The Book Review of the Grapes of Wrath

The book, the Grapes of Wrath, shows us a piece of American history. That was a dark time period. The weather was very bad in Oklahoma, so the Okies are having a hard time. They went to California to find the chance to survive. Because of the rich only care about their money and assets, and they squeeze the value out of the poor Okies by all means, the Okies have to cut their own wages to get jobs in order to survive. The book, the grapes of wrath, was written by the writer John Steinbeck in this time period.

The most special thing about this novel is that it shows the time period through two intertwined clues. One of the two clues, the intercalary chapters, shows the life of the Okies at that time from the third perspective. From the nature, the Dust Bowl swept Oklahoma and the weather wasn’t suitable for crops to grow, so the famers can’t grow enough crops. And the oppression from the banks, made they lost the land on which they depended, so they have to go to California to ways to survive in this disaster. But the Californians didn’t welcome the Okies to come. These rich people were worried that outsiders will steal their wealth, just like what their ancestors did before. So they tried their best to earn money from the poor Okies, to make the Okies do more for the Californians and earn less money for themselves, and for this reason they preferred to leave the land to waste rather than to allow the Okies to grow food and live. From the intercalary chapters, we can know that, because of the double blow from the nature and the society, the Okies were hopeless, so I think I can understand their anger.

The other clue, the story of the Joad family, shows the life of an ordinary Okie family at that time from the perspective of Okies. They sold their possessions, bought a car, and drove west on highway 66, to find the chance to survive. They hope they can find a work that paid enough to keep them alive in California, but the life in the west was much more difficult than they thought. They were often expelled from the place their live, and with the little money they earned, they have to buy food with the price that is much higher than normal. A lot of babies died before they are born, because of the malnutrition and overwork of the pregnant women. This gives me a direct view of the hard of the Okies’ life.

There are a lot of distinctive characters in the story. For example, Jim Casey, the preacher, stopped being a preacher which can only bring people psychological comfort, he began to help those poor Okies by leading them on strike, and at last he sacrificed himself of them. Another example is Ma Joad, she made a decision when old Tom Joad could not make up her mind with her own calm mind and became the head of the family. We can see how special she is to become the head of the family under the patriarchal society. And Tom Joad, he killed a man after Jim Casy died, because he killed Casy. When he was hiding, he thought about what Casy had told him, and decided to do something for other Okies like Jim Casy.

There are many literary quotations in the story, a lot of story fragments are come from the Bible, like the desert on their way to California, the death of Jim Casy, and so on. The title of the book, the Grapes of Wrath, is also from the Bible, and I think John Steinbeck wanted to use these words to warn the rich to stop focusing on their money and to think of others, or the anger of the poor will destroy them.