The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

 
Just a warning - This post will contain a few spoilers. I will try to be careful about giving too much away, but if you have not read the book and really don't want to know anything about what happens, you might want to skip this post. The ending is not given away, and neither are any major plot points.

Today's post is about The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, which was the book that our high school American Lit discussion group read last month. This post might be a little different then most of the ones I have read lately, mostly because I think that which such a great book like this one, analyzing the individual parts of the book does not make a lot of sense.

So, here is a brief review of the three things I usually talk about: characters, plot, and writing. The characters are amazing. They are believable, human, and relate-able. The plot was what it was. I think you simply can't judge the plot of a Steinbeck book. For the writing, let's just say that I think Steinbeck is one of the best writers ever. His East of Eden may be my all time favorite book. Enough said on those topics.

The Grapes of Wrath is unique in that it was written in 1939, in the middle of the Great Depression. During our discussion, somebody suggested that perhaps the ending, which is pretty open ended, is a reflection of that. He could not say what had happened to the Joads, because it hadn't happened yet.

One of the things about this kind of historical fiction is that I, the reader, really can't argue with the author. With a lot of books, if I didn't like something that happened, it is because it is not believable, or it doesn't make sense in the flow of events. With this book, there were parts of the story I did not like, or where I wished something had happened differently. But this time, it's not Steinbeck's fault. Maybe what I sometimes disliked was how real it felt. I couldn't argue with what happened to Tom or Casey because it felt like what would have really happened.

This book is full of symbols (though not as many as The Great Gatsby) in its in between "commentary" chapters. The one that stuck out most to me was the turtle near the beginning of the book. That turtle was going to get to where it wanted to go, and it didn't care how long it took. Getting turned over on an embankment was a dissapointment, and it slowed him down by several hours, but all it was was a delay. Even getting picked up by Tom was not the end of the road for him. Eventually, he got away, and kept plodding along. To me, that was the Joad family in a nutshell. Whatever happened, whoever died, they were going to keep plodding along.

That's my review of the Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck.