The Grapes of Wrath - The Meaning of the Title One of the most important parts of a book is its title. Some authors like to put a meaning in their title that can only be understood once the book has been read. John Steinbeck, the author of The Grapes of Wrath is no exception. This title can be understood better if both the book and the song "Battle Hymn of the Republic" are read. The title originally came from this song, which was written during the civil war in 1861, by Julia Ward Howe. Julia and her husband became part of the U.S. sanitary commission for the sanitary conditions in the Prisoner of War camps. She visited many Prison camps along with many Union Army camps. While visiting a camp one of the soldiers, who had read some of her poetry, asked her to write a song for the war effort. "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was the song she wrote for the men fighting. Since she was very religious, Julia incorporated her religion in her song. This can be found throughout the entire song, including its title. The word hymn is usually used when talking about a song sung at church. One of her lyrics even says "the Lord." Every time the word "he" is in her song it is capitalized, which usually means God. "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free"(Howe ) is another lyric in the song that refers to Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus died on the cross so that everyone's sins would be forgiven making them holy and allowed to enter heaven. The lyrics "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored"(Howe) is where Steinback got the title for his book. Literally a vintage is where wine is made out grapes. The grapes of wrath are refering to the struggles of men. When someone has a goal they want to accomplish, they will try their hardest to accomplish it. If something was to happen to get in the way of someone accomplishing their dream, most people would get angry. In the song, the vintage is where all of that anger, or wrath, is kept. The book The Grapes of Wrath is the story of a family, the Joads, struggling to get to California. Their goal is to reach California and find jobs so they can buy their own house. The book takes place during the depression when jobs were very scarce so noone in the book can find work. Also during this time people in California did not like the people they called "Okies" who were the farmers who moved to California in search of jobs just like the Joad family. The people of California looked down upon the okies and showed it by treating the okies badly. Some business men took advantage of all the okies and told many of them about job offerings. They told more people about this job offering than they needed, making the wages go down. This kind of treatment is the very thing that stands in between the Joads and their goal, which angers them and sadens them. The same goes for every other family like them. The first time the title is used in the book are the lines " . . . 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, growing heavy for the vintage"(Steinback 449). Before this quote the chapter talks about how men are throwing out good food because they can't make a profit, and to make sure no one picks up the free food instead of the food in their stores, the men pour kerosine on food or have guards to make sure no one takes the food or bury the food. The people who are starving have to watch this happen and cannot do anything about it. The hungry have one goal, that is to eat, but there are people in their way of their goal making them angry. "They splashed out through the water, to the towns,to the country stores, to the relief offices, to beg for food, to cringe and beg for food, to beg for relief, to try to steal, to lie. And under the begging, and under the cringing, a hopless anger began to smolder. And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger, and anger at the hungry people changed to fear of them" (Steinback 555) This quote shows what happens when all the anger builds up. The poor start to steal because they cannot reach their goal of finding a job because there is always something in their way. The book and the song have another connection besides the title. In the song "Battle Hymn of the Republic" the lyric "I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps" is talking about how God is everywhere. The book has a quote similar to that lyric. "Then I'll be all 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 suff they raise an' live in the houses they build - why, I'll be there." (Steinback 537). Earlier in the book one of the characters was talking about how every soul is part of one big soul. So everyone is apart of everyone else
Throughout the novel, The Grapes of Wrath there are intercalary chapters. The purpose of these chapters are to give the readers insight and background on the setting, time, place and even history of the novel. They help blend the themes, symbols, motifs of the novel, such as the saving power of family and fellowship, man’s inhumanity to man, and even the multiplying effects of selfishness. These chapters show the social and economic crisis flooding the nation at the time, and the plight of the American farmer becoming difficult. The contrast between these chapters helps readers look at not just the storyline of the Joad family, but farmers during the time and also the condition of America during the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck uses these chapters to show that the story is not only limited to the Joad family,
The Joad’s were facing many conflicts and in the process of losing their house. They heard there was going to be work in California and wanted to take the risk and move out there to find a job to provide. The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression were pretty huge topics in history and the novel about The Grapes of Wrath had some pretty raw details about their journey and similar to both histories. The Joad family pushed each other to have a better life in California and did everything they could to have a job to provide and eat, and mainly survive to live another day. In the novel, the beginning, the Joad family faced and struggled with nature, dust nature, just like the people that experienced this during the Dust Bowl. The people in the Southern plains dealt with a huge dust storm and the Joad family were also faced with this storm but struggled from these dust storms because of no work. No work means you can’t eat and
“Mine eyes have seen the glory”, are the words that begin The Battle Hymn of the Republic. A song that is about being virtuous and about an unrelenting faith in god. The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck that portrays 1930’s and the Great Depression. The styles and form of writing and portraying themes are different. Julia chose to write lyrics for a melody that was well known while John chose to write a many page book. Both The Battle Hymn of the Republic and The Grapes of Wrath are works that were made to inspire the reader or singer to push forward.
