The Grapes of Wrath

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The Grapes of Wrath

• Author and historical background

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I. John Steinbeck

1. Wrote what he knew or experienced
2. Grew up in Salina, CA
3. Loved books influenced by schoolteacher mother
4. Attended Stanford Univ. worked at a variety of
   jobs, was vagabond in county
5. For Grapes of Wrath
6. Went to Oklahoma and joined immigrants, rode with
   them to CA
7. In CA he lived with migrants in Hooverville
8. Observed living with and working conditions
9. Won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 for novel

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II. Grapes of Wrath

• Considered protest of social document
• Not discussed as work of art, but for subject
  matter
• Point still relevant today is social philosophy
  advocated in novel
• J.S. accused of communism because of this
  philosophy
• Not communist, but Emersonian
• Emerson felt every man derives from the Oversoul
  and returns to the Oversoul when he dies
• Therefore, concluded the essential goodness in
  man shown through Jim Casey
• Book is Transcendentalism and not Communism
• Actually telling two stories
• Depression
• The Joad Family

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III. Realism of novel

• Achieved through
• Intercalary chapters
• Language
• Dialogue and credibility of characters realness
• Actual experiences cause of the common man

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IV. Intercalary Chapters

1. Move from general to specific
2. Helps to show/shock the reader in regards to the
   events and the Joads existence
3. Provides additional background material would
   be clumsy to add to the story
4. Allows Steinbeck to select particular style to
   most effectively establish mood
5. Shows the Joad family as real, and not as
   isolated part of multitude philosophy of
   oneness of man
6. symbolism

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V. Style

1. Naturalism (authors portrayed life exactly as it
   was tended to dissect human behavior with
   complete objectivity, mysticism (good in all man)
2. Search for truth defines the form as well as
   contact
3. Simple, unsophisticated language - straightforward

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VI. Parallels to the Bible

• Steinbeck Bible- Old Testament
• Exodus Egyptians - Bankers
• Leaving OK Leaving Egypt
• Sojourn to CA Sojourn to Cain
• CA Promised Land

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VII. Nature

1. Relates throughout dust to rain
2. Shows unity

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• THE GREAT DEPRESSION

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• Great Depression
• 1. Follows post war prosperity
• 2. Big business took center stage
• 3. War time regulations relaxed
• 4. Monopolies grew (bank mergers)
• 5. Reversed normally to laissez-fair

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• 6. Causes
• a. increased product during the wartime and no
  cuts after
• b. European purchasing power hurt U.S.
• c. Value of (world currencies) inflated in
  Europe during the war
• d. War debt owed to the U.S.
• e. Foreign loans by private U.S. banks were in
  effect subsidies not paid back
• f. Declining sales
• g. Laissez-faire
• h. Bad bank loans
• i. Complexity of world economic system

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• 7. Help
• a. Herbert Hoover
• b. Federal Farm Board to make loans to farm
  coops.
• c. Reconstruction Finance Corp. - 2 billion
  loans to RR, banks, insurance co. and building
  and loan associations
• d. Glass-Stegalt Act made it legal for members
  of Federal Reserve Department to borrow on bonds,
  mortgage and other collateral

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• 8. Conditions
• a. 13-15 million out of work
• b. part time work common
• c. people/farmers banded together to prevent
  foreclosures
• 9. Farm Problems
• a. High Costs for purchase of machines and
  heavy interest on debts
• b. low prices on farm crops for overproduction

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TIME FOR SNOWBALL!!

• Take out a piece of scratch paper to write on
• Respond to one of the 2 photos
• - what does it make you feel?
• - how would you respond seeing that?
• - etc.

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