The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

Leadership for the American Dream

Big Ideas

·  Balancing opportunities for all

·  Social mobility

·  Influence of class

·  Art of argumentation and negotiation

·  Social protest

·  The American Dream

Themes

·  The qualities of leadership transcend class.

·  The promise of America leaves no one out.

·  Upward mobility within America’s class structure depends on access to educational and economic opportunities.

·  Money should not be the only index of class distinctions.

·  Great leaders can emerge from adversity.

·  Character counts

Focus Questions

·  How can we resolve the class imbalance that exists today?

·  What role does class play in limiting The American Dream?

·  What is necessary to achieve The American Dream in today’s society?

·  When does the class of a leader matter?

·  What is the relationship between power and economic influence? What can we do to keep class from becoming caste?

Essential Questions

·  What rules or principles do I use for how to treat others?

·  What leadership qualities will I need to take with me from high school?

·  What can I do to avoid repeating mistakes made in history?

·  Who is position to help me affect change?

·  What responsibility do I have to society?

Steinbeck’s Writing Techniques

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/GrapesofWrath.html#Writing Techniques

...... Steinbeck uses a variety of writing techniques in The Grapes of Wrath to enhance his presentation. One of them is his somewhat poetic descriptions of nature. They frequently employ personification, as in the following two paragraphs from Chapter 1 in which a cunning wind uproots corn (much as the banks and landowners root up the tenant farmers) but later cries and whimpers over the corn (perhaps in mockery).

...... The wind grew stronger, whisked under stones, carried up straws and old leaves, and even little clods, marking its course as it sailed across the fields. The air and the sky darkened and through them the sun shone redly, and there was a raw sting in the air. During a night the wind raced faster over the land, dung cunningly among the rootlets of the corn, and the corn fought the wind with its weakened leaves until the roots were freed by the prying wind and then each stalk settled wearily sideways toward the earth and pointed the direction of the wind.
...... The dawn came, but no day. In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk; and as that day advanced, the dusk slipped back toward darkness, and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn.

...... Another technique is the use of omniscient narration in passages in which characters unidentified by name reveal their thoughts in second-person point of view. In the following passage from Chapter 7, Steinbeck employs this technique to reveal the thoughts of a dishonest car salesman:

Watch the woman's face. If the woman likes it [a car] we can screw the old man. Start 'em on that Cad'. Then you can work 'em down to that '26 Buick. 'F you start on the Buick, they'll go for a Ford. Roll up your sleeves an' get to work.

...... A third technique is the use of dialogue that imitates the patois of particular regions and social classes. The following conversation from Chapter 13 takes place after the death of Grampa Joad. Young Al is upset that Grampa died before having a chance to experience the wonders of California, especially the grapes that he was going to squeeze over his head in a joyous celebration. But in an attempt to comfort and enlighten Al—as well as Pa and Uncle John—Jim Casy tells him that Grampa was not at all looking forward to living in California:

...... He was foolin' all the time [about wanting to see California]. I think he knowed it. An' Grampa didn' die tonight. He died the minute you took 'im off the place [the Oklahoma farm]."
...... "You sure a that?" Pa cried.
...... "Why, no. Oh, he was breathin'," Casy went on, "but he was dead. He was that place [the farm], an' he knowed it."
...... Uncle John said, "Did you know he was a-dyin'?"
...... "Yeah," said Casy. "I knowed it."
...... John gazed at him and a horror grew in his face. "An' you didn' tell nobody?"
...... "What good?" Casy asked.
...... "We--we might of did somepin."
...... "What?"
...... "I don't know, but--"
...... "No," Casy said, "you couldn' a done nothin'. Your way was fixed an' Grampa didn't have no part in it. He didn' suffer none. Not after fust thing this mornin'. He's jus' stayin' with the lan'. He couldn' leave it."

...... A fourth technique is the rat-a-tat presentation of abundant specific details to capture the atmosphere of a particular locale. Consider, for example, the opening paragraph of Chapter 15:

...... Along 66 the hamburger stands—Al & Susy's Place—Carl's Lunch—Joe & Minnie—Will's Eats. Board-and-bat shacks. Two gasoline pumps in front, a screen door, a long bar, stools, and a foot rail. Near the door three slot machines, showing through the glass the wealth in nickels three bars will bring. And beside them, the nickel phonograph with records piled up like pies, ready to swing out to the turntable and play dance music, "Ti-pi-ti-pi-tin," "Thanks for the Memory," Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman. At one end of the counter, a covered case; candy cough drops, caffeine sulphate called Sleepless, No-Doze; candy, cigarettes, razor blades, aspirin, Bromo-Seltzer, Alka-Seltzer. The walls decorated with posters, bathing girls, blondes with big breasts and slender hips and waxen faces, in white bathing suits, and holding a bottle of Coca-Cola and smiling—see what you get with a Coca-Cola. Long bar, and salts, peppers, mustard pots, and paper napkins. Beer taps behind the counter, and in back the coffee urns, shiny and steaming, with glass gauges showing the coffee level. And pies in wire cages and oranges in pyramids of four. And little piles of Post Toasties, corn flakes, stacked up in designs.

Themes

·  Kinship

·  Unity and Cooperation

·  Love

·  Perseverance in the face of Hostility

·  Deceit

·  Prejudice

·  Greed

·  Hope

Symbolism

·  Dust

·  The Turtle

·  Light truck that hits the turtle

·  Bulldozer

·  Route 66

·  The thousands of migrants on the Road

·  California

·  Rose of Sharon

·  Grapes

Title (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/GrapesofWrath.html#Title)

The title alludes to the words "grapes of wrath" in Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Howe's words, in turn, allude toChapter 63, Verses 1 to 6, of the book of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible. In these verses, Isaiah, who lived in the Eighth Century B.C., envisions the Lord in the role of the Messiah coming forth from the lands of the wicked after punishing their inhabitants. Arrayed in bloodstained robes, He tells Isaiah that He has trampled the enemies of Israel as if they were grapes from a bad harvest, thereby venting His wrath. The juice of these bad grapes–that is, the blood of the enemies of the Lord–splatters his robes. In Steinbeck's book, the grapes of wrath are the harvests planted by landowners and growers.

The words of the first stanza of Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" are as follows:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.