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The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics) (平装)
by John Steinbeck
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Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
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¥ 148.00
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MSL rating:
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A towering masterpiece, this famous protest novel is written from the very depths of the author's heart. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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J. E. Robinson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
When I bought the present book I did not realize that this book is actually two books in one. There is a 44 page introduction (what I call the first book) by the Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott. His introduction is much longer than I had anticipated. This is in fact a mini-biography that describes Steinbeck's state of mind prior to and during the writing of the book. Also DeMott describes Steinbeck's life leading up to the book and what happens after the success of The Grapes of Wrath. In addition, DeMott has "suggestions for further reading". So I would recommend the present book.
It is hard for me to rate The Grapes of Wrath since it has become something of a classic with about 15 million copies or more in print. The rating is a bit subjective, but I would say 5 stars, even if it was not famous. The book is a "reality fiction" or simply realism, i.e.: pure fiction but like many other fiction writers it is based on real events that are accurately described and has a few characters based on friends of the author.
Steinbeck received both praise and criticism for the book. Many thought he had exaggerated the problems of the migrant workers. But as explained by DeMott if anything Steinbeck who had first hand working experiences with the migrant worker has slightly moderated the descriptions of the hardships faced by the migrants as presented in the book, and in no fashion did he exaggerate their problems.
This is a very interesting book and I would highly recommend buying and reading. It seems that the world has not changed that much since 1939. We still have migrant workers working under bad conditions although they are no longer from Oklahoma. They have been replaced by illegal aliens from Mexico, eager for the jobs. We still have some corporations and politicians trying to deny the reality of the hardships and issuing counter propaganda. We have perhaps even more problems today such as global warming, also denied by some. The world has not changed in 65 years - but the book is still of interest and perhaps even timely. |
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Lynn Bann (MSL quote), Spain
<2007-01-09 00:00>
Tom Joad leaves prison and reaches home to find that his family have been expelled by the bank and the Shawnee Land and Cattle Company. On his way to his former home he finds a turtle that he keeps as a pet present for his little brother Noah. The turtle may stand as a metaphor for the slow but secure progress of the narrative. Tome also meets a "reformed" preacher who likes to question the goodness of baptism, and a former neighbour, Muley Graves, who has decided to stay in the land in Oklahoma contrary to the general westward pull: "Place where folks live is them folks."
As he meets them, the Joads are getting ready to sell all their belongings and move to California. But how will their sense of identity be affected by the migration? The author seems worried about the conflict between the land and the machine. Something worse than the devil seems to have got hold of hte country and thousands of people are moving West, looking for something brighter than what they have got. Is it possible to relinquish your home and survive it whole? On their way to California they learn the value of sharing and helping one another after they meet the Wilsons. One thing is sure, and these mass migrations are the proof that men can still be moved by a concept, a palpitating notion, a dream (even if such dream is reduced to the image of a white house by an orange groove).
One is to fear the day when man will refuse to move about, search, project. Even if this search is to lead to tragedy and loss. The will to live and to die and to survive for a concept makes of man a distinctive being in the universe: "Need is the stimulus to concept, concept to action." But can Paine and Jefferson exist alongside Marx and Lenin? From the point of view of the American dispossessed this seems dubious.
Economic racism ("them Okies") and the ills of American capitalism work into the spirit and capacity of endurance of the worn-out families of migrant agricultural workers. These families have ironically held a belief on the myth of the American dream: a place can be found where an honest man can work steadily his way to respectability. Nevertheless the Joads only find their own progressive breaking-up in the motion. Theey learn of the prejudice and fear of the authorities and citizens of California, and of the untold speculative crimes of the big and medium farmers. The wrath of The Grapes of Wrath is the sign of hunger and frustration at the way things are made to work: unused land and crops laid to waste.
