The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939.[2] The book won the National Book Award[3] and Pulitzer Prize[4] for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962.[5]
This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Grapes of Wrath (disambiguation).Author
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California on the "mother road", along with thousands of other "Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
The Grapes of Wrath is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes due to its historical context and enduring legacy.[6] A celebrated Hollywood film version, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, was released in 1940.
Author's note[edit]
When preparing to write the novel, Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]." He famously said, "I've done my damnedest to rip a reader's nerves to rags." His work won a large following among the working class, due to his sympathy for the migrants and workers' movement, and his accessible prose style.[14]
Critical reception[edit]
Steinbeck scholar John Timmerman sums up the book's influence: "The Grapes of Wrath may well be the most thoroughly discussed novel – in criticism, reviews, and college classrooms – of 20th century American literature."[11] The Grapes of Wrath is referred to as a Great American Novel.[15]
At the time of publication, Steinbeck's novel "was a phenomenon on the scale of a national event. It was publicly banned and burned by citizens, it was debated on national radio; but above all, it was read".[16] According to The New York Times, it was the best-selling book of 1939 and 430,000 copies had been printed by February 1940.[3] In that same month, it won the National Book Award, favorite fiction book of 1939, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association.[3] Soon, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and its Armed Services Edition went through two printings.[4]
The book was noted for Steinbeck's passionate depiction of the plight of the poor, and many of his contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack wrote: "Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book's depiction of California farmers' attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a 'pack of lies' and labeled it 'communist propaganda'".[11] Some argued that his novel was filled with inaccuracies.[17] In his book The Art of Fiction (1984), John Gardner criticized Steinbeck for not knowing anything about the California ranchers: "Witness Steinbeck's failure in The Grapes of Wrath. It should have been one of America's great books...[S]teinbeck wrote not a great and firm novel but a disappointing melodrama in which complex good is pitted against unmitigated, unbelievable evil."[18] Others accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. He had visited the camps well before publication of the novel[19] and argued their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit.
In 1962, the Nobel Prize committee cited The Grapes of Wrath as a "great work" and as one of the committee's main reasons for granting Steinbeck the Nobel Prize for Literature.[5]
In 1999, French newspaper Le Monde of Paris ranked The Grapes of Wrath as seventh on its list of the 100 best books of the 20th century. In the UK, it was listed at number 29 among the "nation's best loved novels" on the BBC's 2003 survey The Big Read.[20] In 2005, Time magazine included the novel in its "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005".[21] In 2009, The Daily Telegraph of the United Kingdom included the novel in its "100 novels everyone should read".[22]
The Grapes of Wrath has faced a great amount of controversy since publication, including book bans and other challenges on a variety of political and religious grounds in the United States and other countries. The early attempts to suppress and censor the book directly inspired the promulgation of the Library Bill of Rights by the American Library Association.[23][24][25]
Similarities to Whose Names Are Unknown[edit]
Following the publication of Sanora Babb's Whose Names Are Unknown in 2004, some scholars noted strong parallels between that work — the notes for which Steinbeck is widely believed to have examined[26] — and The Grapes of Wrath.
Writing in The Steinbeck Review, Michael J. Meyer noted numerous "obvious similarities" between the two novels "that even a cursory reading will reveal", such as Babb's account of two still-born babies, mirrored in Steinbeck's description of Rose of Sharon's baby. Among other scenes and themes repeated in both books: the villainy of banks, corporations, and company stores that charge exorbitant prices; the rejection of religion and the embrace of music as a means of preserving hope; descriptions of the fecundity of nature and agriculture, and the contrast with the impoverishment of the migrants; and the disparity between those willing to extend assistance to the migrants and others who view "Okies" as subhuman.[27] Meyer, a Steinbeck bibliographer, stops short of labeling these parallels as plagiarism but concludes that "Steinbeck scholars would do well to read Babb — if only to see for themselves the echoes of Grapes that abound in her prose."
