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lindzlovesreading's review
4.0
I have a slightly weird relationship with Steinbeck. In terms of just writing, he is one of my favourite American writers. I mean seriously give the man a nobel prize, the way he repeats different words, its gives an almost bibical rythem. It's blunt sharp and poetic all at the same time. But in saying that I do tend to keep Steinbeck at a distance. This might have to do with my reading of 'Of Mice and Men' when I think I was about 16. It broke me, I mean I was a snotty, gooey blubbering mess, I mean the rabbits! So I have always kept Steinbeck at an emotional distance. I kept having to put this book down, because I wasn't willing to engage with 'GOW' on an emotional level the book itself wasn't as absorbing as it could have been. In saying that I loved the structure, the alternating chapters with the Joads and then just following the landscape, then putting the Joads in on the ground level and from thier perspective. I mean give this man a nobel.
If there was one book I would give people or even politican it would be this book. Even if I could not engage with book that was required.
If there was one book I would give people or even politican it would be this book. Even if I could not engage with book that was required.
wolfdan9's review against another edition
5.0
The Grapes of Wrath is a piece of historical fiction that centers around Tom Joad, a former convict with somewhat justifiable circumstances for his murdering of a belligerent, as he helps his family trek to California during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and survive there amid class struggle, lack of opportunity, police brutality, etc. The novel is quite political (with a surprising amount of relevance to some issues that the United States is still contending with in some ways) and Steinbeck is overtly left-leaning -- unsurprising for a literary writer -- but rather convincing while conveying both the facts of the horrible Dust Bowl, its associated social effects (which is Steinbeck's focus), and his perspective on how our people can move past it. At its heart, Grapes of Wrath is a family novel. Nearly all of the story is spent following the Joad family as they make their way uncertainly from Oklahoma to California in an unreliable truck housing all of their belongings and a meager amount of cash. Along the way, they meet others who share their stories and represent different groups of people whose lives the Dust Bowl destroyed (like a gas station owner whose funds are running out, fellow homeless farmers too afraid to head west, and a one-eyed mechanic betrayed and consequently disloyal to his boss). All of the side characters, and the meetings that the Joads have with them, demonstrate the truly devastating effects of the Dust Bowl and how it impacted Midwesterners during the 1930s. Steinbeck captures the fear, hopelessness, and uncertainty of ordinary people, and most importantly, their resilience. We see in many victims the same sentiment of persevering simply because there is no other choice. Steinbeck's view is that the human condition is to adapt and carry on despite impossibility. He is especially clear in his advocacy for sticking together in the face of adversity; that the true evil of the Dust Bowl, which is the opportunity it created for corporations and other institutions (e.g., the police) to seize control over folks during a desperate time of weakness can only be conquered by the will of a united people. This is not only a common theme throughout the novel (and ubiquitously symbolized by the Joad family as a unit and their encounters with kind strangers), but is quite clearly pointed out by Steinbeck throughout his "interlude" chapters. Basically, the novel is broken up into 30 chapters, about half of which follow the story of the Joad family (nonetheless, these 15 or so chapters compose about 80% of the actual volume of pages), while the alternating 15 are vignettes about other Americans affected or Steinbeck's perspective on what had happened. He is surprisingly personal in his denunciation of corporate America's response to the Dust Bowl, which is also embedded within the narrative as an underlying theme, but is so clearly (and critically) written from his own perspective too: "There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success.... children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange." And so on. The story is brimming with this sentiment of aghast. Steinbeck ends the novel brilliantly. After Rose of Sharon (the daughter) gives birth to a stillborn child, a deadly storm impacts the boxcar camp that the Joad family is staying at. She and her parents escape to a dingy barn, where there is a man dying of hunger. At the very end, she breastfeeds the man with a sense of satisfaction. This beautifully and succinctly shows the effort required by a community of people to overcome the tyrannical power of large institutions. It takes this degree of familial love and trust with strangers -- not to mention the initiative to form those connections of deep trust -- in order to help one's fellow man survive. Rose of Sharon, despite losing many family members, her husband, and her child, feels completed by her usefulness in this final scene because she is fulfilling her purpose (as I interpret it) as a human being.
