The Grapes of Wrath by
John Steinbeck
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
TheGrapes of Wrath by
John Steinbeck
is one of the most powerful books i've read. It affected me on many
levels, some of which i'll mention in this review. Despite having heard
about this story since high school, loving the song
"The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen, and having seen the
HenryFonda movie several times, this is my first reading of this novel.
It has certainly earned its place in the top novels of American
Literature, and, for reasons both good and bad, is a timeless story
that should be read by every generation as time goes on.
The Grapes of Wrath is the elegantly told story of the Joad family,
poor sharecroppers, forced from their farm in Oklahoma during the
GreatDepression and
Dust Bowl era, and
their subsequent migration to the "promised land" of California.
Much
of their journey and experiences are told in their own words, in the
vernacular of the "Okies", as they were derogatorily referred to.
Interspersed through the story is Steinbeck's commentary on the reasons
for the sharecroppers dire situation and some of the systemic
disfunction that left hard working people fighting for their very
survival in a nation of wealth, abundance, and power. This is a story
of desperation and hope, failure and hopelessness in the face of a
financial, political, and social system in the U.S., that dehumanizes
and destroys the bodies and spirits of good hard working people.
One of the levels on which this story moved me was related to my own
family's history. My father and his siblings grew up during this same
time period, across the state line, in the
Ozarks of Missouri.
Unlike the fertile river bottom farm land of the Missouri River and
Mississippi River valleys in northern and eastern Missouri, the Ozark
mountains are a rocky, unfriendly place to scratch out a living by
farming. This was especially true in during the Great Depression. I
think that one of the few ironic advantages the poor farmers of the
Ozarks had over the sharecroppers of Oklahoma during the Depression was
that the Ozark land was so poor that no large farming companies or
banks wanted it, and therefore the farmers were not forced off. This at
least saved the dirt poor farmers like my grandpa from having their
land taken from them and turned into large commercial farms. In spite
of being able to keep their land, my father and most of my uncles and
aunts moved from the Ozarks to California during this period of history
(during the 1930's). Altho the specific reasons were different, i
believe the reasons were similar (economic collapse of small farming
economy) and i felt like i was reading some of my own family history in
this novel.
Unfortunately, the timelessness of this story is in part due to the
fact that the same humiliation and dehumanization of marginalized
groups in the U.S. is still going on today, and is caused by the same
systemic disfunction that existed in the Depression years. Corporate
and personal greed and the valuation of profits over people in the U.S.
society is stronger than ever today. The timeless story of
The
Grapes of Wrath needs to be told today more than ever. As i think
back in the history of my own family, my parents and my siblings, and
the struggles they faced during the 1960's and 70's to put food on our
table and clothes in our closets, i see that the hardship and struggle
was in a large part due to the same systemic disfunction that existed
in the Depression years. Our national priorities are political and
economic power rather than the health and welfare of our citizens and
immigrants. Our society is only as strong as our weakest member, not
the strongest. We would be wise to learn from our mistakes, and help
create a society that values all people, not just those living in
privilege.
Six stars for this one!
View all my reviews
The Giver by Lois Lowry
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