The Grapes of Wrath Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

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...

We don't know if you noticed, but there are lots of insects and insect-y images in this novel. When Tom Joad hitches a ride with a truck driver, a grasshopper finds its way into the truck cabin, an...

There may not be iPods, pianos, or rock bands in this novel, but there is certainly a lot of music. The used cars that carry thousands of migrant workers to California have an unusual and unique mu...

Remember that dang turtle in Chapter Three? You know the one. The turtle who kept trying to cross the road, who was dead set on going in a specific direction, but who was nearly run over by cars, a...

Our narrator often describes the gold and yellow color of the Oklahoma landscape. He says, "The yellowing, dusty, afternoon light put a golden color on the land. The cornstalks looked golden" (4.70...

Farming is about life, cultivation, and growth. However, with advances in technology and science, we watch farming transition from a human-run to a machine-run art. In this novel we watch this tran...

When landowners kick tenant farmers off of the land, they tell them that the banks are hungry, that the bank is part of a hungry monster that cannot be sated. The tractors become the "snub-nosed mo...

The Grapes of Wrath is full of blood. Consider the slaughtering of the pigs, the way Tom cuts his hand fixing the touring car (and then uses his urine to make it stop bleeding), the Joad dog that g...

The idea of going west has been a central part of the American consciousness for a long time. Remember Louis and Clark? Remember the Gold Rush? People have been heading west for years in search of...

The sun is an omnipresent force in the Joads' life, one that they cannot escape. Many Joads have to sit on top of the family truck on their way to California, and our narrator describes, "Their fac...

We learn much about racism in 1930s America throughout the novel, and we are reminded that we are exposed to one perspective on life during this time: that of a poor, white family of Oklahoman farm...

Well, there's only one main pregnant lady in the novel, and that's Rose of Sharon. Whenever we see signs of babies in books, we sit up straight and pay attention, because babies are usually a sign...