worldexplorerismay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cameronmcgr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
saddleback's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
4.5
tsushimashu's review against another edition
2.0
↪ buddy read with komy
i put off this book for a long time; i got it in december 2022 after finishing east of eden. i was hesitant to begin the grapes of wrath because i didnt think it could surpass east of eden and! i was right!!!
from the first few pages, it drained all of my energy and i was not pulled into the book at all. i thought it'd get better later on, but, unfortunately for me and the poor poor soul i dragged into this buddy read, it did not.
the storyline follows the joad family moving from oklahoma after their land is being taken over by big companies. they go on a journey to california and, with a few deaths and struggles, they try to find work. from reading this little portion i just wrote out, you might think that 'oh! that doesnt seem that boring' but youre wrong. the themes of religion and hope were nice, but they weren't enough to save me from the despair of the thought of having to continue reading this.
the conversations between me and komy regarding our daily reading for this book consisted of this:
"have you finished your reading today"
"no, have you??"
"no lets do it tomorrow"
"okay!!"
this book is incredibly dry, and i usually dont mind dry books as long as the characters are well developed, but these people arent even interesting. this does add a touch of realism to it, considering how regular people don’t always have some out of the world interesting quality about them. so take what i say with a grain of salt.
the only one that i cared about was falsely arrested and there were some characters that had a bit of development and depth to them (rose of sharon and uncle john) and i enjoyed reading about them and what they were going through. however, i didnt feel any strong emotions towards many characters, if any (other than my husband casy!!!). i believe that the mother was written well and is worth noting. she’s the one who kept the family together despite it all, and prevented everyone from giving up. she had no right to give up because she was the glue of the family.
what i did enjoy about this book was the mini chapters where steinbeck begins talking about his philosophy regarding the topics and themes in the book. i really enjoyed these parts because they were like a breath of fresh air from the rest of the book. if the entire book was just these mini chapters, then id have loved it. unfortunately, that wasnt the case.
i can understand why this book is so important to american culture, but, for me personally, i didnt enjoy reading it at all. there truly is some beautiful and creative writing in this book, but the story itself is incredibly slow. the grapes of wrath talks about the tragedy and desperation of those affected by capitalism back in that time, which is still relevant now. what stuck out to me most was the emphasis steinbeck put on the fact that there is no one person to blame, and that is what hurts the most. everything leads back to the banks but even then there is nobody to be angry at, as there is no human embodiment of the banks.
i really enjoyed the ending and i liked the desperation that you could see in each character, overall the book itself was not bad, it was just slow and hard to read. i think steinbeck did a great job with writing the ending and though i didnt see the appeal as strongly as others did, i admit it was a nice story. i can definitely understand why others would like this book, but it’s not for me.
special shoutout to komy for giving me the energy to finish this book despite all of the times i thought about dropping it!! couldnt have done it without you my baby cakes angel sweetheart <3
i put off this book for a long time; i got it in december 2022 after finishing east of eden. i was hesitant to begin the grapes of wrath because i didnt think it could surpass east of eden and! i was right!!!
from the first few pages, it drained all of my energy and i was not pulled into the book at all. i thought it'd get better later on, but, unfortunately for me and the poor poor soul i dragged into this buddy read, it did not.
the storyline follows the joad family moving from oklahoma after their land is being taken over by big companies. they go on a journey to california and, with a few deaths and struggles, they try to find work. from reading this little portion i just wrote out, you might think that 'oh! that doesnt seem that boring' but youre wrong. the themes of religion and hope were nice, but they weren't enough to save me from the despair of the thought of having to continue reading this.
the conversations between me and komy regarding our daily reading for this book consisted of this:
"have you finished your reading today"
"no, have you??"
