Grapes of Wrath worksheet
Consider the following major points of the novel:
1. The relationship between the land and the people: when the land grows sick, the people grow sick, when people remove themselves from the land, they become unnatural (greedy & petty). (1, 6, 65-66, 143, 292-293, 295-299)
2. Individuals are weak, but communities are strong. The landowners in California are afraid the poor will gather in community (communist&emdash;Reds) & fight back. 63
3. This is the story of the Joads' exodus from a sick land to a healthy one. Will they stay together as a communal family? Will they share in the health of the promised land? How will the journey change them?
4. In a larger context, this is the story of all men and women and our relationship with each other. At the end of the story Rose of Sharon suckles a poor, elderly man. In this action, she "adopts" him and adopts the rest of humanity as belonging to her family. Thus, Steinbeck is telling us that this should be our attitude: that we should consider everyone (but especially the poor and oppressed) as part of our family. This is the religious message. 63, 535
5. But there's also a political message. Landowners and bankers beware: if you continue to exploit the poor, the poor will rise up against you and have a "turkey shoot." Poor think about this: in numbers you are strong. Organize, unionize, spread the message, hang tough, and don't take jobs that hurt someone else, because you're ultimately hurting yourself. 306
6. Finally, Steinbeck leaves us with two questions: what has happened and what will happen to the Joads?
a) In one sense, they've lost. They started with 13 people and are down at the end of the book to 6. In a larger context, they've won: they've learned the secret that all men and women, especially the poor and oppressed, are part of the same family.
b) Thus, at the end, Steinbeck lets us hope that the Joads will continue, like the turtle, to persevere, and like the land come springtime, to renew itself. In Rose of Sharon's simple act of kindness, she renews the life of a complete stranger and shows that, like Tom, she has learned the secret to a greater kind of survival.
Directions:
1. Find 5 citations that support the thematic statement you've been given. They can be spoken dialogue, description of land or character, or narrative. For each of the citations, do the following:
2. Write down enough of the quote so that someone else will understand what's going on. Put the page number after the quote.
3. Follow it with a paraphrase/context discussion. Some citations will need to be rephrased in order to be more clearly understood. Others simply need contextual information: Who said this line? Who is being addressed? In what part of the story does this line occur? What immediately precedes and follows this?
4. Finally, write a sentence or two relating the citation to the theme you have. Sometimes you're stating the obvious. Most of the time, you're drawing connections that others can't readily see.
Example for topic #5
"...when a majority of people are hungry and cold, they will take by force what they need.... repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed." (306)
This quote appears in Chapter 19, the inner chapter which discusses the history of California and the repression practiced by the men who stole the land from the Mexicans. Following this chapter, the Joads discover for themselves the repression of California when they stop at the first Hooverville camp outside Bakersfield. Simply, this narrative describes what might happen to the wealthy landowners. The poor might rise up and overthrown them.
This directly relates to the political theme of the book in that Steinbeck wrote this story as warning to the wealthy landowners and as advice to the repressed poor. In many ways, this advice is practical as well as humanitarian. Steinbeck believes that if the poor are treated fairly, the landowners will also, ultimately benefit.