“The Grapes of Wrath”
Discussion notes
The Grapes of Wrath: Exam 2
preview
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Identify instances where we see the shift from “I” to “We.”
Recognize how this connects to Transcendentalism.
Particularly re-visit
– Chapter 17: Review the “society” that sets up nightly on the
road: the rules, the customs, punishments, etc.
– Chapter 18: The conversation between Sairy Wilson and Casy
before the families separate.
Would you generally know about:
Mae, the waitress at the diner (chapter 15) and what happens
there?
The one-eyed man at the junkyard, how Tom reacts to him, and
Tom and Al’s purpose for going there (chapter 16)?
The declining number of Joads?
Discussion notes: Chapters 19-21
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“We ain’t foreign.”:
– Some critics charged
Steinbeck was racist in the
implication that the
migrant farmers were
somehow better than the
Filipinos or Mexicans that
had traditionally made up
California’s agricultural
workforce, simply because
the farmers were white
Americans.
– However, the broader
issue went beyond race
and to the changing social
landscape: Now it wasn’t
just foreigners who were
being oppressed.
Discussion notes: Chapters 19-21
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Anger
– Landowners hate the
Okies. The storeowners
hate the Okies. The native
California workers hate
the Okies: “These
goddamn Okies are dirty
and ignorant.”
– The Okies are getting
angry: “A fallow field is a
sin, and the unused land a
crime against thin
children.”
– In a land of plenty, they
are starving.
Discussion notes: Chapters 19-21
1.
2.
3.
Steinbeck says the
landowners ignored the
three cries of history:
When property
accumulates in too few
hands, it is taken away
from the many.
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.
Discussion notes: Chapters 19-21
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What Casy finally
learns in jail after
giving himself up
to save Tom and
Floyd is that man’s
spiritual
brotherhood must
express itself in
social unity. He
becomes a labor
organizer.
Discussion notes: Chapters 22-26
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Chapter 25 details the
deliberate destruction of the
harvests in order to keep
prices up, while children are
starving to death.
Steinbeck refers to this as a
“crime that goes beyond
denunciation” and “a sorrow
that weeping cannot
symbolize.”
“In the eyes of the people
there is the failure; and in the
eyes of the hungry there is a
growing wrath. In the souls of
the people the grapes of
wrath are filling and growing
heavy for the vintage.”
Discussion notes: Chapters 22-26
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“Well, they was nice fellas,
ya see. What made em’
bad was they needed stuff.
An’ I begin to see, then.
It’s need that makes all
the trouble. I ain’t got it
worked out.”
Luke 23:34: “Father,
forgive them. For they
know not what they do.”
Casy’s last words: “You
fellas don’t know what
you’re a-doin. You’re
helpin’ to starve kids.”
Discussion notes: Chapters 22-26
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Steinbeck’s depiction
of extreme poverty is
not without relevancy
today. In his time,
homelessness and
despair existed within
the larger context of
the Depression, and
the general public
was, for a while at
least, genuinely
touched and angered
by the suffering of
migrants.
Discussion notes: Chapters 22-26
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Today, some argue
that prosperous
Americans seem all
too willing to
accept the
presence of
homeless people
on the streets and
a desperate
“underclass” in the
ghettos.
Discussion notes: Chapters 22-26
Think back to “Roger and Me”:
 The pursuit of money is a
perfectly legitimate activity in
our society: It is the basis of
capitalism.
 But what happens when, in
the quest for the dollar,
human values are forgotten?
– In the context of the
novel, banks force people
from their homes; big
farmers eat up little
farmers; landowners
exploit workers.
 At what point does the pursuit
of money turn into a crime?
Discussion notes: Chapters 27-30
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By the time we reach the
end of the book, the
transformation from the
single family to the human
family is complete:
– The Joads and
Wainwrights live in the
same box car.
– When Al tears down the
tarp that hangs in the
middle of the boxcar, “the
families in the car were
one.”
– Al and Aggie decide to get
married, completing the
literal and symbolic
merger of the two
families.
