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A review by knuckledown
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5.0
This was my favorite book from American lit in high school. Steinbeck impresses me on so many levels. The layers of meaning that exist in the book are amazing: the basic story, the allegory, moral, spiritual, biological. The story of the Joad family is broken up with "interpalary" chapters that explain different aspects of the lives of migrant workers in the 1930s. Apparently some critics find them distracting, but I thought they added a great sense of scope to the story and were written in cool abstract ways. One in particular that describes how the rich landowners no longer had the hunger for land is just beautiful.
The moral and spiritual undertones of the book are really interesting to me. At first I thought Jim Casy, the former preacher, might get on my nerves, but he had the most profound lines in the novel. My English teacher told us that he is a Christ-like figure, and it was such a revelation to me. This is why I love literature.
The moral and spiritual undertones of the book are really interesting to me. At first I thought Jim Casy, the former preacher, might get on my nerves, but he had the most profound lines in the novel. My English teacher told us that he is a Christ-like figure, and it was such a revelation to me. This is why I love literature.