The Grapes of Wrath

Gr 8 Up–Steinbeck received the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for this saga of the Joad family—his first full-length novel—based on the historic migration of poor farmers from the Midwest to the West Coast during the Depression. With their meager savings, the Joads, forced off their land and ancestral home in Oklahoma by drought, crop failure, and debt, buy a worn-out old truck for the long journey that son Al, 16, proudly takes responsibility for as lead driver and mechanic. Big brother Tom (who’s just served four years in prison on a manslaughter charge) channels his fiery energy into helping the family get to California, even though he breaks parole to do it. They love him and need him, but fear for his safety and know deep down his uncertain fate jeopardizes their own. This is just one of the tensions typical of Steinbeck’s deeply emotional and gripping classic, a tale readers won’t soon forget. The novel develops around the actions of the family members as they try to survive and maintain some semblance of human dignity in such squalid surroundings. The work provides material for the study of theme, characterization, the use of symbolism, and allegory. These topics should stimulate student response to a variety of issues, among them the plight of the downtrodden, man’s inhumanity to man, and the strength of the human spirit.