The structure of The Grapes of Wrath
Section I Chapters 1 - 10 The drought in Oklahoma
The intercalary (intervening, interpretative) chapters:
- 1 drought in Oklahoma
- 3. turtle crossing the highway
- 5 landowners force people off the land
- 7 second hand cars
- 9 selling of property and birthright
Section II: 11 -18: The journey to California
- 11 derelict houses
- 12 Highway 66
- 14 migrants' problems
- 16 cafes
- 17 camps on the roadside
So 16/30 chapters are intercalary = Steinbeck's own voice.
CLASS DISCUSSION POINTS
Aim: To bridge the gap between concern and involvement.
Author: political?: not a manifesto, Steinbeck was not a communist, or even a socialist. He was an old-fashioned, patriotic American democrat, a liberal New Dealer. (Brissenden, The Weekend Australian 14 April 21 1984?) propaganda or art? novel of the American dream
Basic belief: What he saw as a tendency towards group behaviour in all living organisms was an essential part of his theory. Thus one of the basic problems in his view was the conflict between individual and the group. The corporate state in any form (communism, Nazism, fascism) was the enemy. He shows how individuals suffer under economic mismanagement
Steinbeck does not advocate revolution; he defines and describes the conditions that produce revolution. He was not a political scientist, a philosopher, a biologist, or a revolutionary. He was a literary and romantic writer.
Themes: Ethical paradox: that success rests on duplicity: kindness compassion are defeated, greed cruelty grasping win.
Features: heroes, cameo pieces, purple passages. honesty, realism plain speaking, unorthodox views
an epic: long, memorable, universal issues, benchmark for others. Correspondence with Book of Exodus provides a seriousness, depth and epic quality. No longer the actions of individuals but generalises beyond time and place, offering insights into specific social and economic problems, and offers ideas about life which apply to all ages.
a classic: can be read at different levels, different depths of meaning:
First level: Joads, Okies, dispossessed, all share croppersSecond level: allegory for all dispossessed worldwide and across eras
Third level: moral meanings: salvation from sin to grace; not pie in the sky Xtianity; just correcting inhumanity's disconnectedness with his true nature to connect with one another
Fourth level: Beacon of hope: Steinbeck's Tom a reformer: "Whenever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there." (385)
Fifth level: Offers answers to the question of existence. man is part of the organic cycle.
Site written in Brisbane Australia G. Smith 1/3/99