In 1939 Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in which, for the most part, the idyllic side of poverty has been blown away along with the dust that covers the fields of the Oklahoma that the Joad family leaves behind as they move to California in search of an Eden. While they do not believe that their journey is doomed, at least at the beginning, they seem to exist in a world where Nature is strong and often dark and where god is a bit player.

The picture of Oklahoma we see on the opening page of the novel is filled with color, but even in the first paragraph the dark side of nature is seen as, "The weeds grew darker green to protect themselves, and they did not spread anymore." Followed in the next paragraph by, "The weeds frayed and edged back toward their roots." they seem to be waiting for better days. The corn and the flowers fare even worse.(p 1)

The view of capitalism portrayed is one that is dark and foreboding in the images presented to the reader. This presentation is not direct, but one can infer from the people and actions presented the worldview behind it. The first member of the Joad family we meet is young Tom Joad as he is released from a prison and approaches a truck with a windshield displaying the welcoming "No Riders" sign. This is the face of capitalism, ameliorated slightly by the trucker who takes a chance on losing his job to give Tom a ride. In Chapter 5 we see the "owners of the land", all of whom were "caught in something larger than themselves."(p 31) Namely, the mathematics of the capitalist system, a system that breeds monsters:

"The tractors came over the fields and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects. . . Snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards, in and out of gullies in straight lines." (p 35)

So much for the world of idyllic poverty. The Joads were on the road west, for better or worse, toward California. What can we make of such a world that is turned upside down? Perhaps further thoughts on this reading will reveal some clues as to the meaning of such a stark beginning. ( )

I'm sure I can't say anything about his that hasn't already been said, so I'll stick to my personal impressions.

Stephen King says that even the villains are heroes in their own lives and he writes them that way. They might not be likeable, but you know why they do what they do. Not so here. I am a bit surprised that Steinbeck made the capitalists completely unsympathetic. Completely. Unsympathetic. Evil, in fact.

The Joads are heroic in their struggle to find work to make money to have food. They are not all likable, but I identified strongly with them, which is what Steinbeck meant for the reader to do. This is an unrelenting journey of hardship and more hardship. It's not a happy story in any sense of the word. I actually found myself starting to pray for them at one point, that's how strongly this story affected me. ;-) When Tom speaks his mind, I cheer. The only comic relief is Tom telling someone to suck it up or joking about weather predictions. There is a certain humor that comes out of people when they are at the end of their rope and it comes across here, intentional or not.

The workers' plight is made abundantly clear and sympathetic. Steinbeck wrote from his research of meeting and staying amongst people like the Joad's in labor camps, so you can believe what you're reading.

An interesting thing to me was the structure of the novel. For the most part it is told in 3rd person omniscient from the Joads' point of view. But that is interspersed with sections of a kind of overview of the situation, for example showing the used car salesmen's point of view as they put sand in transmissions so the car will seem okay for a while and sell. Steinbeck uses repetion to give these sections a poetic or lyric kind of feel. They are brilliant and give a kind of an impersonal, panorama wide angle view of things.

I give it four stars because it gives all it has to make the reader feel for the workers, but most of the characters are not really developed, which would make it a better story.

I will never forget this and I highly recommend it. These things still go on. For migrant workers (yes there still are migrant workers) and to all of us in one way or another. Please never forget that money (greed) is the root of all evil. ( )

The best book that I've ever read. ( )

A well told saga. Not the brightest times in California history. ( )

Not a book I would have picked up by myself, but as with all school books probably something I would have enjoyed more if I had? However, I have to admit reading it from a political ecology perspective was interesting: we do see a lot of the themes like land grabbing and capitalism forcing people to work for slave wages still today.

I do think some editing of it would have been nice. Hey, I'm not gonna say a nobel prize winner can't write, Steinbeck obviously does and has a way with words that on occasion even made me laugh. But dude, COME ON, your characters do not have to repeat the same statement over and over and over again, you don't need to describe fivehundred different fields just because they have different crops growing on them. Just, come on. Book could have been 1/3 shorter and still have the same plot. The between chapters setting the tone were also kind of weird to me, especially the dialogue written without markers.

The ending was also super-weird, but I guess it's meant to be open and let you imagine what happens next. I assume they all starve to death during the winter. Even so, it was a weird fucking place to end it in, if you ask me.

Title still a bit of mystery. Not a single angry grape in entire book. Very confusing. ( )