The Grapes of Wrath

19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city,...

The turtle in chapter 3 of The Grapes of Wrath is significant because it represents the tenacity and persistence of the Joad family and other migrants in confronting and surmounting obstacles...

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is full of literary devices. Before we get to some of them, let's make sure we know what a literary device is. Think about what a device is. A phone could be a...

Of the inner, or intercalary chapters, of his classic of American literature, John Steinbeck wrote, With the rhythms and symbols of poetry one can get into a reader—open him up and while he is...

Chapter 20 contains the scene where Jim Casy is taken to jail. The Joads and Casy are at the first squatter's camp they stay in when they finally arrive in California. At this camp, some men come...

The truck driver in Chapter 2 represents the way in which the poor help the poor. Tom Joad has been walking home when he comes upon the truck at a roadside diner. A sticker on the windshield reads...

Throughout The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck illustrates the importance of solidarity among citizens in contrast to competition, which is represented by the interests of big banks and wealthy...

I'm with #4 on the hope idea. Something is bad, but someone offers to help. A job is lost, but someone helps provide. Some are up to no good, but everyone rallies around to get rid of them. He...

In creating the setting of a once rich, fertile earth now deprived of life-giving nourishment, John Steinbeck introduces the first of the harships of the Joads, Oklahoma farmers who become the...

In Chapter 16 of The Grapes of Wrath, the Wilson's car breaks down again, and Tom suggests that he and Casy stay behind to fix it (it needs a bearing, which they will have to wait to buy on...

Most of the narration is written in third person, but some chapters have anonymous characters narrate the Joads' journey to give an outside, objective point of view. On page 206 (Chapter 14) the...

In the case of The Grapes of Wrath, the American Dream is blocked by rich landowners and bankers that kept workers from getting a foothold and rising in society. Immigrant workers were part of the...

Casy's death represents several elements in the narrative. The first is that it shows the lengths that the "owners and their minions" will go to silence the truth from being spoken. Casy's death...

The theme of the turtle vignette is endurance. The turtle serves as an allegory of the experience of the Joads and others like them. It is moving along the same road as the rest of the displaced...

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, is a novel which follows the Joad family as they, along with so many others suffering the effects of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, are forced to...

One of the main lessons that we see taught throughout the book is that generosity can come in all forms, and that even in your own darkest hour, generosity can be the most powerful thing you can...

In chapter 9, one of the interchapters, the narration asks: " How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it." Then in the next...

Steinbeck spends a good deal of time describing the turtle crossing the road in chapter three. The turtle symbolizes the Joads and all the other sharecroppers displaced by the Dust Bowl who have to...

The character of Jim Casy moves from being an energetic preacher to shunning God. He then becomes something of an apostle. Finally, as his initials "J.C." suggest, the character becomes...

The condition of nature in the opening chapter is reflective of a progression where it is increasingly difficult to find mercy from the harsh elements. The land reflects this state of war- like...

The character Rose of Sharon has the most obvious symbolism in The Grapes of Wrath. The name of Tom Joad's sister Rose of Sharon is a reference to the Song of Song in the Hebrew Bible, which...

In Chapter Sixteen of The Grapes of Wrath, there are several literary devices at work: Figurative language Steinbeck describes the Joad and Wilson families as in flight across the Panhandle, a...

Throughout his novel, John Steinbeck makes use of various methods of narration. One of these is with the intercalary chapters which often inform of the conditions in the historical context of the...

In Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, the handbills are essentially flyers that encouraged poor folks looking for a better quality of life to travel to California to pick produce. In the novel, the...

One good example of vivid imagery in The Grapes of Wrath is found on the first page of Chapter 17, and again on the last page of the chapter. In the daylight [the migrant people] scuttled like...

Although all the migrants heading to California are in the same boat (metaphorically speaking), there's often a good deal of animosity between them. After all, they're effectively in competition...

Symbolic of capitalism, the banks represent both a cold force that drives families into poverty as well as the cruel self-interest of the businessmen who reclaim property from those who have given...

The title was suggested by Steinbeck's first wife after hearing the song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord/He is trampling out the...

Chapter 14 of The Grapes of Wrath expresses in almost Biblical tones the overarching theme of this great novel: Men when unified have strength and dignity, for there is a spiritual neccessity to...

For Connie and Rose, California is a kind of Shangri-La, a place where the streets are paved with gold, the sun never stops shining, and the air is sweet and clear. Rose is much too young and naive...

This novel of Steinbeck, like much of his fiction, does not make for comfortable reading, as he seeks to exemplify how naturalism can impact a family like the Joads. Naturalism is a philosophical...

In this famous excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath, we're presented with the unforgettable metaphor of banks and land-holding companies as monsters. They're not literally monsters, of course, insofar...

John Steinbeck’s novel traces the struggles of the extended Joad family from Oklahoma on their way to California in the 1930s. The Joads lost their land to the Dust Bowl, and, like many other...

As Tom Joad and Casy the preacher make their way to Uncle John's place, they pass some dogs along the way. There's a female dog in season and a group of male dogs hanging around her. This adds a...

There are many instances of irony in this novel, mostly related to the main theme, man's humanity and inhumanity towards his fellow man. In Chapter 13 we see an example of irony when Tom is...

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is set in the 1930s in the midst of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Life is hard for the Joad family before they get evicted from their land and begin...

Tom makes this comment to Jim Casy after Casy says, "...s'pose they can't get no jobs out there?" This is also after the Joad's car breaks down on the road to California and Ma has told Tom...

What is so disturbing about the symbolism of this act in Chapter 5 is the way that the banks and the financial system that created the logic which drove the tenants from their land and forced them...

There are many symbols in the first chapter of Steinbeck's work that will come back in different forms throughout the novel. One of the most powerful symbols is the covering of the sky, blocking...

In Chapter 10 of The Grapes of Wrath after Tom has hitchhiked and walked many miles, he arrives home. After a truck leaves, Tom sits on the doorstep and Ma talks with him. She expresses her...

Tom Joad, imprisoned for four years after being charged with manslaughter, learned a lot about life while he was locked up. These lessons impact his character and his way of looking at the world,...

As you look for significant quotations from The Grapes of Wrath, think about the book's important themes and look for moments when the language of the novel expresses some aspect of those themes....

Uncle John is haunted by the death of his young wife many years before. They had been married only four months. She had been pregnant. When she complained of pain in her stomach, John dismissed it,...

In a rather enigmatic metaphor, Casy claims that systematic greed has taken hold in the country. He says that he once "used to give all my fight against the devil" but he now sees that the devil is...

Both the Joads and the turtle embark on a dangerous journey. The Joads take as many belongings as they can with them as a defense against the unknown, just as the turtle carries its home on its...

The name Muley Graves is a great example of a charactonym. A charactonym is a character's name which implies something distinctive about the character. In the Harry Potter books, for example, Draco...

Steinbeck's seminal work set against the bleakest of social landscapes leaves his readers with many a lasting image. In Chapter Nineteen, Steinbeck presents a history of his beloved California,...

Ma knows that Tom is somewhat unstable and that she is as well. This goes against her role in the family. She is the basis for the family’s strength in the face of all their hardships. (eNotes)...

Much like the newsreel style of John Dos Passos in U.S.A. Trilogy, Steinbeck's intercalary Chapter 7 portrays rhetorically the cold exploitation of the used car salesmen who sell vehicles to the...

The beginning of chapter nine is an extended metaphor about the pain of the farmers selling off their belongings to the junk man at horrendously low prices. It is mostly farming implements, an...