The novel is a chant to family values and communal living, even if from the wrong side of the road. Tom Joad learns the importance of forming part of a larger group, even if he eventually gets separated from the people he loves because of his crimes. What is it that makes people survive under the most terrible conditions? |
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Roger Brunyate (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
Realistic and poetic at the same time, angry and compassionate, and still amazingly relevant after two-thirds of a century. This brings the Depression more real than anything I have read, and yet it is far from being a depressing book. One of Steinbeck's themes is how when people are cast out and cast down, their basic humanity draws them together into a big family governed by the laws of simple goodness and compassion. Perhaps this is a sentimental view, but it is attained one agonizing step at a time. Against this he sets the impersonal forces of big business, a pitiless economy, besieged communities hiding behind a corrupt police force, and the indifferent hand of nature, portrayed in short interleaved chapters that can be lyrical or bitter, passionate or cynically understated.
These short anonymous sections are absolutely necessary to the scale of the book, but some of them have a set-piece quality that at times seems somewhat dated. Not so Steinbeck's treatment of the main narrative, especially his portrayal of individuals: Tom Joad, prison-hardened and wiser than his years, Casy the preacher who loses his faith to arrive at stronger truths, and Ma Joad who holds the family together. These are people totally of their time and place, and yet timeless, a testament to the almost unquenchable power of the human spirit. And nothing is more moving than the way the novel ends: with a simple act of kindness by one broken human being to another, that in Steinbeck's hands becomes a sacrament of grace, bringing tears to the eyes and hope to the soul.
I first tried to read THE GRAPES OF WRATH four decades ago, in England in my mid-twenties, but gave up. I found it impossible to follow the dialect, I utterly lacked the knowledge of American history in the Depression era, and I dare say I lacked the life experience to appreciate the book's moral strength. For the second and third of these reasons, at least, I thus find it strange that the novel is so often assigned at the high-school level. After living in the USA now for 35 years, it means so much more to me. This is not because of history or language, but because the issues which made the book relevant in 1939 are still present in American life today, in its politics, its corporate culture, some aspects of its religion... but also in the enduring human spirit which Steinbeck so powerfully celebrates. |
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Whilhelm Ritter (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
The Grapes of Wrath is supposedly an American classic. The fact that it is considered such explains many of my problems with American literature and American culture in general. In order to show what a poor contender this novel is, I'm going to contrast it to something that's actually great literature, Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.
Where to begin? First and most importantly, the narrative is uninspiring. The prose is dry, dispassionate and bland. Not dessicated and spare and powerful like Camus, but just dull. The interchapters, in particular, are tedious and pretensious exercises in literary superfluity. All of your middle-school english teachers no doubt told you that when you write something you should 'show not tell,' and that's good advice, but Steinbeck just tells you the story and keeps telling it for 600 miserable pages. So thus the manner of the novel's writing adds nothing to the book, and indeed detracts from it. Contrast this to a novel by Dostoevsky like Crime and Punishment or Notes from Underfround where the narrative itself is feverish, illucid and grating, reflecting the protagonist's wretchedness.
Next, all the characters are delightfully black and white, on the whole. Casey is messianic, the men killing him are devils, and there's no in between. Contrast this to the moral ambiguities of Crime and Punishment and you'll see why Steinbeck comes off the worse.
On a related note, the novel seems to have no means of conveying a spiritual message of its own, since the prose is so soulless, but Steinbeck tries to make it spiritual by inserting Casey's tedious neotransc- endentalist sermonizing. Contrast this to Crime and Punishment, where the moral is so integral to novel that any expounding of it is entirely natural.
So if you enjoy complex, multilayered characters, an interesting writing style and stimulating philosophical questions in a novel, stop yourself before you pick up this inexplicably 'classic' novel and read something by a Russian instead.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.)
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An American reader, USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
How did all this stuff that makes up the USA get here in the first place? Who built it and who maintained it through the last 250 or so years? Immigrants and migrant workers played an enormous role in shaping the USA we know today. And they still are playing the same role in new and not so new ways.
