“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain…” Revelation 16:10
The Grapes of Wrath begins with the description of the severe drought and dust storms that deprived farmers of their livelihood and sustenance…

The dawn came, but no day. In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk; and as that day advanced, the dusk slipped back toward darkness, and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn.

No land, no home, no money, no food – time to hit the road and find a better place… But is there a better place?

The bitterness we sold to the junk man – he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that’s us; and when the tractor hit the house, that’s us until we’re dead. To California or any place – every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day – the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together, and there’ll be a dead terror from it.

But freedom of the poor is restricted by the freedom of the state and freedom of politicians and freedom of the rich…

“Here’s me that used to give all my fight against the devil ’cause I figgered the devil was the enemy. But they’s somepin worse’n the devil got hold a the country, an’ it ain’t gonna let go till it’s chopped loose. Ever see one a them Gila monsters take hold, mister?”

That’s the way of the state.

“Lead ’em around and around. Sling ’em in the irrigation ditch. Tell ’em they’ll burn in hell if they don’t think like you. What the hell you want to lead ’em someplace for? Jus’ lead ’em.’’

That’s the way of politicians.

“I hear ’em an’ feel ’em; an’ they’re beating their wings like a bird in a attic. Gonna bust their wings on a dusty winda tryin’ ta get out.’’

And that’s the fate of the poor.

“I’m learnin’ one thing good,’’ she said. “Learnin’ it all a time, ever’ day. If you’re in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.’’

The power always is on the side of the rich and if you’re poor they won’t give you anything, you’ll have only what you can take.

Why I chose to read this book:
1. This book has always intrigued me ever since I was a kid, seeing it on my parents' bookshelf, so I added it to my WTR list about two years ago;
2. I pushed it up that List after reading The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah a few months ago (I highly recommend her novel for the atmospheric descriptions of the unrelenting dust storms); and,
3. February is "Classics Month" for me!

Note: This book may appeal to readers who have some background knowledge of the Great Depression, specifically of the Dust Bowl and migration of American farmers to California.

Positives:
1. The character-development in this novel is its strong suit! As I traveled along with the Joad family, migrant farmers (Okies) from the Dust Bowl to the Land of Milk and Honey, I cheered for Ma Joad and her no-nonsense attitude and shook my head in frustration over son, Al's one-track mind. I was awestruck by the times they gladly helped out others, even though they had very little of their own to share. Likeable or not, if you were living in close quarters with another family for several months, their personalities would grate on your nerves as well;
2. Such descriptive realism! I could vividly picture every scene and appreciated the authentic dialogue; and,
3. If you prefer <300-page books, then don't read this novel! The first 200 pages focuses on the actual journey from Oklahoma to California, whereas the final 200 pages depicts this family's life in California. Although the plot is slow-going, I savored all the successes and issues they encountered along the way.

Niggles:
1. Although Steinbeck gives a detailed account of a typical migrant's journey to California and the hardships awaiting them there, I wish he wrote a more descriptive setting re: the dust storms these Midwestern families faced; and,
2. What was Steinbeck thinking with that ending? I know that several readers really liked that part, but I have issues when a strong realistic story strays into massive symbolism in the last paragraph! I don't think Steinbeck understands women that well if he thinks any woman would do what Rose of Sharon did! Eww!

My introduction to Steinbeck. The book itself was a gift from a submarine shipmate who was both surprised and disappointed that I, a native Okie, had never read a word of it. Every night for about a week I would retreat to my bunk after my watch and devour a chapter or two, or three. By the time I finished the final paragraph, the one describing Rose of Sharon’s ultimate act of selflessness, I was awestruck. I came to love and appreciate The Grapes Of Wrath somewhere under the North Atlantic, my oddly nautical connection to a very terrestrial masterpiece.

“I’ll be all around in the dark. I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the house they build, I’ll be there too…”
-tTom Joad in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

“And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God…”
-tThe Book of Revelations 14:19 (King James Version)

For as long as I can recall, I have loved reading. But that love has been tested before. I am speaking, of course, about school, and in particular, about a succession of uninspired English teachers foisting uninspired syllabi upon their disinterested students. It only takes one fourth-rate translation of Crime and Punishment to make you foreswear the written word in favor of the videogame console.

