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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I can’t help but feel that Steinbeck would be disappointed in how relevant this book still is and with how little class solidarity we see right now. In the case of workers like the Joads, this back-breaking work has just shifted to be done by immigrant workers that are exploited and paid little more than what the Joads got almost 100 years ago. But even those who are in the working middle class are still being taken advantage of by big companies that funnel all their wealth upwards.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can see why this is an American classic. Absolutely brutal in its telling of poverty and migration in the dust bowl, and a family falling apart at the seams. I liked how every other chapter connected to the broader political/socioeconomic landscape of the time. Not exactly heartwarming, but more bittersweet that even in the face of starvation and poverty, the migrants looked out for and tried to help each other. Could never have predicted that ending, but it was just another extreme example of humanity and care.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I could not have loved this more. I don't remember having particularly strong feelings about Of Mice And Men for GCSE but I really did not start this novel expecting to read a love letter to communist ideals. The abolitionist expression and working class solidarity amid gorgeous US scenery got me right where I live. I am only regretful that now I can't keep telling every person I meet that I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath for the first time.
Side note: I listened to the audiobook read by Dylan Baker and the added space horror vibes were outstanding.
Side note: I listened to the audiobook read by Dylan Baker and the added space horror vibes were outstanding.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
a true American Classic that delves deep into class divisions, class politics, and how company's can force people into forced labor and use the police (aka) state stationed violence to maintain the status quo of capital over lives. Now Steinbeck fails to mention POC struggle during the depression, but its more allegorical for the process of dehumanization and disenfranchisement of poor whites at the time and the entrapment of the lower classes in a perpetual loop of forced labor wither its though incarceration or wage slavery. Now i don't see the whole comparison of Tom Joad to Jesus Christ, when in Reality it a honest man understating his class position,and wanting to help others. Tom having just left prison knows a thing about the violent process of dehumanization. When the family enters the company town, this is when Joad begins to understand the whole family's class position, and how unity can overcome said position, having meet the strikers his understanding of class and labor is growing.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Transcendent. Life-changing.