"no lets do it tomorrow"
"okay!!"
this book is incredibly dry, and i usually dont mind dry books as long as the characters are well developed, but these people arent even interesting. this does add a touch of realism to it, considering how regular people don’t always have some out of the world interesting quality about them. so take what i say with a grain of salt.
the only one that i cared about was falsely arrested and
Spoiler
after he finally showed up again, he was immediately killed. it was heartbreaking but it just made made me more angry than sad.what i did enjoy about this book was the mini chapters where steinbeck begins talking about his philosophy regarding the topics and themes in the book. i really enjoyed these parts because they were like a breath of fresh air from the rest of the book. if the entire book was just these mini chapters, then id have loved it. unfortunately, that wasnt the case.
i can understand why this book is so important to american culture, but, for me personally, i didnt enjoy reading it at all. there truly is some beautiful and creative writing in this book, but the story itself is incredibly slow. the grapes of wrath talks about the tragedy and desperation of those affected by capitalism back in that time, which is still relevant now. what stuck out to me most was the emphasis steinbeck put on the fact that there is no one person to blame, and that is what hurts the most. everything leads back to the banks but even then there is nobody to be angry at, as there is no human embodiment of the banks.
i really enjoyed the ending and i liked the desperation that you could see in each character, overall the book itself was not bad, it was just slow and hard to read. i think steinbeck did a great job with writing the ending and though i didnt see the appeal as strongly as others did, i admit it was a nice story. i can definitely understand why others would like this book, but it’s not for me.
special shoutout to komy for giving me the energy to finish this book despite all of the times i thought about dropping it!! couldnt have done it without you my baby cakes angel sweetheart <3
blow_'s review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
char_co's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
monleon's review against another edition
4.0
whoever finds the book boring—are you for real? seriously? are 300k people with hatred and despair also a bit boring? its one thing disliking the pacing and authors narrative, but deliberately picking the book about one of the most depressing times and calling it boring is beyond me.
‘You’re jus’ as free as you got jack to pay for it.’
it all started with the fact that John Steinbeck decided to go to the harvest, see how ordinary people worked there, and write a report about it. what he saw in the fields and in the work camps could not fit into any newspaper article, so he wrote a plump six hundred-page novel... and it still seems that he didn’t say everything, because you can’t just squeeze human life into the framework of a printed text, and if it’s the life of an entire generation, several thousand people, it’s good if you can express at least a piece of it.
to understand the tragedy of these people, you need to understand the reason for their tragedy. private farmers in the United States rarely own their own land; it belongs to large owners who do not cultivate the land themselves, but only receive money from tenants. they live on this land for generations. in a bad harvest year, they cannot pay the rent, and the landowners throw the farmers out by force, breaking the houses with tractors and plowing the fields. what is a man to do, whose life from birth has been lived on this piece of land? sell everything he can and move with his family in search of a better life. the worst thing is that there is no one to blame for the misfortunes and nail this someone with a shovel. the tractor drivers who ugly up the fields and houses are just hired guns. they receive orders from managers, and those—from the faceless mechanism of the bank.
‘Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won’t all be poor.’
there is a glimmer of hope for farmers—leaflets that say that on the fertile lands of California you can make money by harvesting crops. the work is seasonal, so it requires a lot of people at a time. but there are even more people willing than are required, so the capitalists, as soulless as the bank, profit from people in need as best they can. hmm… what a familiar situation... resellers squeeze out every cent and cheat at every step, employers reduce wages to an abysmal level, but where will you go, you still have no options anyway. either work for humiliating pittance, or sit without work at all. and if you refuse, other desperate people will work in your place.
it is not surprising that ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was so loved in the USSR. the author does not support those who were called Reds, but presents the ideals of communism as salvation for these people. farmers unite into real clans, huge families, everyone helps as much as they can. so who is to blame for the tragedy of American small farming? Steinbeck gives a clear answer: the system is to blame. a system based solely on economic gain, a system that creates a crisis of humanity.
besides the theme of forced unemployment and desperation, when people are ready to fight for a piece of bread, the book is about family. about the transformation that overtakes large and close-knit families when times of trial come. and many leave because it's their time by age, or because they need to live their lives.
the manner of narration is very unusual. chapters telling about the Joad family are interspersed with journalistic sketches in different genres. reading them is no less interesting than the story itself—each passage deserves to be published separately, some satirical moments hit close to home. it’s heartbreaking to read how people’s dreams of warm California with sweet peaches and easy work are shattered.
my particular admiration here is for the Mother—the one who did everything to prevent the family from falling apart, who supported strength and optimism in them when she herself had no longer had any left for a long time, who would go after anyone, even with a frying pan, even with a jack, just to help to survive. when others have given up, she has no right to do the same.
