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A review by monleon
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
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