The Grapes of Wrath Book Review (Steinbeck)

Published in 1939, the Grapes of Wrath tells a story of a family’s migration to California during the Dust Bowl crisis. Steinbeck captures the honest sentiment of the working-class characters, ranging from helplessness, human dignity, unabashed tenderness, to inarticulate anger. He writes in a bold and rhythmic style with raw dialogue. Both of his works, “Of Mice and Men” and “The Grapes of Wrath,” are written in third-person narrative but vividly depict the full spectrum of emotional coloration of the characters.

The book does not criticize capitalism directly but evokes compassion through diving into the complex socioeconomic issues during the Great Depression. I found many socioeconomic and political issues depicted in the book relevant today, especially polarization, immigration, and inequality. The roots of these problems have changed, but the raw emotions experienced by the people are just as authentic to life today. The key themes that left the strongest impression were the hopes and illusions of migration, capitalism, and the polarization of society.

Hope and Illusions of Migration

Farmers forced to leave their land experienced strong displacement and nostalgia on the road. “How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? How’ll it be not to know what land is outside the door? What if you wake up in the night and know the willow tree is not there? Can you live without the willow tree? Well, no, you can’t. The willow tree is you.” The people in flight left the terror behind.

On the one hand, the story depicts the Joad family’s migration trip to California. On the other hand, it depicts the hopes and dreams of thousands of migrants taking the same journey. In a common struggle, the migrants found strength in each other. “The hostility changed them, welded them, united them. They had all come from a place of sadness and worry and default, and because they were all going to a new mysterious place, they huddled together, talked together, and shared their lives, their food, and things they hoped for in the new country.”

Capitalism and moral decay

The most classic paragraphs that depicted capitalism to me were ones that dehumanized the cycle of farm work. “The spring is beautiful in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes, swelling from the vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The works of roots of the vines must be destroyed to keep up the price. Carloads of oranges were dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit, and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.” “The smell of rot fills the country. There is a crime that goes beyond denunciation. There is sorrow that weeping cannot symbolize. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit.”

The farmland, taken away from displaced farmers, symbolizes both as life-giving and destroyed by the large agricultural corporations. Steinbeck portrays the dehumanizing force of capitalism through hunger, exploitative labor practices, and class conflict.

Steinbeck captures moral decay from the “owner men” working under the system, who were caught in something larger than themselves. “Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, some angry because they hated to be cruel, some cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless they were cold.”

Social polarization

Steinbeck’s depiction of the tension between incumbents and newcomers hit home. Migrant families were drawn west from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. They were homeless, hungry, restless, and looking for work. “They were hungry, and they were fierce. They had hoped to find a home but only found hatred. The landowners hated them because the owners knew that they were soft and the migrants were strong, that they were fed and the migrants were hungry, and perhaps the owners knew how easy it is to steal land from a soft man if you are fierce and hungry. The owners hated them.” “While the Californians wanted many things — accumulation, social success, luxury, amusement, and security — the new barbarians only wanted two things: land and food. And to them, the two were one.”

Reflections

The scene that moved me most in the book was a simple portrayal of compassion. Despite hardship, migrant families still upheld their dignity. In a scene when a migrant family wanted to purchase a “ten-cent’ worth” bread, the storeowner initially reluctantly cut off bread (which was only for sandwiches but not for sale). She then realized the hungry kids were gazing at the striped peppermint candy, and sold nickel apiece candy for one cent, without the migrant family knowing. “The best charity is when the recipient doesn’t realize it as charity.” The scene was also brilliantly captured in the movie adaptation, with minimal alterations to the depiction in the book.

I picked up the book for the first time in 2023 and paused midway because I found the descriptions arid and slow-moving back then. I had a greater appreciation of it two years later, after sinking into the struggles of the characters and a realization of its reflection of societal issues today. The apprehension, hopes, and ambition of these characters hit home, as struggles and finding acceptance in a “new land” are universal experiences we share. When observing the social polarization and mounting inequality in many countries, many root causes stem from newcomers moving in large numbers, driven by a strong desire to start anew after leaving everything behind, with only one shot– yearning for work to feed their kids.

Two years after the publication of “Of Mice and Men”, “The Grapes of Wrath” shares many similar sentiments of farmers wishing for a dwelling and belonging. “We could live offa the fatta the lan’”, was a dream of Lennie and George in Of Mice and Men. This dream was shared by the Joads in “The Grapes of Wrath”, hoping that “I wonder — that is, if we all get jobs an’ all work — maybe we can get one of them little white houses. An’ the little fellas go out an’ pick oranges right off the tree.”