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 that does not end with any sort of hope, but does end with the reader learning about how real this novel really was. You do not put this book down after you read it and smile and wish that you could have been living in this era. This is why he ended the novel the way that he does and not 40 pages earlier where he could have made it a happy ending. Steinbeck is just like his novel and he wants you to know what happened, and why it happened. All of this happened because people were forced out of their homes and the only place they had to go was west and almost all of the families ended up like the Jones; with no money, nowhere to go and nothing to look forward to. Even though this is not the way that you wanted the ending of this novel to go, there was no other way that it could have ended.
In the essay “Spare Change”, the author, Teresa Zsuaffa, illustrates how the wealthy don’t treat people facing poverty with kindness and generosity, but in turn pass demeaning glares and degrading gestures, when not busy avoiding eye contact. She does so by writing an emotional experience, using imagery and personification whenever possible to get to the reader’s heart. Quite similarly, Nick Saul writes, in the essay “The Hunger Game”, about how the wealthy and people of social and political power such as “[the community’s] elected representatives” (Saul, 2013, p. 357) leave the problem of hunger on the shoulders of the foodbanks because they believe “feeding the hungry is already checked off [the government’s] collective to-do list” (Saul,
This song uses a range of different techniques to get the main message of the song across to the audience. Repetition is used in verses 2,4, and 8. “God help me, I was only nineteen”. The effect this gives is to emphasize how the composer is feeling. You feel the pain and the grieving the veterans went through whilst fighting for our country in the war. It makes you realize that some men and women were so young to go out and experience such things that no human being should go
Steinbecks point in referring to the phrase “ the grapes of wrath” thorugohut the nivel and in using it for the title of his book is to connect it to the Bible and the soong. The connection shows how in the book the people are angry at those who took their land and want justice and they are looking for that in God. The whole book revovles around religion and faith and how the people look to God for comfort and the gospel is their only hope of salvation. Jeremiah 25:15-16
Many Americans are familiar with the first verse of the poem The Defense of Fort McHenry but not by that name. Over the years since it was written, The Defense of Fort McHenry has become a part of American culture. The Star-Spangled Banner, as it is now known, is sung at sporting events and gatherings across the country but usually not sung in its entirety. Unknown too many Americans is there are actually four verses to our national anthem. “The Star-Spangled Banner” became a well known and loved patriotic song but it would take 117 years before it would become our national anthem. In the 1890’s, the military began using the song for ceremonial purposes. Then in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order designating it to be used as the national anthem when appropriate. Finally in March 1931, Congress officially named The Star-Spangled Banner as the National Anthem of the United States. Francis Scott Key’s use of setting, structure, and literary techniques in “The Defence of Fort McHenry”, captures the spirit of America and helped it become our national anthem.
During the Great Depression, no one was able to have a good life. It was sad and sandy and no one could be able to put a smile on their face. There is one family that was focused on in the movie “Grapes of Wrath” This family is the Joad family, they have about 12 people in their family. Out of all of them 100% haven't left the spot that they were born, many of their family member died on that same land. The farthest they had been from this home was about a 25 mile radius of land. When the Great Depression came it made it hard on this family and all families to be able to find enough money for anything. The Joad family decided to move to find work in california. Most of their lives were tested to how much this strong family could bear. One character in particular that stood out in Grapes of Wrath, was the mother.
Although both the novel and movie form of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath are considered to be American classics, the novel provides a deeper understanding of the story's time and meaning. Absent from the film, the novel's interchapters provide a greater understanding of the time in which The Grapes of Wrath takes place. First, in the movie it is unclear why the Joads are forced to abandon their farm. It is described very briefly by Muley Graves, leaving the audience in a state of confusion. However, in the novel, Chapter 5 explains exactly why the farmers are forced to leave. In this interchapter, Steinbeck uses a dialogue between a farmer and a representative from a bank; the farmer is forced to leave because the bank, or the"Monster" as Steinbeck says, needs to make a profit, and if the farmer cannot produce any goods to pay off debts, then the bank forecloses the land. This happened to many farmers in the 1930's due to a dr...
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.
The Grapes of Wrath tells the biting story of the Joad family as it battles to outlive and to preserve its respect in the center of the Great Depression. It is also the story of the social lesson of individuals like the Joads, inhabitant agriculturists who had been misplaced from their land and had chosen to move to California in trust of finding a superior life. John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, amid the Great Depression, and in response to the enduring he saw of individuals with disadvantages. He wrote regarding Oklahomans that were incapable to continue farming because of the disastrous climate conditions. Particularly, he wrote about the Joad family having to immigrate to California. Steinbeck composed the novel from a Marxist
John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath in response to the Great Depression. Steinbeck's intentions were to publicize the movements of a fictional family affected by the Dust Bowl that was forced to move from their homestead. Also a purpose of Steinbeck's was to criticize the hard realities of a dichotomized American society.
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.