Grapes of Wrath (By John Steinbeck) Literature Analysis

General

1)      Tom Joad had just gotten out of a state penitentiary after killing someone.  He meets up with his old preacher, Jim Casy, and they go to the old Joad farm.  Seeing it abandoned, they decide to camp outside.  Muley Graves, also a old family friend, happens to meet them there.  He explains how the banks have kicked all the tenant farmers off the farms and that the Joad family was at Uncle John’s house.  They head over there in the morning and within 24 hours set off to California (where all the” jobs” went).  Along the way, Grandma and Grandpa die, they meet the Wilsons, and make it to a Hooverville.  After trying several different farms, the Joad family settles on a peach camp.  Joad finds Casy again, (He had gotten separated) authorities catch up, kill Casy and wound Tom.  Tom makes it back to the camp and leave for a cotton farm.  Tom has to stay in hiding and, soon enough, rain begins to flood the farm.  The book ends as they seek shelter in a barn.  They find a dad who is starving because he was giving all his food to his kid.  Tom’s sister (who had a still born earlier that day) feeds the guy with her breast milk.  A relatively straight forward story of following a family through the dust bowl years.

2)      Avoiding clichés like family, betrayal, and religion, I believe the theme of this novel is wealth and criminality.  I couldn’t pick one because both of those points are big parts of the story.  Wealth because the whole story takes place with only $40.  The family has to make it from Oklahoma to California from this money and whatever cents they come across with work.  Criminality because Tom is on parole, he was supposed to stay in the state of Oklahoma but decides to follow his family to California.

3)      Following the examples of themes of wealth and criminality:

·         “But where does it stop?  Who can we shoot?  I don’t aim to starve to death before I kill the man that’s starving me.” (Chapter 5)

·         “The bank – the monster – has to have profits all the time.  It can’t wait.  It’ll die.  No, takes go on.  When the monster stops growing, it dies.”  (Chapter 5)

·         “What do you want us to do?  We can’t take less share of the crop – we’re half starved now.” (Chapter 5)

4)      Symbolism and Imagery are used when describing the road throughout the whole book.  The whole book takes place on this road to California.  Juxtaposition is used create a sense of unity between different parts of the novel.  Dramatization is used every time somebody talks.  It is also used through repeated sayings and the such.  Prose is also used in the novel.  It allows for the smoothness of the dialogue  and to avoid overly dramatic sayings.  Similes are another device used.  “In the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood” (pg. 6).  Personification was also used.  “The fire leaped and threw shadows on the house” (pg. 68).  Seeming as we are now getting into basic lit devices, here is Alliteration, “Curious children crowded close” (pg. 49) and Parallelism, “…could read and write, could work and figure” (Pg. 106).  Last but not least, Epistrophe, “But if we go, where’ll we go? How’ll we go?” (pg. 46)

Characterization

1)      Both Tom and Ma Joad are developed with indirect characterization.  Both characters are based on how others see them.  Muley Graves and Jim Casey are developed with direct characterization because a straight up description by the author is given.

2)      The syntax diction doesn’t change when focused on different characters.  I feel like this choice is a roundabout way of making us not get too attached to the characters.

3)      The protagonist can be argued to be either Ma Joad or Tom.  I’m going to say Tom.  I feel that he is static because he always goes back to what he does best.  The beginning of the story begins with him getting out of a penitentiary for killing someone.  In the last couple of chapters, he kills an authority.  It is like he didn’t change at all.  I feel that he is flat as well, not much to him.

4)      After thinking about this for a while, I feel like I didn’t meet anyone, just heard a story of a family.  The characters didn’t pop and I feel like a story is a story, whether it has good characters or not.