John Steinbeck, a loyal and hardworking author, took upon himself the task of writing a novel that would change the lives of many American citizens. Steinbeck’s controversial novel, The Grapes of Wrath, sparked a state of terror that would soon affect his reputational status. Published in 1939, the novel told the story of a young family, the Joads, who took a journey across the country to find decent work in California. Steinbeck, being the author he is, included inter-chapters, which told the stories of many different people during that time. These people, as well as the Joads, struggled horribly. Before the creation of the novel, Steinbeck stated: “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]. I’ve done my damnedest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”) Accomplishing his goal, “many Americans were disgusted by how Steinbeck described the poor and accused him of exaggerating the conditions to make a political point.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”) The government of the United States began to accuse Steinbeck of communism, and attacked his social and political views. Most importantly, the Associated Farmers of California began to label The Grapes of Wrath as “communist propaganda.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”)
The government, believing that they were committing the correct action, began to investigate John Steinbeck with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI, however, denied that Steinbeck was ever under investigation to begin with. On May 11, 1942, Steinbeck wrote a letter to the US Attorney General, Francis Biddle, complaining about the abundance of FBI surveillanc...
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...inbeck defeated the irrational claims, and continued to spread his works and opinion. Terrified by this, many citizens and nations began to destroy the author's reputation, and unsuccessfully obliterate his novels, letters, and other "communism endorsing" works.
Works Cited
"The Grapes of Wrath." Banned Books Awareness. Deep Forest Productions, 12 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
"The Big Read." The Grapes of Wrath. National Endowment for the Arts, 2009. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
"John Steinbeck." FBI Records: The Vault. Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Fensch, Thomas. Top Secret: The FBI Files on John Steinbeck. Santa Teresa: New Century, 2002. Print.
Driscoll, Molly. "John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath' Wasn't so Beloved by One California County." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.
The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, was Steinbeck’s most controversial and most extensively critiqued novel, released in 1939. It was a heart-breaking story of the Joad family and them trying to find their place in a financially depressed country. One year later, John Ford directed a very popular and audacious film based off of that same novel. Both the novel and the film were widely praised and were very successful works of art. Of course, the film was not a carbon copy of the novel; it added its own flair and perspective to the story of the Joad family.
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
In conclusion the Grapes of Wrath is a literary masterpiece that portrays the struggles of man as he overcomes the adversity of homelessness, death, and the wrath of prejudice. Steinbeck fully explores each faucet coherently within the boundaries of the Joad family’s trials and
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that was written by John Steinbeck. This novel explores the predicaments that families faced in the "Dust Bowl" of Western America. The story shows how the Joad families, like many other families, were made to leave their homes because big business took over and the little man was left to fend for himself. Times were changing and families had to adjust even if that meant starting a whole different life in a brand new place. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck portrays the drawbacks of a capitalist system through the landowners who take advantage of small farmers and through the use of symbolism.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck presents the reader with a series of vivid images, accompanied by a series of powerful indictments. Steinbeck effectively uses both the potent imagery and clear statements of what he perceives as fact to convey his message. This short chapter offers a succinct portrayal of one of the major themes of the larger work. Namely, the potential bounty of nature corrupted and left to rot by a profit-driven system, a system that ultimately fails.
French, Warren. A Companion to The Grapes of Wrath. New York: The Viking Press, 1963.
John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent portrayal of the common and true Americans. While it is of course a book of deep thought and incredible symbolism, most of all The Grapes of Wrath gives these common American workers a voice and a distinct identity, and doesn't just turn them into a stereotype or cliche.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.
The tale of The Grapes of Wrath has many levels of profound themes and meanings to allow us as the reader to discover the true nature of human existence. The author's main theme and doctrine of this story is that of survival through unity. While seeming hopeful at times, this book is more severe, blunt, and cold in its portrayl of the human spirit. Steinbeck's unique style of writing forms timeless and classic themes that can be experienced on different fronts by unique peoples and cultures of all generations.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, is a novel depicting the Okies migration to California during the period in history known as The Dustbowl. In this novel Steinbeck attempts to display the tensions between the Okies and the Californians. This display can be closely compared to today’s tensions between citizens born in the US and the Immigrants. Great pieces of literature are timeless in the lessons they teach and the controversy they portray.
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most influential books in American History, and is considered to be his best work by many. It tells the story of one family’s hardship during the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Joads were a hard-working family with a strong sense of togetherness and morals; they farmed their land and went about their business without bothering anyone. When the big drought came it forced them to sell the land they had lived on since before anyone can remember. Their oldest son, Tom, has been in jail the past four years and returns to find his childhood home abandoned. He learns his family has moved in with his uncle John and decides to travel a short distance to see them. He arrives only to learn they are packing up their belongings and moving to California, someplace where there is a promise of work and food. This sets the Joad family off on a long and arduous journey with one goal: to survive.
“Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but its jus' in their head.” (Steinbeck) The Grapes of Wrath is most often categorized as an American Realist novel. It was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. As a result of this novel, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and prominently cited the novel when he won the Nobel Prize a little over twenty years after the text’s publication. This text follows the Joad family through the Great Depression. It begins in Oklahoma, watching as the family is driven from their home by drought and economic changes. Within the introduction of the novel the living conditions is described, “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: The walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it.” (Grapes, 1) This novel is and will remain one of the most significant novels of the Great Depression. Despite its controversial nature it is timeless. In fact, the ending of this text is one of the most controversial pieces of literature written during the time period, and has never accurately made its way into film. The ending to John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is the most significant portion of the novel due to its historical accuracy as well as its message about the American spirit.
John Steinbeck wrote the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to rouse its readers against those who were responsible for keeping the American people in poverty. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family, migrant farmers from Oklahoma traveling to California in search of an illusion of prosperity. The novel's strong stance stirred up much controversy, as it was often called Communist propaganda, and banned from schools due to its vulgar language. However, Steinbeck's novel is considered to be his greatest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and later became an Academy Award winning movie in 1940. The novel and the movie are both considered to be wonderful masterpieces, epitomizing the art of filmmaking and novel-writing.