Maybe it was the very fact that I was being forced to read that did it. Whatever the reason, I spent most of high school and college absorbing very little of value from my literature courses.

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was the exception. You can keep To Kill a Mockingbird and (especially) Catcher in the Rye. It was Steinbeck’s sturdy portrayal of the itinerant Joad family, leaving the dustbowl of Oklahoma for the green fields of California, that captured my imagination.

My reasons for enjoying The Grapes of Wrath are probably the same reasons that this perennially-assigned book has so many critical detractors. I loved the simplicity of the language, which eschewed formal daring (i.e., pretentiousness) in favor of a lyrical plainness that brought to mind Robert Penn Warren. I also appreciated the blunt-force of the message. There is very little subtlety here. Instead, it is a parable, filled with obvious symbolism and rife with meanings. Steinbeck does not try to hide his message; he is not endeavoring to get you to spend the rest of your days attempting to translate the runes.

This summer, I decided to test my recollection with a reread, while also consuming another bona fide classic. Coming on the heels of Les Misérables, the 528-page Okie epic felt practically brisk.

A summary of The Grapes of Wrath is incredibly straightforward (which was probably another reason I appreciated this as a student). It opens with Tom Joad on his way home from prison, where he has served four years for manslaughter. The home he finds, however, is changing fast. Dry weather is destroying the crops, and corporate-owned tractors are driving off the tenant farmers. Soon enough, Tom and the Joad family (Pa and Ma; Granpa and Granma; Uncle John; brothers Al, Noah, and Winfield; and sisters Rose of Sharon and Ruthie), along with former preacher Jim Casy, hop in a beat-up old truck and hit Route 66. In their journey to California, and their encounters once they arrive, we experience themes – the white working class; economic inequality; migration – that seem as relevant as ever.

Perhaps the most striking thing about The Grapes of Wrath (which is otherwise proudly straight-down-the-middle), is its use of intercalary chapters. It is a structure that can possibly determine – on its own – your reaction to Steinbeck’s opus. The intercalary chapters are cutaway scenes that are inserted throughout the central narrative. They have nothing to do with the Joad family whatsoever and consist of descriptions of the weather; vignettes between unrelated characters; and towards the end of the novel, a fierce denunciation of merciless profiteering:

The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; 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.

As you might have guessed already, I am fine with these chapters. In fact, some of them I really liked. One clever chapter, for instance, is told in stream-of-conscious style from the perspective of a used car salesman as he gulls the hicks and rubes who wander onto his lot. Of course, one can view this quite differently, as mere filler that needlessly swells an otherwise spare storyline. I will acknowledge that it is an arguable point. Yet in adding these sections, Steinbeck is able to create the larger context through which the Joad family is moving, adding a mythic overlay to their journey, making it into a modernized version of westward pioneers in their covered wagons.

For me, the most impressive thing about Steinbeck’s writing is his uncanny and immersive powers of description. When he paints a scene, he fills out the canvas, all the way to the edges. You know what a thing looks like; how the heat feels; what sound the wind is making:

A gentle wind followed by rain clouds, driving them northward, a wind that softly clashed the drying corn. A day went by and the wind increased, steady, unbroken by gusts. The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way. Now the wind grew strong and hard and it worked at the rain crust in the corn fields. Little by little the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and the wind felt over the earth, loosened the dust, and carried it away. The wind grew stronger. The rain crust broke and the dust lifted up out of the fields and drove gray plumes into the air like sluggish smoke. The corn threshed the wind and made a dry, rushing sound. The finest dust did not settle back to earth now, but disappeared into the darkening sky…

The characters are admittedly archetypes, which is a fancy way of saying they are built from the feet-up with clichés. Still, Steinbeck draws everyone, even side characters like Uncle John, with great vividness. The lodestar of the group is Ma, fierce and tough as a cob, willing to do anything to keep the family together, and imbued with a pragmatic wisdom:

“Ain't you thinkin’ what’s it gonna be like when we get there?” [Al asked]. “Ain't you scared it won’t be nice like we thought?”