‘In the soul of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.’
Steinbeck knows how to find an approach to the reader. he writes very simply, as if in an ordinary way, paying a lot of attention to detail, but he literally turns the reader’s soul inside out. each line evokes a storm of emotions and a desire to read further in the crazy hope that maybe the Joads will be lucky and everything won’t end so badly for them. but, hoping, you understand that this will not happen, because the Joads are not just a single family, but the personification of all such families traveling along the roads in search of work. they cannot be lucky or unlucky, they simply live like thousands of others. and, as in thousands of others, the “grapes of wrath” gradually grow and ripen in them.
pre-read
the time has come team
‘You’re jus’ as free as you got jack to pay for it.’
it all started with the fact that John Steinbeck decided to go to the harvest, see how ordinary people worked there, and write a report about it. what he saw in the fields and in the work camps could not fit into any newspaper article, so he wrote a plump six hundred-page novel... and it still seems that he didn’t say everything, because you can’t just squeeze human life into the framework of a printed text, and if it’s the life of an entire generation, several thousand people, it’s good if you can express at least a piece of it.
to understand the tragedy of these people, you need to understand the reason for their tragedy. private farmers in the United States rarely own their own land; it belongs to large owners who do not cultivate the land themselves, but only receive money from tenants. they live on this land for generations. in a bad harvest year, they cannot pay the rent, and the landowners throw the farmers out by force, breaking the houses with tractors and plowing the fields. what is a man to do, whose life from birth has been lived on this piece of land? sell everything he can and move with his family in search of a better life. the worst thing is that there is no one to blame for the misfortunes and nail this someone with a shovel. the tractor drivers who ugly up the fields and houses are just hired guns. they receive orders from managers, and those—from the faceless mechanism of the bank.
‘Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won’t all be poor.’
there is a glimmer of hope for farmers—leaflets that say that on the fertile lands of California you can make money by harvesting crops. the work is seasonal, so it requires a lot of people at a time. but there are even more people willing than are required, so the capitalists, as soulless as the bank, profit from people in need as best they can. hmm… what a familiar situation... resellers squeeze out every cent and cheat at every step, employers reduce wages to an abysmal level, but where will you go, you still have no options anyway. either work for humiliating pittance, or sit without work at all. and if you refuse, other desperate people will work in your place.
it is not surprising that ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was so loved in the USSR. the author does not support those who were called Reds, but presents the ideals of communism as salvation for these people. farmers unite into real clans, huge families, everyone helps as much as they can. so who is to blame for the tragedy of American small farming? Steinbeck gives a clear answer: the system is to blame. a system based solely on economic gain, a system that creates a crisis of humanity.
besides the theme of forced unemployment and desperation, when people are ready to fight for a piece of bread, the book is about family. about the transformation that overtakes large and close-knit families when times of trial come. and many leave because it's their time by age, or because they need to live their lives.
the manner of narration is very unusual. chapters telling about the Joad family are interspersed with journalistic sketches in different genres. reading them is no less interesting than the story itself—each passage deserves to be published separately, some satirical moments hit close to home. it’s heartbreaking to read how people’s dreams of warm California with sweet peaches and easy work are shattered.
my particular admiration here is for the Mother—the one who did everything to prevent the family from falling apart, who supported strength and optimism in them when she herself had no longer had any left for a long time, who would go after anyone, even with a frying pan, even with a jack, just to help to survive. when others have given up, she has no right to do the same.
‘In the soul of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.’
Steinbeck knows how to find an approach to the reader. he writes very simply, as if in an ordinary way, paying a lot of attention to detail, but he literally turns the reader’s soul inside out. each line evokes a storm of emotions and a desire to read further in the crazy hope that maybe the Joads will be lucky and everything won’t end so badly for them. but, hoping, you understand that this will not happen, because the Joads are not just a single family, but the personification of all such families traveling along the roads in search of work. they cannot be lucky or unlucky, they simply live like thousands of others. and, as in thousands of others, the “grapes of wrath” gradually grow and ripen in them.
pre-read
the time has come team