As posted in Goodreads
I shouldn't have taken this long to write my review on the Grapes of Wrath. It was such a moving book, and I should've written what I felt right on the spot. But, I'll do it now, hoping that there'll still some sparks left from the experience.
So I was on the mood to check on Great American novels, and John Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath is one of the books on my top list. It's also my first reading on Steinbeck's work. The book was published in 1939, so I assume that most people have read it, and knew the storyline. But, I'll write a bit about it.
So the book was set in the Great Depression in the 1930s. I've heard about it in some movies, but never really understood the effect. The main characters of the book are the Joads family, poor farmers who used to live in Oklahoma but had to move to California, not just because of the economic depression but also because of the Dust Bowl, a period of time where several prairies in the US and Canada endured severe dust storms which made growing plants for agriculture purposes impossible.
So they, with very very little that they had, head for their long journey in their old truck to California. The Joads were not alone. Hundreds of other families also migrated along. They were promised jobs in California where people can make money and feed their family. Little that they knew, the jobs in California was of seasonal nature, plus there's a huge influx of people coming trying to find jobs. So if they were lucky enough to find a job, they will earn very little. And not far better then the place they've left. Gosh it's such a sad, impossible story!
The Joads family started of as a complete set. Ma, Pa, their pregnant daughter, Rose of Sharon, and her husband Connie River; Tom Joad, Ma's favorite son who just recently released from jail, the somewhat mentally challenged Noah, the hot blooded younger Al Joad, the two youngers, Ruthie and Winfield, Granma and Granpa, Uncle John, and a former preacher Tom met on his way home, Jim Casy. It is so heartbreaking... - I'll be all out on spoiler now! - to see as they journeyed the long dusty road, the family started to be separated. Granpa died in the first night during the trip, partly due to (literally) a broken heart leaving the only place he'd known to be home. Granma lost her will to live and also died just before the family reaches California. Connie left his wife and the baby in her belly out of overwhelming mixed emotion? Noah decided to just live off fishing when they stopped near a river during their trip.
Tom tried his best to kept the family together, along with Ma. Pa's role in the book diminishes from the head of a family to a broken man because he failed again and again to support his family. Ma's role became stronger and stronger as the story moves along. She was like the strong pillar which enables the family to move on. Tom fills in Pa's role until he too had to leave the family.
The book shows how people in the lowest economy level are so helpless against the giant economy power, that a person is only regarded as numbers and a source of profit. If else, they're simply abandoned and pushed away. Their humanity wouldn't matter. The Joads and all the other families who decided to become migrants, didn't leave everything they had in their homes just to be rich and make a lot of money. They just didn't have anything left. LITERALLY NOTHING. And if there's hope, however bogus it sounds, they will definitely go for it. So that their children wouldn't die from starving. I mean, can't you understand it, their driving force is something as simple as to feed their stomach for another day!
I also found it interesting how the Oklahomans people who moved to California were prejudiced by the locals, being called with a derogatory term, 'Okies'. Looked down by people who knew that they were poor, and to assume that, because of that they are more likely to steal or have no manners, etc. It's like, being poor was simply their fault and therefore, you can steal the only thing left from them, their dignity! One of the greatest scene in the book is when Ma talked to a grocer who was selling his products at a much higher cost. Ma had only enough to get some sugar, salt and after long weeks of eating off whatever's left from their home, a bit of meat. And the boys had worked so hard to get this little money they finally got only to face the over pricing. Ma stood still, I mean, she was like a wall of wave, brazing herself so powerfully and with so much compassion, bargaining to the grocer to have a little more of heart not to do this harshly to her family.
"I'm learning one thing good," she said. "Learnin' it all the time, ever' day. If you're in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help – the only ones."
And it was the very thing that the book highlights. How despite being pretty much troubled and overwhelmed themselves, the Joads took another family of two whose car broke down to travel with them. The scene at the very last page was also such a description of how you can find humanity even at the most desperate situation.
Another scene which I liked and lasted for so long in my mind, was on one of the chapters of the 'general narrative'. So in the book, there are two types of''sub-chapter', the story of the Joads and the 'general narrative'. In this sub-chapter, Steinbeck usually described the Oklahoman people as a group of people having to deal with their difficulties and their journey migrating to California. One of the scene was about one of these dusty farmers who were moving along the road, and had to stop to get some food (if I recall properly) in one of these diners. They were so desparately poor, but still couldn't bear their wide eyed children hoping for some candies, so despite all that, they get the kids some. The waitress in the diner knew how helpless these people were, but still she tried to make extra money to the disgust of another costumer there. I mean, how could you? How dare one take advantage out of that? What if you're the one in their shoes? What if you were the one who desperately needed help?
Despite the sad theme, the book left me with such a proud feeling of how great humanity can be. It disgusted me how people can do wrong to others, but I can't help to feel sympathy towards the Joads. Especially Tom and Ma. I sure do hope that Ma can get, a little peace and comfort after all this ordeal...
Beautifully written book, Mr. Steinbeck. Thank you.
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