finding work and living comfortable lives. Steinbeck chronicles the difficulties that farming families such as the Joads experienced during the Dust Bowl, as big banks foreclosed on their once prosperous land, leaving families displaced and homeless. While characters such as Muley Graves refuse to leave their land, the Joads pack their belongings and make the arduous journey to California. Along the way, Steinbeck illustrates the various struggles the Joad family endures, which include death, poverty, harassment, angst, and imminent danger.

Throughout the Joad family's journey, Steinbeck also depicts how other poverty-stricken individuals selflessly help each other as Tom begins to develop an understanding of community, solidarity, and unity. Each aspect of the Joad's journey is realistic, including the brief respite at the Weedpatch camp, which portrays the positives of communal living that are threatened by the police and big farming industry. Steinbeck's use of social realism captivates the spirit and struggles of migrant families by realistically depicting their difficulties and triumphs throughout the novel. From struggling to find work and feed the members of their family, to losing loved ones and relying on others for survival, Steinbeck poignantly captures the feelings and experiences of migrant workers during the Depression.

The depiction of "common people" in the face of institutional unfairness is one way that Social Realism is used in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Social Realism focused on accurately depicting the realities of daily life.  In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck focuses on economic hardship and social fragmentation.  His willingness to explore the way poor people suffer, die, and endure reflects how Social Realism is an integral part of the novel. It is seen in the depiction of how farmers fight against "the monster" of economic wealth and in how institutions fail to provide support to marginalized people. When Steinbeck writes about how the tractors are like "insects," his Social Realist tendencies critique the economic institutions that take land away from tenant farmers.  

Social Realism can also be seen in how Steinbeck uses Jim Casy.  Casy rejects a traditional notion of religion and embraces something more universally spiritual.  The fact that Casy is killed off at the end of the novel reflects how Steinbeck believes that agents of change threaten those in the position of power.  Steinbeck's admiration of Casy and in the way that Tom resumes Casy's fight reflect a commitment to Social Realism.

Steinbeck's critique of capitalism and his embrace of community display Social Realism.  The call to change is a significant aspect of Social Realism. Steinbeck honestly depicts the Status Quo in the hopes of raising awareness for change.  Steinbeck wants people to challenge social structures, making them more like the way they should be.  Steinbeck uses this transformative capacity of Social Realism as a significant part of The Grapes of Wrath.

We meet all the players in every social realm of this period in American history. Some take advantage of those who have few or no choices (car salesmen); some think they are better than those who have nothing but a dream (the worker at the junkyard); some take advantage of desperation (California landowners and farmers); some have nothing but offer what they can to help others (too many to count); some sacrifice themselves in order to improve conditions for everyone (the Reverend); some live on nothing but hope; some have lost all hope; some do what they must to survive; some give up when it gets too difficult. The novel is a documentary of this time and place, documenting the entire spectrum of human nature.

The Grapes of Wrath is the perfect example of social realism. The characters are the people of the Dust Bowl and the plot is their plight. He describes there suffering and circumstances in graphic detail, realism is obvious and inescapable in the book. In addition the intercalary chapters set the stage for the details of this reality. We are plunged into what the dust bowl is in form and life and one can't help but see how it is to be there.

The Grapes of Wrath has the perfect title, for the narrative is much like a biblical tale in which spirituality is woven with realistic detail.  For, there is a realism with the intercalary chapters that evokes emotional responses from the reader.  Steinbeck does, indeed, have a reporter's sensibility as noted in #3 as the reader is reminded greatly of the U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos and his camera's eye and newsreel techniques. Clearly, Steinbeck's great novel has both pathos and ethos in its narrative and with its larger-than-life characters such as Ma Joad.

I am with #4 in focusing on the intercalary chapters that do an amazing job of painting the harsh reality of life during the Depression and do not focus exclusively on the Joad family. In many ways, I think of Cry, Beloved Country as being very similar in this respect. Both novels are utterly uncompromising in presenting the harsh reality of life under very difficult historical situations.

The novel is social realism at its finest and most powerful, full of detail and full of truth--so effective that it was banned in two states, Oklahoma and California. No surprise there, considering the rocks Steinbeck turned over to the light of public scrutiny. Many of the details are so exact as to create an accurate historical document. For some reason, I recall the passage in which the Joads' old truck is repaired on the trip west and the scene in the diner along Route 66. I'm from the Midwest; Steinbeck's descriptions of the land and the way of life as it was lived here during the 1930s ring with truth and accuracy. I know the land, and I grew up with stories of the Depression. Route 66 ran through our town. Looking at the heartbreaking black-and-white photos from the Dust Bowl years is to look at Steinbeck's people. The stories he tells in his novel, and the social conditions that produced them, are written in their tired faces.

