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A review by romitch11
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
We had a semester in high school where we read Steinbeck. We were assigned to a group to read, but we were able to pick our top three we would want to read. I REALLY wanted to read Grapes of Wrath, (mostly because I thought the title ripped) but I was assigned Winter of Discontent instead (which I liked).
So this was my first time reading GoW and I couldn’t help but think about how I would have understood the book as a high school Junior. I likely would have seen it as a sad and empathetic tale of a family during the great depression. This book is certainly that, but it is also an angry political manifesto, one that resonates with the 1930s economic and political landscape, but is also relevant to our current zeitgeist.
“The great owners striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity, striking at new taxes, new plans, not knowing that these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; results, not causes. The causes lie deep and simply—the causes are a hunger in a stomach…a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security…muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times.”
So this was my first time reading GoW and I couldn’t help but think about how I would have understood the book as a high school Junior. I likely would have seen it as a sad and empathetic tale of a family during the great depression. This book is certainly that, but it is also an angry political manifesto, one that resonates with the 1930s economic and political landscape, but is also relevant to our current zeitgeist.
“The great owners striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity, striking at new taxes, new plans, not knowing that these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; results, not causes. The causes lie deep and simply—the causes are a hunger in a stomach…a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security…muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times.”