“No,” [Ma] said quickly. “No, I ain't. You can’t do that. I can’t do that. It’s too much – livin’ too many lives. Up ahead they’s a thousan’ lives we might live, but when it comes, it’ll on’y be one…”

One of the ways you know an author has done a good job with a character is when you feel yourself hating him or her with great passion. In that regard, Steinbeck also succeeds, as selfish Al, senseless Winfield, whining Rose of Sharon, and hopeless Ruthie all drove me nuts. Now, you might say that’s the bulk of the cast. That is correct. Things are helped along, however, by a lot of witty dialogue, ribald humor (including a couple Tom Joad penis jokes), and genuinely tense confrontations.

(There is also the general implication that human beings, on occasion, engage in sexual relations, a fact that caused at least one contemporary critic to label this “pornography.” It is not, dear reader, pornography).

The Grapes of Wrath has always been attended by controversy. Some of it stems from the aforementioned earthiness. More of it comes from Steinbeck’s alleged politics. The charge, as is often the case if someone gives the free market the side-eye, is that Steinbeck was espousing Communism. Certainly, he was a pro-labor leftist, and accordingly showed some sympathy with the cause. But Steinbeck really tried to avoid being pigeonholed into one ideology. At the end of the day, he was interested in people, and the only theory that he delineates with any kind of coherence is the belief in the power of people working together.

To be sure, there is within these pages a critique of capitalism and the way it – in its purest form – can wring a person’s life for a bigger margin of profit. This came from an honest place, as Steinbeck covered migrant workers during the Great Depression as a journalist. He went to Hoovervilles and government camps. He collected the stories. His sympathies were with the worker and their mistreatment served as the wellspring of his anger. Near the end of The Grapes of Wrath, when he finally unleashes a barrage at unrestrained corporate capitalism, it still feels raw, eighty years after it was published.

Steinbeck believed a revolution was coming. Ultimately, he was wrong about the shape history was taking. Perhaps he misread the tea leaves. More likely, the sudden explosion of the Second World War, which created millions of jobs, cut the revolution off at the knees.

(The irony is that the Joad family, derided by Californians as “Reds,” are innately conservative people who were intent on avoiding government handouts. After Pearl Harbor, they likely found decent defense industry jobs and got Ma that white house she was always dreaming on. Heck, the next generation probably voted for Reagan. Commies, indeed!).

Unpacking the controversies and the politics and the symbolism and even the timelessness are beside the point. What makes The Grapes of Wrath a great novel is that it transports you into a fully-realized world, with fully-realized characters. When I finished the final page (even with its whacky ending), the story did not end. I continued to think about the characters, to imagine where they might go next. And even when I stopped actually thinking about them, I still remembered them.

It has been twenty years since I read this last, and upon reading it again, it struck me that I had never forgotten it in the first place.

Forse, a tratti, troppo insistito; forse, a tratti, troppo celebrativo, ma è indubbio che lo sguardo di Steinbeck sia riuscito a cogliere, nella sua interezza, nelle sue contraddizioni, il dramma di chi deve emigrare per lavorare e sopravvivere e, in queste pagine, a racchiudere dolore e speranze di chi vive in stato di perenne incertezza. Ne escono figure tragiche, pronte all'aiuto reciproco, che vivono alla giornata una vita priva di prospettive e che, seppur con un pizzico di nostalgia, guardano sempre avanti senza mai voltarsi indietro. Nel romanzo si fa cenno anche dei primi tentativi di organizzazione sindacale e degli scioperi trattati con più dovizia di particolari nel romanzo "La battaglia".