I agree with akannan. The Grapes of Wrath is in my mind, the epitome of this "genre" if you want to call it that. The illustrations of all the different things that happen in the story are fascinating and bring a true picture of what it was like at that time. I say that to make a point. I don't know what it was like at that time. I can't say that I was there. BUT, he makes it seem so real that I feel like the book could and should be used as an historical text to the time period. Whenever I hear Dustbowl, Organizing or even Oklahoma, I think of Steinbeck's masterpiece.

I love this novel, but it is interesting that when I think about it, my mind first goes to the intercalary chapters where we are out of the story of the Joads and are reading about the situation on the whole.  Some of these chapters do an excellent job of drawing that social realism element in the novel.  I am thinking the car salesman chapter as a prime example.  Steinbeck puts the reader "right there" in that situation.

Steinbeck had a reporter's sensibility.  In telling his stories, he wanted to let his audience know how things really were.  Like Dickens, he aimed to tell society's hidden ugly truths.  The Grapes of Wrath depicted a reality that no one wanted to face, in stunning detail.  Steinbeck also carefully weaves biblical allusions throughout the book.  Between that and the sympathetic characters, it was hard for readers not to be affected.

Social realism becomes the lens through which Steinbeck's work views consciousness in the world.  A definition of the movement can help identify how The Grapes of Wrath meets this standard:

Social Realism... is an artistic movement expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic.

Steinbeck's work represents this standard.  The depiction of the Joads' struggles and the other families who were displaced by the Dust Bowl and government policy that failed to take care of farmers is of vital importance to the work.  At the same time, Steinbeck does not hesitate to point out the injustices done to the farmers, who operate as workers, and the need for social solidarity in times of socio- economic challenge.  Both Casy's and Tom's actions in the name of the collective elements are vaulted in the work as heroic, and representative of how individual need to act in transforming of what is into what should be.  In this light, the work is highly representative of social realism.

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 belief that argues so much of our lives as humans is determined by factors that are beyond our control, such as our environment. It presents humans as being defenceless in a world where actually, in spite of all our strength and technology, we are shown to be incredibly weak and our lives are left so much to chance.

Steinbeck explores this belief explicitly through documenting the migration of the Joads, who, like so many other families, were forced to trek for miles in search of work. He describes how the "shining red earth" impacts their characters, and ultimately, in spite of the considerable strength and resilience of the Joads, their attempt to determine their own lives and futures is shown to be futile against the forces of naturalism, that seem to enter their "souls where the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy." The title of this novel, therefore, refers to the ways in which so many things that happen to us in life have nothing to do with our character or our personality: the forces of nature transcend and expose our limitations as humans, ultimately humbling us.

In his essay "A Defense of Naturalism," Roger Sherman Loomis declares,

...the Naturalist discards as obsolete three supernaturalistic concepts—Providence, absolute morality, and freedom of the will.

• The supernatural as only a development of the natural 

Steinbeck's character Jim Casy exemplifies this concept.  He has been a preacher, but he has abandoned the traditional role. Instead, he tries to serve people by working with them and by setting an example.  He tells the Joads, "Maybe all men got one big soul everybody's a part of."  He discards the idea of Jesus as savior and says that men must work together in order to attain anything. And, only reason enhanced by experience can direct people to the truth. Through such characters as Casy and Ma Joad and Tom  in his novel The Grapes of Wrath,  Steinbeck  portrays man as a highly complex creature, whose nature includes, besides his natural urges, a social and artistic instincts as well as reason. If all these factor are in harmony, happiness can be attained.

• Determinism

 Steinbeck's novel presents "the environment and nature’s effects on social history."  The great French Nauralist, Emile Zola, explains the idea of determinism as the theory that a person's fate is determined solely by heredity and environment.  Many of Steinbeck's intercalary chapters portray this determinism.  For example, in Chapter Five the description of the spokesman for the land owners informing the sharecroppers of their fates that they must leave the land on which their families have lived for generations. Even the owner men feel “caught in something larger than themselves” as the banks dictate to them. However, the Naturalist does not always make everyone a complete victim of fate; there are those who work together and are able to endure. The Joads, for example, represent the social group, the unit of strength that abides throughout, no matter the cost to them individually.

• Characters are fully developed early in the narrative in order that the reader may be an informed observer.

In The Grapes of Wrath, characters are described with much detail and are introduced early in the narrative. Tom Joad and Jim Casy are well developed by Chapter Four. And, Ma Joad and the rest of the Joad family is introduced and characterized by Chapter Eight.

• Theme

The theme of "the cause of labor" is typically Naturalistic. Steinbeck's main objective in his narrative is the illustration of the dispossed Oklahoma farmers who must migrate and seek work where there none or where there is much injustice.

Another typical theme is that of "ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances." The Joads and others like them find themselves and all their worldly belongings traveling down unknown highways, alienated from friends and familiar surroundings as they search for work.

• Symbolism

Naturalists employ symbolism, and Steinbeck utilizes the Joad family as representative of the larger "family of humanity."  Especially poignant and meaningful is Rose of Sharon's giving literally of the "milk of human kindness" to the starving man.  Another symbol is the land, which represents the people themselves and their histories.

