In The Grapes of Wrath, why does Uncle John have guilt that is driving himself crazy?
Expert Answers
| Certified Educator
calendarEducator since 2009
write2,150 answers
starTop subjects are Literature, Social Sciences, and History
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, saying she had eaten too much. She died the next afternoon. "[S]omepin jus' bust in her. Ap-appendick or somepin," Tom says. Uncle John's guilt over her death consumed him. Tom explains it in Chapter 8 of the novel:
. . . Uncle John, he's always been a easy-goin' fella, an' he takes it hard. Takes it for a sin. For a long time he won't have nothin' to say to nobody. Just walks aroun' like he don't see nothin', and he prays some. Took 'im two years to come out of it, an' then he ain't the same.
His guilt changed him and directed the rest of his life.
Related Questions
- What is the message in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath?
- 3 Educator Answers
- How does John Steinbeck use social realism in The Grapes of Wrath?
- 2 Educator Answers
- How does John Steinbeck use social realism in The Grapes of Wrath?
- 9 Educator Answers
- What literary devices are used in John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath?
- 2 Educator Answers
- Can someone describe the syntax used in chapter 21 of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck?John...
- 2 Educator Answers