Grapes of Wrath - Book Report

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's lived. The novel tells of one family's migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California, and how they survive the cruelty of the landowners that took advantage of them, their poverty, and willingness to work. The Grapes of Wrath combines Steinbeck adoration of the land, his simple hatred of corruption; resulting from materialism (money), and his abiding faith in the common people to overcome the hostile environment.

The novel opens with a retaining picture of nature on rampage. The novel shows the men and women that are unbroken by nature. The theme is one of man verses a hostile environment. His body destroyed but his spirit is not broken. The method used to develop the theme of the novel is through the use of symbolism. There are several uses of symbols in the novel from the turtle at the beginning to the rain at the end. As each symbol is presented through the novel they show examples of the good and the bad things that exist within the novel. The opening chapter paints a vivid picture of the situation facing the drought-stricken farmers of Oklahoma. Dust is described as covering everything, smothering the life out of anything that wants to grow. The dust is symbolic of the erosion of the lives of the people. The dust is synonymous with deadness. The land is a ruined way of life (farming); people uprooted and forced to leave. Secondly, the dust stands for profiteering banks in the background that squeeze the life out the land by forcing the people off the land.

The soil, the people (farmers), have been drained of life and are exploited: The last rain fell on the red and gray country of Oklahoma in early May. The weeds became a dark green to protect themselves from the sun's unyielding rays... The wind grew stronger, uprooting the weakened corn, and the air became so filled with dust that the stars were not visible at night. As the book continues a turtle, which appears and reappears several times early in the novel, can be seen as standing for survival, a driving life force in all of mankind that cannot be beaten by nature or man. The turtle represents a hope that the trip to the west is survivable by the Joad family. The turtle further represents the migrants struggles against nature/man by overcoming every obstacle he encounters: the red ant in his path, the truck driver who tries to run over him, being captured in Tom Joad's jacket: And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. The driver of the truck works for a large company, who try to stop the migrants from going west, when the driver attempts to hit the turtle it is another example of the big powerful guy trying to flatten or kill the little guy. Steadily the turtle advances on, ironically to the southwest, the direction of the migration of people. The turtle is described as being lasting, ancient, old and wise: horny head, yellowed toenails, indestructible high dome of a shell, humorous old eyes. The driver of the truck, red ant, and Tom Joad's jacket are all-symbolic of nature and man trying to stop the turtle from continuing his journey westward to the promise land. The turtle helps to develop the theme by showing its struggle against life comparing it with the Joad struggle against man.

The grapes seem to symbolize both bitterness and copiousness. Grandpa, the oldest member of the Joad family, talks of the grapes as symbols of plenty; all his descriptions of what he is going to do with the grapes in California suggest contentment, freedom, the goal for which the Joad family strive for. The grapes that