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thriftstorebabayaga 's review for:
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
From the very start of this book, I knew I would have to write a big review for it. So it kinda matured all the while I read it - well, listened to it.
And what's best than to directly talk to my 15 y.o self. Because as I've heard, this book is on an incredible amount of to-read lists for US highschools. And although it's a good idea to have your lovely (eh) kids to read old stuff, I may be a liiiiil' bit skeptical that this is gonna be the book that draws them to read. GRANTED getting kiddies to read isn't the goal of highschool, more like, getting them sensibilized to modern issues, opening their eyes to varied litterary styles and eras. Which is a BIG PART of Steinbeck's beef and core theme of this book. CAPITALISM man.
But teenagers - well, it's a bit early - I saw a few comments from teenagers actually having to read this book - hell, one of my friends (around thirty just like me) was like "wHY are you reading this thing, I had to read it FOR COLLEGE".
My take is, having it as a mandatory read is a bit of a hassle, it's complex. And teenagers won't retain anything aside from Rosasharn's ded baby and the dog roadkill. I've been a highschool teacher, I've been a highschooler. AND TRUST ME when I say French highschool's mandatory reads aren't so different from US.
(I'm still having PTSD from reading Thérèse Raquin in my first year of highschool, had just started boarding, it was winter, basically, it was nOT GOOD).
So yeah, TL;DR don't read before having had a FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE of the work industry.
This is basically it, for the before-critique advice.
So we follow the Joads. There's Ma, there's Pa, there's three boys of working age, Noah, Tom (main protag) and Al, the bbies Ruthie and Winfield, the uncle, Jim Casy who just hitches a ride and becomes Jesus - yes, grandma and grandpa.
The numbers can and will dwindle as they set forth from Sallisaw, Okhlahoma, just like hundreds of thousands of other disposessed farmers during the Dust Bowl.
Their hard work on a land they knew by heart is replaced by tractors and uninvested workers who don't know shit about the land.
On the road, they'll get help and hate and everything in between. Help mostly coming from other displaced, migrant people, encompassing the saying "the less you hve, the more you're ready to give" culminating in the very last scene of the book, Rose of Sharon, having literally lost her baby, gives her breastmilk to a starving man.
I listened to this sentence while tearing off old wallpaper in my sister's flat (kudos to her ! as for myself, I'm still couch surfing) and had to stop for a few minutes.
Cue the "you're reading THIS !?" from my dad
and the "You're reading WHAT" from my sister.
I went back to my wallpaper, sore-hearted and already plotting this review.
It reminded me of my 15 y.o self, powering my way through fantasy novels because they catered to my young mind, only vaguely echoing the issues of our modern world. I had no cure for them, and only saw them in a very warped sense ; poor people were too lazy to work, migrants came to steal our jobs.
Because when I was a teen, I was racist. Out of ignorance. And BOY I'm cringing so hard at some of the things I said as a teen.
Had I had to read this book, I don't think I'd have understood more, as I had no idea how the world of work actually computed. Now, having been working for exactly teen years (WOO), in a mix of student jobs and my first careers (hi, teaching) and having settled in a place I think I can dug my lil' nest in (agricultural insurance, yes I know) my worldview has pretty much been switched around.
Not only do I GET the sempiternal dehumanization capitalism inflicts on people but I also get the references Steinbeck used.
"Why would you say Casy is jesus, it's bullshit, maybe Steinbeck didn't even THINK about it and just wrote it like this"
Maybe he did. Maybe it didn't occur to you because you had no idea what Jesus was said to have done and what sheer IMPACT a man dying in stead of another could do to a XXth century USAmerican, 15 y.o me.
"To get work, you just have to cross the street" our president would say. Yes, you can. Backbreaking shit jobs, but a job nonetheless. So what would you rather do ? Have some pride, and be considered the taint of society by not having a job and rely on government helps ? Or get this job and work 40 hours a week for not even minimum wage ?
It's illegal, I know, then how come I was employed in such a place ? Me and a few hundred other women in precarious conditions who took the first job offer they could get. Most of them with children most of them women of color, without means of transportation. Rings a bell ?
This book doesn't ring anything unless you've lived through it. You don't get Pa Joad ranting about woman governing the family, as Ma - WHOSE NAME WE'LL NEVER KNOW, leads her family rhough thick and thin and keeps then same, one plate of mush at a time.