Steinbeck scholar David M. Wrobel wrote that "the John Steinbeck/Sanora Babb story sounds like a classic smash-and-grab: celebrated California author steals the material of unknown Oklahoma writer, resulting in his financial success and her failure to get her work published ... Steinbeck absorbed field information from many sources, primarily Tom Collins and Eric H. Thomsen, regional director of the federal migrant camp program in California, who accompanied Steinbeck on missions of mercy...if Steinbeck read Babb’s extensive notes as carefully as he did the reports of Collins, he would certainly have found them useful. His interaction with Collins and Thomsen — and their influence on the writing of The Grapes of Wrath — is documented because Steinbeck acknowledged both. Sanora Babb went unmentioned."[28]
Writing in Broad Street (magazine), Carla Dominguez described Babb as "devastated and bitter" that Random House cancelled publication of her own novel after The Grapes of Wrath was released in 1939. It is clear, she wrote, that "Babb's retellings, interactions, and reflections were secretly read over and appropriated by Steinbeck. Babb met Steinbeck briefly and by chance at a lunch counter, but she never thought that he had been reading her notes because he did not mention it." When Babb's novel was finally published in 2004, she declared that she was a better writer than Steinbeck. "His book", Babb said, "is not as realistic as mine."[29]
Adaptations[edit]
In film[edit]
The book was quickly made into a famed 1940 Hollywood movie of the same name directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. The first part of the film version follows the book fairly accurately. However, the second half and the ending, in particular, differ significantly from the book. John Springer, author of The Fondas (Citadel, 1973), said of Henry Fonda and his role in The Grapes of Wrath: "The Great American Novel made one of the few enduring Great American Motion Pictures."[30]
The documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story (2009) revealed that The Grapes of Wrath was the favorite novel of comedian Bill Hicks. He based his famous last words on Tom Joad's final speech: "I left in love, in laughter, and in truth, and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit."[31]
In July 2013, Steven Spielberg announced his plans to direct a remake of The Grapes of Wrath for DreamWorks.[32][33]
The Japanese animated series Bungou Stray Dogs portrays a character based on Steinbeck whose superpower is named "The Grapes of Wrath".
In music[edit]
Woody Guthrie's two-part song—"Tom Joad – Parts 1 & 2" – from the album Dust Bowl Ballads (1940), explores the protagonist's life after being paroled from prison. It was covered in 1988 by Andy Irvine, who recorded both parts as a single song—"Tom Joad"—on Patrick Street's second album, No. 2 Patrick Street.[34]
The 1981 song "Here Comes that Rainbow Again", by Kris Kristofferson, is based on the scene in the roadside diner where a man buys a loaf of bread and two candy sticks for his sons.
The band The Mission UK included a song titled "The Grapes of Wrath" on their album Carved in Sand (1990).
The progressive rock band Camel released an album, titled Dust and Dreams (1991), inspired by the novel.
American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen named his 11th studio album, The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), after the character; and the first track on the album shares the same title. The song – and to a lesser extent, the others on the album – draws comparisons between the Dust Bowl and modern times.[35]
Rage Against the Machine recorded a version of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" in 1997.
Like Andy Irvine in 1988, Dick Gaughan recorded Woody Guthrie's "Tom Joad" on his album Outlaws & Dreamers (2001).[36]
An opera based on the novel was co-produced by the Minnesota Opera, and Utah Symphony and Opera, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and libretto by Michael Korie. The opera made its world premiere in February 2007, to favorable local reviews.[37]
Bad Religion have a song entitled "Grains of Wrath" on their album New Maps of Hell (2007). Bad Religion lead vocalist Greg Graffin is a fan of Steinbeck's work.[38]
The song "Dust Bowl Dance", on the Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More (2009), is based on the novel.
The Pink Floyd song "Sorrow", written by front-man David Gilmour and included on the band's album A Momentary Lapse of Reason, is thematically derived from/based on the novel.
The song "No Good Al Joad", on the Hop Along album "Get Disowned" takes its title from the novel's character Al Joad.
The song "Grapes Of Wrath" by Weezer, written by Rivers Cuomo from their album "OK Human" (2021), takes its title directly from the novel.[39]
In theatre[edit]
The Steppenwolf Theatre Company produced a stage version of the book, adapted by Frank Galati. Gary Sinise played Tom Joad for its entire run of 188 performances on Broadway in 1990. One of these performances was filmed and shown on PBS the following year.[40]
In 1990, the Illegitimate Players theater company in Chicago produced Of Grapes and Nuts, an original, satirical mash-up of The Grapes of Wrath and Steinbeck's acclaimed novella Of Mice and Men.[41]
In 2019, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon produced Mother Road by Octavio Solis, inspired by Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The play is about William Joad who believes that he has no blood kin to inherit the family farm until he finds an unexpected relation: Martín Jodes—a young Mexican-American man descended from Steinbeck's original protagonist Tom Joad. The play reverses the Joads’ mythic journey, as these modern-day Joads travel from migrant farm-worker camps in California back to Oklahoma.
[42]