The author focuses on the causes of the terrible suffering of the thousands and thousands of tenant farmers who were forced to leave their homes and head towards the mythical Paradise (California) which turned out to be Hell. It was happening at the times of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the Unites States in the 1930s. Those causes were the natural forces, modern technology and the ugly face of capitalism (the greedy exploiters and the voiceless victims of exploitation). (I did not know Steinbeck was so anti-capitalist and pro-communist).
On the other hand, it is a gripping story of a family in their endless and often deadly quest for a better life.
And, to me, of all the members of the family, Ma Joad seems the most important one. She is not only a strong and brave woman, she is also like a glue that keeps all the family together in the new, dire circumstances. Having come from the patriarchal society, she becomes a true leader for the whole family for rest of the story.
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'Ma was heavy, but not fat; thick with child-bearing and work. She wore a loose Mother Hubbard of gray cloth in which there had once been colored flowers, but the color was washed out now, so that the small flowered pattern was only a little lighter gray than the background. The dress came down to her ankles, and her strong, broad, bare feet moved quickly and deftly over the floor. Her thin, steel-gray hair was gathered in a sparse wispy knot at the back of her head. Strong, freckled arms were bare to the elbow, and her hands were chubby and delicate, like those of a plump little girl. She looked out into the sunshine. Her full face was not soft; it was controlled, kindly. Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding. She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. And since old Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless she acknowledged hurt and fear, she had practiced denying them in herself. And since, when a joyful thing happened, they looked to see whether joy was on her, it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. But better than joy was calm. Imperturbability could be depended upon. And from her great and humble
position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty. From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgment as a goddess. She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone.'

During the bleakness of the dry, dust bowl days as the suffocating particles fall everywhere ...you can't breathe... in your nose, eyes, clothes, food, house, the darkness at noon unable to see the Sun during a dust storm, the top soil flying away carried by the winds never to return in the Depression, when people ... farmers lost their homes and land to the banks incapable to repay their loans , (no crops no money) symbolized by the Joad family of Oklahoma in the 1930's . Seeing black and white pictures tell only a small portion of this, the real story that John Steinbeck wrote about masterfully in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. Where a hungry large group of people, travel to the promise land of California a distant 1,500 miles away but find more starvation, abuse and death. In an old dilapidated automobile the Joad's , Ma the de facto leader and Pa, Tom, just released from prison for killing a man in self defense ( it didn't help that both were drunk) . Rose a teenager married to a lazy, shiftless dreamer Connie and pregnant, Uncle John who likes the bottle and his late wife he mourns too much for, their ancient parents and four other children. And last but not least the preacher Reverend Jim Casy who doesn't want to preach any more, having lost his faith the thirteenth member ( some will not get to their goal) . He's now after walking around searching for a purpose, in fact living like a bum decides since the people have left for the Golden State , why not him too ? Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and at long last crossing the Colorado River into the paradise of California, with high mountains and hot steaming deserts, discovering more desert wastelands and still hundreds of miles to the fertile, prosperous , pretty, fabulously wealthy valley of San Joaquin the richest one on the planet. But not for the 300,000 Okies , ( a misnomer, since many are not from Oklahoma) an unknown name to the newcomers as they're scornfully called here, unfriendly natives and police hate , greatly distrust these poor needy miserable folks and frightened of them, most assuredly. The affluent farmers keep cutting the wages 30 cents an hour, 25, 20 and dropping how can the workers survive? Tom is angry , tired of the endless struggle going from place to place in search of work, lack of food, housing, especially the treatment by the well off... like he is scum . Nevertheless believes that nobody is above him and will fight back if necessary. Deadly strikes, deputies burning down the laborers camps, violence and starving the old and the young, the vulnerable will not endure. A strong statement about man's inhumanity to his fellow being ...A little kindness sought but will it be found ?

Five brilliant stars for this American classic!
A story of the American spirit set during the Dust Bowl/Depression Era.
Such an emotional ending as I have never read before.
Heartrending and highly recommended.

I am so glad I had to reread this book for my classics group. I last read it when I was a teenager and really did not appreciate it. The writing was so real to the time and place. I was totally exhausted by the time I finished the book. The Joad family's journey to California and all that they encounter and have to deal with, I'm sorry, but it was brutal. At times it was so depressing, I felt weighed down by it all. The whole family was so real to me, I felt like I was travelling along with them. Trust me, I would never have survived!. The Depression was a horrible time and this book never lets you forget that. He never lightens the realities at all. There are 2 positives in the book-the strength of the family and the power of the person who has nothing to help. I loved the way Mr. Steinbeck portrayed Ma and women- Ma was everyone's strength. The worse things got the stronger she became. Women have such strength especially when it comes to protecting their family. The ending was so touching, it brought tears to my eyes. I would love to know what happened to the Joad family- I figure like so many of that time, they persevered.