Where do I leave my mic ? It's amazing nobody booted me out yet. ANYWAY, FIVE STARS, LAD.
And what's best than to directly talk to my 15 y.o self. Because as I've heard, this book is on an incredible amount of to-read lists for US highschools. And although it's a good idea to have your lovely (eh) kids to read old stuff, I may be a liiiiil' bit skeptical that this is gonna be the book that draws them to read. GRANTED getting kiddies to read isn't the goal of highschool, more like, getting them sensibilized to modern issues, opening their eyes to varied litterary styles and eras. Which is a BIG PART of Steinbeck's beef and core theme of this book. CAPITALISM man.
But teenagers - well, it's a bit early - I saw a few comments from teenagers actually having to read this book - hell, one of my friends (around thirty just like me) was like "wHY are you reading this thing, I had to read it FOR COLLEGE".
My take is, having it as a mandatory read is a bit of a hassle, it's complex. And teenagers won't retain anything aside from Rosasharn's ded baby and the dog roadkill. I've been a highschool teacher, I've been a highschooler. AND TRUST ME when I say French highschool's mandatory reads aren't so different from US.
(I'm still having PTSD from reading Thérèse Raquin in my first year of highschool, had just started boarding, it was winter, basically, it was nOT GOOD).
So yeah, TL;DR don't read before having had a FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE of the work industry.
This is basically it, for the before-critique advice.
So we follow the Joads. There's Ma, there's Pa, there's three boys of working age, Noah, Tom (main protag) and Al, the bbies Ruthie and Winfield, the uncle, Jim Casy who just hitches a ride and becomes Jesus - yes, grandma and grandpa.
The numbers can and will dwindle as they set forth from Sallisaw, Okhlahoma, just like hundreds of thousands of other disposessed farmers during the Dust Bowl.
Their hard work on a land they knew by heart is replaced by tractors and uninvested workers who don't know shit about the land.
On the road, they'll get help and hate and everything in between. Help mostly coming from other displaced, migrant people, encompassing the saying "the less you hve, the more you're ready to give" culminating in the very last scene of the book, Rose of Sharon, having literally lost her baby, gives her breastmilk to a starving man.
I listened to this sentence while tearing off old wallpaper in my sister's flat (kudos to her ! as for myself, I'm still couch surfing) and had to stop for a few minutes.
Cue the "you're reading THIS !?" from my dad
and the "You're reading WHAT" from my sister.
I went back to my wallpaper, sore-hearted and already plotting this review.
It reminded me of my 15 y.o self, powering my way through fantasy novels because they catered to my young mind, only vaguely echoing the issues of our modern world. I had no cure for them, and only saw them in a very warped sense ; poor people were too lazy to work, migrants came to steal our jobs.
Because when I was a teen, I was racist. Out of ignorance. And BOY I'm cringing so hard at some of the things I said as a teen.
Had I had to read this book, I don't think I'd have understood more, as I had no idea how the world of work actually computed. Now, having been working for exactly teen years (WOO), in a mix of student jobs and my first careers (hi, teaching) and having settled in a place I think I can dug my lil' nest in (agricultural insurance, yes I know) my worldview has pretty much been switched around.
Not only do I GET the sempiternal dehumanization capitalism inflicts on people but I also get the references Steinbeck used.
"Why would you say Casy is jesus, it's bullshit, maybe Steinbeck didn't even THINK about it and just wrote it like this"
Maybe he did. Maybe it didn't occur to you because you had no idea what Jesus was said to have done and what sheer IMPACT a man dying in stead of another could do to a XXth century USAmerican, 15 y.o me.
"To get work, you just have to cross the street" our president would say. Yes, you can. Backbreaking shit jobs, but a job nonetheless. So what would you rather do ? Have some pride, and be considered the taint of society by not having a job and rely on government helps ? Or get this job and work 40 hours a week for not even minimum wage ?
It's illegal, I know, then how come I was employed in such a place ? Me and a few hundred other women in precarious conditions who took the first job offer they could get. Most of them with children most of them women of color, without means of transportation. Rings a bell ?
This book doesn't ring anything unless you've lived through it. You don't get Pa Joad ranting about woman governing the family, as Ma - WHOSE NAME WE'LL NEVER KNOW, leads her family rhough thick and thin and keeps then same, one plate of mush at a time.
Where do I leave my mic ? It's amazing nobody booted me out yet. ANYWAY, FIVE STARS, LAD.