Readers learn that Tom was in prison on manslaughter charges The novel opens as Tom Joad is released from prison and now must make his way back to his family, Oklahoma farmers. Although the Dust Bowl was out of any one person’s hands, The Grapes of Wrath points the finger at policies and figures that drove farmers to overproduction and then failed to support them when the earth no longer would. The novel is seen by critics as having captured an exceedingly tumultuous time in American history and begs readers to ask themselves how the world around them and the way they are living could contribute to something like this happening to good people. To prepare for writing a novel about these migrant farmers and their struggles, he lived with an Oklahoma family and traveled west with them to California. He saw that these people were kicked off their land and taken advantage of and exploited as they moved west in search of work and better lives. When Steinbeck began writing this novel, The Dust Bowl had already wreaked havoc on thousands of people across the Great Plains region of the United States. It’s no wonder it became the American classic that it is today. In this way, the sharp realism of The Grapes of Wrath matches with Steinbeck’s usual style perfectly. He then totally commits to the outlaw life and advocates for workers’ rightsĪs a writer, John Steinbeck tended to write about working class people who had found that life has beat them down in ways that are seemingly outside of their own control. Major Symbols: The road, trucks/vehicles, the bank monster, the West, the stillborn babyĬlimax: Casy is murdered by a policeman and Tom kills the policeman in retaliation. Major Thematic Elements: Man’s ability to treat other men inhumanely, the power of family and fellowship, dignity and honor, the multiplicity in acts of kindness or acts of evilĮxposition: The Oklahoma farms are being deserted as the banks push out the sharecropper families who have lived on and worked the land for decadesĬonflict: The sharecropper families pushed off their land have nowhere to go and are met with prejudiced and unhelpful people as they push West in search for work

Steinbeck the grapes of wrath