Introduction
 Look at the prompt – make sure you answer the
question.
 How does Steinbeck use rhetorical elements
to convey the attitudes and mindsets of the
farmers and migrant workers?
Reflect the Question in
your Introduction
 To start, you can mention something about the Grapes of
Wrath, add a quote, insight from the great depression,
etc.
 At the end of your introduction , you will want to reflect
the question ……THIS IS YOUR THESIS … your main
argument.
 In chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath, author John
Steinbeck condemns the land owners for allowing people
to starve in the name of capitalism; his use of effective
diction, syntax, and tone blasts the greedy landowners
for banking money at the expense of the lives and health
of the poor starving migrant workers and their children.
How should you organize
your essay?
 Two options …….
 One: You can summarize and go paragraph by paragraph
using specific examples to explain and make your points.
Make sure you bring in rhetorical devices as you do so.
(diction, syntax, tone, etc.)
 Two: You can decide to focus on the the rhetorical
devices in each support paragraph. This is easier way to
go, and essays organized this way are acceptable; they
tend to be repetitive and can be less interesting. Write a
paragraph that highlights examples of effective diction
and one that discusses syntax.
Topic Sentence support
paragraph one
 Steinbeck begins the passage with effective word
choice as he describes the “decay” and “sorrow”
that infests the land when farmers destroy their
harvests to keep prices high so they can make
money. He uses bitter, harsh words to graphically
portray the situation. The line …….. (add a quote)
uses bitter, angry words ……
Find a few specific
examples from the
passage to highlight in
your support paragraphs.
Diction – specific word choice
show Steinbeck’s bitter outrage
…
 Decay, great sorrow, saddest, bitterest thing of all ....
Smell of rot, putrescence
 Crime beyond denunciation
 Sorrow that weeping cannot symbolize
 Children dying of pellagra must dies because a profit
cannot be taken from an orange.
 Food must rot, must be forced to rot
 Screaming pigs being killed and covered with quicklime
…. Mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze,
there is a failure …. Growing wrath ……
Syntax – arrangement of
words in a sentence
 The best example ….. And coroners must fill in the
certificates – died of malnutrition -- because the food
must rot, must be forced to rot
 The dashes make the words “died of malnutrition”
stand out …. Forcing the reader to understand that
people are starving and dying because of the food is
destroyed. Steinbeck is outraged and accuses the
farmers of killing children …. Major pathos going on!
Tone
 The examples help Steinbeck convey his outrage
over the situation.
 Tone words that would describe this passage and
Steinbeck’s attitude include:
 Bitter, angry, condemnatory, critical, furious,
outraged, wrathful
What does a good
paragraph look like?
 Steinbeck condemns the farmers for allowing children to go
hungry and possibly die from malnutrition. He refers to it as
“crime that goes beyond denunciation and a failure that
topples all our success.” These words suggest Steinbeck
believes there can be no success if children are dying of
starvation. He goes on to write, “children dying of pellagra
must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange.”
The mere idea that oranges and the money they bring in are
more important than the life of a child is absurd and Steinbeck
makes sure his readers understand that. He even uses syntax in
his use of the dash to set apart the words “died of
malnutrition” to hammer home his point. The reader has to
pause and read those words to understand the pain the
migrants felt at the hands of the farmers. Steinbeck is truly
outraged at the situation.