• An Objective Tone

The narrator of this novel maintains an objective attitude toward the characters, observing their behaviors in a scientific way of merely recording the details of what characters do and say in response to natural forces. 

In reaction to the Great Depression and the 1930 Dust Bowl, John Steinbeck wrote the 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Naturalism is a literary focus on man as an inhabitant of his environment, rather than as a social creature, and studies human interaction as it pertains to the world around. The Joad family, traveling to California in search of a better life, are defined almost entirely by their surroundings, adapting to new situations and becoming stronger after each obstacle. At the beginning, leaving the dead soil of Oklahoma behind, they are simple, "piled in John's house like gophers in a winter burrow" (Steinbeck). The comparison to animals continues throughout the book, showing how the thinking animal -- humans -- still must react to and defend from the environment and predators around them. By showing the Joad's plight in terms of the hostile world, Steinbeck is able to use them as an allegory for survival of the fittest in both the animal and human kingdoms. The Joads are small creatures, but they persist as a whole; even as individual members die, the collective remains. By the end of the novel, the Joads have a greater understanding of the world, good and bad, and of their own capacity for moral choice and survival.

Discussions of Steinbeck's writing style in this novel will include the decision to use non-narrative chapters between the narrative chapters, heavy use of dialogue (and monologue), a concern with social issues/themes and a visually oriented prose. 

Steinbeck's prose is highly visual in its focus in both the narrative and non-narrative sections of the the novel. (This trait is emphasized in the non-narrative sections). There is also a heavy use of dialogue throughout the novel. Much of the story is taken up by discussion and in the narrative sections of the novel it is in the diaologue sections that many of the themes and concepts relating to social justice, inequity, religion, and morality are discussed. 

One of the most remarkable and unusual features of this novel is the use of non-narrative chapters. These chapters represent less than half of the novel in terms of the number of pages dedicated to them, but represent roughly half of the numbered chapters in the book. These sections present a pastiche of the novel's themes and serve to connect the Joad's plight to that of a whole class of people. 

Aside from the heavy use of dialogue and visually oriented details, Steinbeck's prose employs idioms frequently (within the dialogue) and simile. In terms of figurative language, simile is used more often than direct metaphor, perhaps because simile better reflects that kind of language used in the speech of the people Steinbeck is writing about in the novel. 

[eNotes editors are only permitted to answer one question per posting. Additional questions should be posted separately.]

John Steinbeck's was able to convey the desperation of people during extreme adversity in his works set during the Great Depression. Steinbeck writes about this in his novella, Of Mice and Men, and again in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, which follows a family across the country as they search for a better life during this time period.

The Grapes of Wrath is about the Joad family: they are disenfranchised like so many others during the 1930s. Steinbeck's first-hand experience with the desperation of the poor came while he worked as a reporter in Salinas, California (in the area know as the Long Valley), where Of Mice and Men is set. This novel is set in...

...the San Joaquin Valley, which lies east of the Long Valley and the Gabilan Mountains.

The themes of alienation and loss are seen in the story of the Joads, as well as the individual vs society, class conflict, commitment, etc.

Steinbeck's style is unusual with the author's use of "point of view," or the perspective from which the story is told. Third person is used here, and while the story of the Joads is told in the even-numbered chapters, the details of the Depression are generally presented in the odd-numbered chapters that act like a commentary to the reader, and provide...

...social and historical background of the mid-1930s Depression era, especially as it affects migrants...

The reader is also exposed to a great deal of information, from...

...the Dust Bowl and agricultural conditions in Oklahoma, to California’s history, to descriptions of roads leading west...

Steinbeck uses the "even" chapters to convey the sense of family that has been so devastated by the destruction of the economy, especially seen in the character of Ma Joad as she tries desperately to keep her family intact. The will to survive is a strong theme in the story, as well.

Another aspect of the style of the novel is Steinbeck's ability to provide…

...remarkable descriptions of the environment and nature’s effects on social history.

The plight of migrant workers, which Steinbeck introduced in Of Mice and Men, is unusual. Steinbeck is well ahead of his time in describing the lives of people who worked under such wretched conditions (as well as the farmers trying to stand up to "corporate farms") something that would not be addressed until the 1970s. (Farming boomed at the end of World War I, but over-investments in equipment, etc., financially burdened farmers when Europe was able again to grow its own crops, and then the Depression truly destroyed the small-farming industry in the U.S.)

A final aspect of Steinbeck's style is found in his use of symbolism. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family symbolize the larger "American family," (nationwide) describing its "strengths and weaknesses" much like the Joads. Financial disaster is not all that the people of the U.S. faced. For example, the Joads also faced danger in nature as they traveled so far to start over, as well as the threats inherent in a society where people were desperate to stay alive. The theme of "family" is clear in the characters of the Joad family as they approach the end of their journey. Achieving their own identity—stolen when they were forced to leave Oklahoma—is also central to the story's plot.

Additional Source:

http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways/mypath.cfm?ounid=ob_000064