The Grapes of Wrath is a timeless masterpiece about the lengths that mankind will go to in order to survive. Brilliantly and heartbreakingly rendered by Steinbeck, the master of all things working class, we encounter Tom Joad, the hero, if you will, of Grapes. As he struggles to get to California, the promised land he and his family and friends want desperately to reach, we are there in all of his heartbreak and grief. All he wants is a meal and some work to do so he can feel like a man and a contributor to the American Dream. Dogging him the entire time are his commitments to family and honor - yet he never once complains or speaks ill of his responsibilities. He is the ultimate example of the true American Hero, and he comes not from the NYPD or the Armed Forces, but from the unknown, underappreciated segment of society that most of us would like to forget exists: the impoverished. In a country where 35% of us live below the poverty line, it's important to read books like the Grapes of Wrath in order to better understand ourselves. But that goes without saying. Most likely this book was assigned to you by a teacher or professor, and, if so, read it even if it pains you. Much like Joad's journey, you will come out the other side changed for the better. Guaranteed.
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Patrick Shepherd (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
This is one of the great books of this century, if not the greatest. Within its pages, it plumbs the depths of both hope and despair, hostility and love, family ties and soulless corporations.
Probably most people are aware of the basic story line: the Joad family, forced off their land by the confluence of the great drought of the late twenties, the beginnings of mechanization of farming, and banks that care only about their bottom line, travel to California in search of work as harvesters. But once arriving, instead of the paradise they were led to expect, find little work, a hostile local population, and living conditions far worse than those in prisons.
But this bare-bones description of the story doesn't begin to indicate the power of this book. Steinbeck's characterization of the Joad family, Ma, Tom, Pa, Uncle John, Rose of Sharon, Connie, and the tag-along former preacher Casey are extraordinary. Tom is the nominal protagonist, the decisive one who does his best to plan and get things done, but I think most people identify more with Ma, the rock around which all the vicissitudes of life thunder and break till they must retreat, defeated. Her main priority is just to keep the family together, keep on going, while still maintaining the dignity and honor that being human implies.
But perhaps the real protagonist is America itself as it existed during this time period. The portrait of America is painted in alternate chapters from those dealing with the Joad family, mainly told from an omniscient viewpoint, and much of it reads like a prose poem. Here we find the description of the weather and farming practices that led to the Dust Bowl, a turtle determined to continue on his course, a truck stop vignette that just might break your heart, the soulless actions of the banks and land owners, the desperation and determination of those forced off lands they had farmed for generations, the used car dealers out to make a profit regardless of the pain their junk jalopies will cause the buyers, the vast river of migration that occurred in those same jalopies, and the communities that formed each night during their arduous journey to the magic land of California. These images have remarkable staying power - I don't think I'll ever forget that turtle or the dust-laden house knocked askew by the tractor. Much of Steinbeck's message and theme is presented in these chapters - one of the evils of unbridled capitalism and the virtues of socialism.
This is a portrait of America in transition, from a mainly agrarian society to an urban mechanized one, and like all great changes the `little' people suffer the most. Here we find workers willing to work for less than starvation wages, just to try and put one more meal on the table, before their children die in front of their eyes. And the owners can offer such wages, because they know there are always enough people who are desperate enough to take those wages, and that unionization and working towards a common purpose will not work as long as there are such desperate people. Steinbeck does indicate that there might be another solution to this dilemma, namely that the people in such straits must learn some other trade (car mechanic, radio repairman), but also shows that the great majority of people will never actually make such a change in their trade.
After each of these chapters we return to the Joad family - and see the general portrait painted in living detail, forcing the reader to see more than the abstract, to see the pain and suffering, to hope against good common sense that there is some better ending ahead. But there is no paradise, no Pollyanna future, only a slide into more and more desperate conditions. When you reach the final pages, you will find what despair truly is, right alongside the indomitable will to keep going, just keep going. |
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Lauren Felton (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
The Grapes of Wrath is a powerful, heart-wrenching story of a migrant family's struggle to find a better life in the "Promised Land." It begins with Tom Joad getting out of jail on parole, and coming home to find that his family was moving west to get out of the Dust Bowl.
Believing that California would be the land of opportunity, they left Oklahoma in search of a better life. The journey was difficult, and the difficulty they faced did not end as they entered California. Rather than finding themselves in the land of opportunity, they had to endure horrible living conditions and low wages.
Throughout all of this, Tom Joad is running from the law because he violated his parole by leaving California. Although he has broken the law, he dedicates his life to doing good. The lives of the Joad family are filled with overwhelming disappointment and anguish, but there is a small spark of hope for the future and for humankind which transcends this sorrow.
