The Grapes of Wrath Analysis

Whoever said a road is just a road has not read The Grapes of Wrath. From the minute we watch Tom Joad return home after four years in prison, roads take on great meaning. His "dark quiet eyes beca...

The geographical setting of The Grapes of Wrath constantly shifts, because its characters are constantly on the move. We do know, however, that the story is set in the late 1930s, in the midst of t...

Our narrator is kind of ever-shifting. When telling us about the Joads, this narrator is all-knowing and all-seeing. He dips in and out of each character's mind, knowing their immediate thoughts an...

We are very lucky. The Grapes of Wrath gives us a window into the lives of migrant worker families escaping the Dust Bowl in late 1930s America. Steinbeck creates fictional characters and sets them...

Steinbeck's passion seeps through the chapters that depict the general landscape and life of Dust Bowl America. One could argue that if Steinbeck were to weed out some of his repetitive images and...

Steinbeck loves details, and he doesn't deprive us of them as he describes the Joads' daily lifestyle and routine. We know everything, from where Ma Joad keeps her letters, news clippings, and trin...

The title, The Grapes of Wrath, is pulled directly from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." What the hey is this "Battle Hymn" you speak of? Well, even if you don't recognize this song's title, you...

You will probably remember the ending to this book for the rest of your life. The image of Rose of Sharon nursing the half-starved man with her breast milk is perhaps one of the most startling and...

The land is changing.There's been a drought, dust storms are rampant, crops are dead, the economy is weak, and landowners must kick tenant farmers (like the Joads) off of the land.The Joads must mo...

The Joad family has to move.Tom returns home to find that his family has been kicked off of their land. The whole family has to pack up and leave Oklahoma.Tom and the Joad family leave town.The Joa...

The Joads travel west on Route 66, in search of a better life in California.The Joads discover that there are very few jobs to be had in California, and that wages keep dropping. California is not...

The Dust Bowl drought was the worst in United States history, affecting 27 states – 75% of the country. (Source)Over 14 million copies of The Grapes of Wrath have been sold in the last half c...

These Joads sure do talk a good talk about getting busy. Lots of references are made to "tomcattin," "billygoatin," and rolling around in the grass. There may or may not be a joke about mating cows...

Thomas Paine (14.4)Karl Marx (14.4)Thomas Jefferson (14.4)Vladimir Lenin )14.4)The Winning of Barbara Worth, (10.7) Dr. Miles Almanac (10.8)Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman "Ti-pi-ti-pi-tin" and "Thanks...