“I train my mind all the time. I took a course in that two years ago.” – The Grapes of Wrath

This book is a literary treasure trove—it tackles serious social justice issues yet includes enough symbolism to keep English professors happy for generations.

Steinbeck paints a vivid picture of the pitiless Great Depression following the Joad family. Based in Oklahoma, the Joads have lost their land and head out to California, spurned on by the relentless hope of a better life.

Philip Pullman once said, “We don’t need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do’s and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.” In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck shines a light on the plight of the working class. Instead of giving us a boring list of action items, he tells a story and moves our soul.

If you are curious about social justice issues, enjoy symbolism or grey characters, this is your book.

PS Just to rock your world, Jim Casey symbolizes Jesus Christ.

How much I spent:
3 Hardcover texts ���
2 First Edition Library texts: The first was a gift from my best friend. The second FEL text
comes from a set of 19 FEL books that I bought at an estate sale for $500.
1 First Edition – I bought recently at auction for $62.

Audiobooks –
Libby – Free through the library (until I was about 75% through and my loan expired)
Audible – 1 credit (Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits Membership Plan $229.50 or
roughly $9.56 per credit)

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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این رمان یکی از شاهکار های ادبیات امریکاست در دوره ای که قحطی باعث اواره شدن هزاران هزار خانواده شد و باعث شد زندگی و زمین های خودشون رو از دست بدن و مهاجرت کنن و به دنبال مهاجرت اتفاقات و سختی هایی رو پشت سر میذارن... مردم بیچاره ای که جز امید چیز دیگه ای ندارند و درسخت ترین شرایط سعی میکنند دلخوش باشند و به زندگی ادامه بدن .... یکی ازشخصیت های محبوب من در این رمان مادر خانواده است که با تحمل سختی ها باعث میشه زندگی خانواده از هم نپاشه ... صحبت های تام و کشیش خیلی زیبا بود کشیشی که دیگه دلش نمیخواد کشیش باشه اما بقیه اینو قبول ندارن و اعتقادات جالبی داره.
من چندبار سعی کردم نسخه‌ی فیزیکی کتاب رو بخونم ولی نتونستم تااینکه یه دوست بهم پیشنهاد داد صوتیشو گوش بدم که واقعا برخلاف تصورم خیلی دوستش داشتم.

Catching Up…

This was another one of our Library Book Discussion selections during our Steinbeck period. We were reading the Penguin Classics annotated edition which was 464 pages. I knew I was in for it as a reader and facilitator. Another long book to overcome.

And yet…So much to experience within these pages, which made it such a discussable book.

The opening scene is Oklahoma. A man, Mr. Joad, wants to build, but he has no security. In fact, none of the farmers have security. The cotton crops have sucked out the roots of the land and the dust has overlaid it. The men from the bank or the company, sitting in their cars, try to explain to the squatting farmers that the original tenants (their grandfathers) who settled the land no longer have title to it, and that everything that they built will be razed to the ground – including their homes.

The son, Tom, who has just been released from jail hitches a ride with the preacher who had baptized him when he was young, only to arrive home to find his family getting ready to set out for California. The bank had already knocked down their house with the tractor. The Joad family had read flyers about picking oranges in California, and felt this was the place to be. Everyone else has headed in that direction, as well.

So…Off they go.

And then…Steinbeck describes the beauty of what the “Okies” now see as California.

But…Californians aren’t so welcoming.

And…All those trusting “Okies” are herded into “government” camps. Fearing the violence and the discomfort of what they see, the family moves on through California, hunted by anonymous guns while they are picking peaches for 2 l/2 cents a box, hoping only for a little land free of guns and dust on which they might settle and work.

The promised grapes of California have turned into the grapes of wrath. (Hence the title of the book.)

Will goodness come to this family at some point for them?

I could tell you all sorts of things here of what happens to Tom, or the preacher, or even the family, but then I would be breaking my long-time rule of providing spoilers, and that doesn’t work for me. Just read the story, and you will find out.

I will say this…

Steinbeck writes from the depths of his heart with sincerity.

There is a lot of feeling in this story. Pity. Anger. Disappointment. Fear. Hatred. Sadness. I could go on.

Mostly…It tells the story of a place and time that was real. True history, so to speak.

And…It makes for a great discussion.