Discussion notes: Chapters 27-30
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Transformations
– Emerson’s “Oversoul” has
the consequence of living
by the truth that
humankind is bound to
one another with spiritual
bonds. We become
responsible for what
happens to our neighbor
and to society in general.
– This principle is
exemplified in Ma, Rose of
Sharon, the Wilsons, and
the Wainwrights.
– But nowhere is this
manifested more than in
Jim Casy and Tom Joad.
Discussion notes: Chapters 27-30
The transformation of Jim Casy
 “Maybe it ain’t a sin. Maybe it’s just the way folks is … There ain’t
no sin, and there ain’t no virtue.”
 “What’s this call, this sperit? An I says, ‘It’s love. I love people so
much I’m fit to bust, sometimes.’
 “Maybe it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy
Sperit – the human sperit – the whole shebang. Maybe all men
got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.”
 “I ain’t sayin I’m like Jesus. But I got tired like Him, an’ I got
mixed up like Him, an’ I went into the wilderness like Him . . .
There was the hills, an’ there was me, and we wasn’t separate no
more. We was one thing. An’ that one thing was holy.”
 “An’ I got thinkin … how we was holy when we was one thing, an’
mankin’ was holy when it was one thing. An’ it on’y got unholy
when one mis’able little fella got the bit in his teeth an’ run off his
own way, kickin’ and draggin’ an’ fightin.’”
Discussion notes: Chapters 27-30
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All of Casy’s teachings
crystallize in his
disciple: Tom
– In prison, Tom learned
to mind his own
business and to live one
day at a time. By the
end of the book, he
prepares to leave his
family to continue what
“Casy done”: He
dedicates himself to
work for the
improvement of his
people, though it may
mean imprisonment or
his own death.
Discussion notes: Chapters 27-30
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“Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a
soul of his own, but on’y a piece of a big one –
an’ then – then it don’t matter. Then I’ll be
aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where – wherever
you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry
people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a
cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy
knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when
they’re mad an – I’ll be in the way kids laugh
when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s
ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise
an’ live in the houses they build – why, I’ll be
there. See?” (419)
That controversial ending
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What it reveals:
Those who do not share,
who continue to be selfish
and distrustful, “worked at
their own doom and did
not know it.”
That’s what makes Rose of
Sharon’s feeding of the old
man with her own breast
milk that much more
powerful: Saving a life is
the most intimate
expression of human
kinship.
That controversial ending
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The religious overtones are
apparent: the still, mysterious,
and lingering quality of the final
scene, as “her lips came together
and smiled mysteriously” (the last
words of the novel), might
suggest the subject of numerous
religious paintings: the Madonna
nursing her child, whom she
knows to be the Son of God.
It could be interpreted that Rose
of Sharon’s child was sacrificed to
send a larger message to the
world.
This is supported by Uncle John
sending the dead baby down the
river: “Go down an’ tell ‘em.”
That controversial ending
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What’s more, the name Rose
of Sharon comes from the
Song of Solomon: “I am the
Rose of Sharon, and the lily of
the valleys.” This name is
often frequently interpreted
as referring to Jesus Christ.
Thus, this final scene could be
seen as symbolic of the
Eucharist: “Take, eat, this is
my body…”
Rose of Sharon gains the
wisdom that she is doing an
ultimate act for humanity:
She is sustaining life.
That controversial ending
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The bigger picture is
this: The ultimate
nourishment is the
sharing of oneself and
whatever one has to
help others: Rose of
Sharon symbolizes
this by giving the only
thing she has to give:
literally, her physical
self.
Test #3: Preview
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30 multiple choice questions that cover chapters 1930; 8 short-answer questions totaling 10 points; one
essay (10 points). Five of the multiple choice
questions over the supplementary readings (including
comparisons between economic conditions now and
those during the Depression).
Closely review chapters 23 and 25
Essay:
– Be prepared to thoroughly discuss your
interpretation of the over-arching message of the
book, especially the ending : How should we view
the Joads’ situation and transformation at the end
of the book? There is no right or wrong, but there
is “better-informed” vs. “scratched-the-surface.”