The story will captivate you, but to appreciate this masterpiece you must read his words, not only his ideas. The Grapes Of Wrath is not just a novel; it is a flawless piece of artwork filled with figurative language, brilliant characterization, illustrative description and euphonic, melodious words. The structure of the story is very interesting as well. There are interchapters, short stories giving some background about this time period, woven throughout the entire story, and they are reflected in the later chapters.
This was the most interesting and most beautifully written story that I've read in a long time. Buy it. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is a brilliantly crafted work that appeals to readers of every class and background. It brings to life the battles of injustice and the strength of a family bond that all Americans, young and old, can identify with. Steinbeck masterfully illustrates the movement and transformation of an entire nation and the struggle of the powerful verses the powerless that accompanies this changing America.
John Steinbeck's background and the events that he experienced while writing this novel helped to add realism and believability to his work of fiction. He wrote The Grapes of Wrath in the late 1930s during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Drought and the Great Depression left workers without jobs, money, or food. Many people could not pay back their loans or mortgages so the banks took their houses and land, forcing them to migrate to a place where they hoped to start over. Since Steinbeck lived in California during this time of despair, he witnessed what happened to the people who migrated to his home state. He even lived with a family in Oklahoma and traveled to California with them so that his story could be as realistic as possible.
The Grapes of Wrath plots the struggles of the Joads, an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family who is forced off their land and journey's to the "Promise Land" of California. Steinbeck tells the tales of their family and the millions that traveled beside them, pointing out the many injustices they all faced. People were thrown out into the elements when the banks came in like "snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards" (35). The protagonist of the novel is Tom Joad, the Joad's oldest son, who has just been released from prison. He returns home to find his family's farm abandoned and destroyed. Tom finds his family packing all of their belongings into a broken down pick-up truck at his Uncle John's house. They have decided to take the risk and make the long journey West to find work. This journey is filled with tragedy and struggles as the strong bond of the family begins to slowly break apart. Injustice and discrimination linger in each town, waiting for the Joads to arrive. They are viciously called "Okies" (279) and are forced to stay in dirty camps called "Hoovervilles" (234). They struggle to find work, prevent starvation, and fight for their pride. Tom tries to defend his family and people but goes too far and is forced to go into hiding. He eventually leaves his family to try to organize the migrant workers to fight while his pregnant sister Rose of Sharon uses her gift to help her fellow man. The story leaves the reader with a sense of hope that the migrant families will soon break free from their "slavery" and discrimination.
Throughout his novel, Steinbeck effectively uses shifts in point of view to completely develop his ideas. He uses a narrator that is omniscient and all-knowing for a majority of his book. This gives the reader insight on the thoughts of all the characters as well as society. At some points during the novel, the narrator describes broad, social events that an entire group of people are experiencing. Also, the narrator can take on the voice of a type of individual that is a part of this group of people (like a migrant farmer or a California landowner). Steinbeck shows the readers both perspectives to try to capture the time as accurately as possible. Finally, many times the narrator is also objective and unnamed, like a detached observer who does not assume a character's perspective. It seems as though the narrator is there watching while the Joad family's lives unfold through conversations.
Along with changing the perspectives throughout his novel, Steinbeck also utilizes many different and important literary devices. He effectively employs diction, tone, and structure to develop his plot and themes. Steinbeck's unique and descriptive diction develop his own informal style of writing. He uses a mix of both middle and low diction to illustrate the lives of the farmers. He is very descriptive and applies middle diction to paint a picture of the setting and important events of the time. "To the red country and the part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth" (1). Steinbeck also uses low diction and dialect when the characters have conversations to illustrate their backgrounds and to make his novel more realistic. He utilizes plain, easy to understand language so that the common man, woman, or child can read and understand his novel. He wrote The Grapes of Wrath to illustrate the plight of the lower class farmers of the Great Depression and intended that people of all economic and social backgrounds could discover his themes.
