israelites; “Land of Milk & Honey”)

•Moses and concepts of survival and salvation = Let my people go – Go down and tell them…

•The Joads, like the Hebrews, go through many trials to reach California (the Promised Land).

•Insect references/description of changing land similar to the Exodus plagues (locusts, disease of livestock, etc.)

•Book of Exodus: Migrants = Hebrews• Displaced; in search of the Promised Land

Other Biblical Allusions

•Connie Rivers = Judas Iscariot• Connie abandons family at critical moment in Chapter

20 -- told Rose just before he left he would have done better “if he stayed home an’ studied up tractors” -- allusion to farmer-turned-tractor driver of Chapter 5 (betrayal)

• Judas betrays Jesus Christ to Jewish authorities for 30 pieces of silver.

• Is there a parallel between the two betrayals?

Biblical Parallels•On one level it is the story of the family’s struggle for survival in the Promised Land. . (Abraham, Isaac, and Sarah)

•On another level it is the story of a people’s struggle, the migrants’. (Israelites--Exodus from slavery in Egypt)

•On a third level it is the story of a nation, America. (Biblical Nation of Israel)

•On still another level, through the allusions to Christ and those to the Israelites and Exodus, it becomes the story of mankind’s quest for profound comprehension of his commitment to his fellow man and to the earth he inhabits.”

JIM CASY:-voice of modern faith-not a hypocrite even though he is a sinner-former preacher-arrested without premise, much like Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane-takes blame for Tom Joad, like Christ for humanity.

When Casy leaves the narrative after the Hooverville scuffle, he is wondering how he can help “the people.”

When Casy returns in Chapter 26, he is a determined organizer of migrant workers; nomadic and clear-minded (like Christ).

Jim Casy

Casy and His Works•Jim Casy and Jesus Christ both changed the authority of the common man’s ability to rise above oppression.

•Casy struggles with his life’s purpose; Jesus struggles with his. (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14: 32-42, Luke 22: 39-46.)

•Jim arrested in Hooverville camp; Jesus arrested in Garden (Matt 26: 47-56, Mark 14: 43-52, Luke 22 : 47-50)

•Jim teaches Tom; Jesus teaches his disciples.(Matthew 6:5-15, Luke 11: 1-13)

•Casy’s last words in novel: “You fellas don’ know what you’re doin’.’” Christ’s final words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Tom Joad as an Apostle of Jim Casy•Returns home from

McAlester Prison like Prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-32)

•Even though he is a murderer, he evolves to be a devout follower and an advocate for Jim Casy.

•Tom Joad = early Christians, carrying on Christ’s message after he is gone; Tom takes up Casey’s cause after he is gone

•Reversal of roles – first Tom acts and Casey talks; at the end, Tom talks and Casey acts

Significance of the Novel’s TitleThe story goes that Steinbeck struggled for a title for his “Big Book.” "The Grapes of Wrath“ was suggested by his wife Carol Steinbeck.The title is a reference to lyrics 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;He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:His truth is marching on.

(Chorus)Glory, glory, hallelujah!Glory, glory, hallelujah!Glory, glory, hallelujah!His truth is marching on

•The song was written by abolitionist Julia Ward Howe in 1861, the night after she visited a Union army camp. The hymn became a kind of anthem for the abolitionist cause and for the Union soldiers during the Civil War in America.

•The hymn summons God to bring justice to those who have wreaked havoc over the land and over its people. In other words, the injustice of slavery, (the darkest chapter in American history) is so great that God will bring answer it with an act of vengeance.

• Julia Ward Howe took her reference from the Bible and the Book of Revelations: St. John’s divine vision of the future of mankind; last book in New Testament• “So the angel swung his

sickle on the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the Wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden through the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs” (Revelations 14: 18-19)

• Is this an apocalyptic warning?

The squishing of "the grapes of wrath“, the widespread and graphic depiction of the spilling of blood, are violent and emotional images and closely associated with the widespread oppression of a people.

Dust Bowl oppression the wrath of the dispossessed and displaced masses (like God’s divine justice)

Workers’ justice and “deliverance from evil” achieved through cooperation (i.e., family, organized labor, compassion) Where there is anger – there is hope.

Origins of the Reference

The Title Continued…The phrase also appears at the end of chapter 25 in The Grapes of Wrath which describes the purposeful destruction of food to keep the price high:

“...and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

The image invoked by the title serves as a crucial symbol in the development of both the plot and the novel's greater thematic concerns:

-from the terrible winepress of Dust Bowl oppression will come terrible wrath

-but also the deliverance of workers through their cooperation.

Critical Motifs to Note as You Read•Motifs are reoccurring ideas, symbols, statements. Note where these motifs occur in the narrative if/when you discover them.

-Metamorphosis-Expectation vs. Reality-The American Dream-The loss of human dignity threatens existence-Survival rests in group action-The need for brotherly love-Amassed bitterness will lead to negative action-There is merit in the agrarian way of life-Pragmatism-Prejudice-Continuation of the life cycle

MetamorphosisLandscapeColorsValuesLifestylesRolesEspecially note the metamorphosis of the Joads themselves, their shifting roles, values, and their perspective especially at the end of the novel.

Loss of Dignity What does the myth say about a person who has not prospered? How does the notion of the American Dream serve to further marginalize the dispossessed?What would Steinbeck say should become of this dream, the teat on which all Americans suckle? Expectation vs. RealityNote the disparity between the hope and the outcome that comes with:-The promise of work-The promise of basic humanity-The promise of family-The promise of American institutions-The promise of prosperity-The promise of the land-The promise of a basic sense of right

The American Dream – that idea that the every man, or anyone, can succeed in this land by perseverance and individual efforts, appears oddly perverse, reproachful and unredeemable. What are Steinbeck’s reflection on this mythology against a backdrop of widespread want and poverty?What does the myth say about a person who has not prospered?

The Message – The Pot of Gold at the End of Your Literary Rainbow (Corny )•John Steinbeck's 1939 novel is the wrenching story of the "Okies," the Oklahoma farmers dispossessed from their land and forced to become migrant farmers in California during the Great Depression.

•First regarded as a protest novel and only later as a work of art, The Grapes of Wrath describes the Joad family's exploitation by a ruthless system of agricultural economics.

•Steinbeck’s style, his point of view, and his rhetorical devices clearly place him behind the line of the Joads, who are clearly heirs to our empathies.

•So, WHAT’S THE POINT? What is the moral, the message, the universal truth of existence Steinbeck would have us understand?