Steinbeck also employs tone and structure to highlight his themes. He gives his novel a sympathetic tone toward the migrant families and at times it is apparent that he is outraged by the injustices that they face. But he knows that those injustices empower the workers and they will soon unite together. "Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. For here `I lost my land' is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate-`We lost our land'" (151). Also, Steinbeck uniquely structures his novel to show the readers different perspectives and to foreshadow the future tragedies and hardships that the Joads will face. He precedes major events with short chapters that describe the state of America and that foreshadow the future. Steinbeck's use of diction, tone, and structure does an excellent job of creating an interesting plot and serving as a way to introduce his many themes.
Finally, Steinbeck uses his choices in characters, plot, and setting to highlight his intended themes. He portrays a poor and struggling family from Oklahoma as the main characters of his story so that he can illustrate his theme of the powerful against the powerless. The Joads are left with nothing after the bank takes their land and are forced to leave the dry, dust-filled Great Plains where "it was black night, for the stars could not pierce the dust to get down, and the window lights could not even spread beyond their own yards" (3). Here the land is brown and dead, it has no power and no promise for a better future. So they travel to the California "Promise Land" which is full of "Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waves in a shallow sea. The full green hills are round and soft" (346). California is green and alive, growing with opportunity and power, waiting to create brighter futures. The Joads are the stereotypical "Okies" that are forced to carry all of their belongings in a broken down truck and face the discrimination of people who do not understand their desperate situation. They do not have work, money, or food and as a result are left powerless. Ultimately, Steinbeck shows how a family's bond and the strength of women as the holding force of a family can overcome all injustice and unite people together.
In the end, Steinbeck has created a brilliant novel that effectively utilizes many literary devices to illustrate the battle between those that have and those that do not. The migration of a country was filled with injustice and it brought out the best and the worst of America. Steinbeck could use his novel to unite a country, and to show people what The Grapes of Wrath can accomplish. "The break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath" (435). Ultimately, the powerless migrant workers used their "wrath" to make "grapes" and good out of a terrible situation. Families came together and demonstrated how unity can powerfully defeat hardship and injustice. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-09 00:00>
The Grapes of Wrath, I remember distinctly having to read in high school, and I hated it. Now, years later, I sat down and read it again, and had so much more of an appreciation for the book and the depth at which John Steinbeck was getting to in his portrayal of the Joads' trip to California in search of the American Dream.
The story has both allegorical as well as literal elements to it. Set during the depression in the 1930s, it is the tale of the migrant farm workers from Oklahoma who leave the South for a chance at better job opportunities and life in the West. Specifically, we follow the path of the Joad family in their journey, and they use a rickety old truck that can barely fit the entire family to head westward. There are some from the community who refuse to go because of their principles, namely Grandpa Joad, who holds strongly to his belief that leaving Oklahoma is admitting defeat. Tom Joad, who recently got out of jail, and Jim Casy, a former preacher, join the family on their way west. Along the way, the Joads have several mishaps and disasters, and the family tries to stay together and maintain their hope that once they get there, everything will work out for the better.
One of the more interesting characters in the novel is that of Jim Casy. He continually tells the family that he is no preacher when they want him to recite some type of prayer for them, yet, despite his protests, his role to the family and significance in the book is critical to their faith, as he represents a "moral" voice in the book. He is also responsible for the transformation of Tom Joad, the book's protagonist, who slowly begins to look at life from different viewpoints after meeting the preacher, and, by the end of the book, has changed his outlook.
Among one of the great aspect of the novel is Steinbeck's descriptions of 1930s California. Some may think that this is tedious to read in a novel, as we have many chapters sole devoted to descriptions of the Central Valley and its scenery, as well as the situations of the migrant workers, but it seems to me an essential tool in establishing the context from which this novel was written. In effect, it really paints a picture of what life was like for many who made the trip west, and their difficulties along the way.
Not only is the novel a testament to the situation of the migrants in the 30s, but it depicts and indirectly criticizes man's inhumanity towards others in times of need. This is represented in the plight of the Joads, who represent a microcosm of a family in need during this time. These families get shuffled around from place to place, and try to keep their dignity and hopes up despite the lack of compassion from some of the landowners.
I'd say that, if you have to read this in high school and don't like it, try it again a few years later down the line. There is also a movie version of this book, with Henry Fonda, from the 1940s, an excellent film that is quite faithful to the book. |
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