Work record
The Grapes of Wrath
John SteinbeckThe Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, is John Steinbeck's novel of a family of Oklahoma tenant farmers driven west during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.1939 · Early 20th Century · Novel · English
Abstract
Release. A young Oklahoman freed from the penitentiary walks home with a doubting former minister and finds the family homestead empty.
Uprooted. Banks and mechanised plowing have pushed sharecroppers off the land; his relatives pile everything onto a battered truck bound for the fruit country of the West.
Highway. The grandparents die along the way, one son drifts off, and a young husband abandons his pregnant wife.
Promised land. Orchards and fields hold far more hands than jobs; deputies harass camps, pay sinks, and only a federal camp gives a taste of self-rule.
Fight. The ex-minister, now organising pickers, is clubbed to death; the hero strikes back, hides, and departs to take up his friend's cause, while floods and a stillborn child bring the household to its lowest point and a final act of mercy.
Reading. Steinbeck's Depression epic offers a powerful study of poverty, family and solidarity; it is in copyright, so this page gives a summary only. Students can pair the novel with photographs of the period and with oral histories of migrants, follow how the short general chapters widen one household's ordeal into the experience of a whole people, and debate what the closing image says about charity, motherhood and survival when every other support has failed.
Main characters
- Tom Joad: A paroled young man who grows into a champion of the poor.
- Ma Joad: The strong heart that holds the family together.
- Jim Casy: A searching man who turns to organising workers.
- Pa Joad: A tenant farmer losing his authority.
- Rose of Sharon: A young expectant mother.
- Uncle John: A guilt-ridden relative.
Summary
The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, is John Steinbeck's novel of a family of Oklahoma tenant farmers driven west during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. It won the Pulitzer Prize and stirred national debate about the treatment of migrant workers. Tom Joad, paroled from prison after serving four years for killing a man in a fight, walks home and meets Jim Casy, a former preacher who has lost his old faith. They find the Joad farm deserted: the banks and landowners, using tractors, have evicted the tenants. The family is gathering at an uncle's house to leave for California, where handbills promise plentiful work picking fruit. Tom, Casy and three generations of Joads, led by the strong and steady Ma Joad, load their possessions onto an old truck and set out along Route 66. Grampa dies on the first night, and Granma dies during the desert crossing. Tom's brother Noah wanders away along a river, and Connie, the young husband of Tom's pregnant sister Rose of Sharon, deserts the family. In California they find too many workers and too little work, low wages, hostile police and squalid roadside camps called Hoovervilles. A clean, self-governing government camp offers a short time of dignity, but there is no work nearby. At a peach ranch the family takes jobs that pay strikebreakers, while Casy, now an organiser, leads a strike outside; guards kill Casy, and Tom kills the man who struck him, then hides. Tom finally leaves to carry on Casy's work, telling Ma that he will be present wherever people are fighting for justice. Rains flood the cotton camp; Rose of Sharon's baby is stillborn. In the final scene, sheltering in a barn, she gives the milk meant for her child to a starving stranger. Short general chapters between the Joad chapters describe the dust, the car dealers, the highway and the migrants as a people, joining one family's story to a national tragedy.
Virtues in this work
Plot or Argument
- Dust and eviction
Tom returns from prison to find his family driven off their Oklahoma farm.
- Route 66
The Joads travel west, losing Grampa and Granma on the road.
- California
They find low wages, hostile police, Hoovervilles and a brief refuge in a government camp.
- The strike
Casy is killed organising workers, and Tom leaves to continue his work.
- The flood
Amid floods and loss, Rose of Sharon offers life to a starving man.
Characters
- Tom Joad, protagonist
A paroled young man who grows into a champion of the poor.
- Ma Joad, mother
The strong heart that holds the family together.
- Jim Casy, former preacher
A searching man who turns to organising workers.
- Pa Joad, father
A tenant farmer losing his authority.
- Rose of Sharon, Tom's sister
A young expectant mother.
- Uncle John, uncle
A guilt-ridden relative.
Lessons
Family and community
Ma Joad's idea of family widens to include all people in need.
- How does Ma lead the family?
- How do migrants help each other?
- What does the final scene suggest?
Economic injustice
Steinbeck shows banks, landowners and growers exploiting displaced workers.
- Why are the Joads evicted?
- Why are wages so low in California?
- What does the government camp show?
Conversion
Casy and Tom move from personal concerns to concern for all.
- How does Casy's faith change?
- What does Tom decide at the end?
- Is their response right?
Context
In the 1930s drought and dust storms struck the southern Great Plains while the Depression ruined farmers; hundreds of thousands migrated to California.
Composition
Steinbeck researched migrant camps and wrote the novel in about five months in 1938.
Reception
Banned and burned in some places, praised in others; it won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize and became a famous 1940 film.
Comparisons
- Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck's novella of migrant ranch workers.
- The Jungle
Another protest novel about workers' suffering.
Quotes
For Students
A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.
Reading Guide
Watch for
- The turtle crossing the road in the early chapters.
- The tractors and the eviction.
- The deaths of Grampa and Granma.
- Life in the government camp.
- Tom's farewell to Ma.
Key terms and names
- Dust Bowl
- The drought-stricken southern Plains of the 1930s, swept by dust storms.
- Intercalary chapter
- A short general chapter placed between chapters of the main story.
- Hooverville
- A shantytown of the homeless during the Great Depression.
- Migrant worker
- A laborer who moves from place to place to find seasonal work.
Seminar Questions
- Comprehension Why must the Joads leave Oklahoma?
- Comprehension What happens to Jim Casy?
- Comprehension Why does Tom leave the family?
- Interpretation The title echoes Julia Ward Howe's 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' and, behind it, Revelation's winepress. Whose wrath is ripening in the novel, and against whom?
- Interpretation Why does Steinbeck end with Rose of Sharon's act?
- Big Question What do we owe to strangers in need?
Faith Connections
- Matthew 25:35 (Scripture)
I was hungry and ye gave me meat; the novel's final act of mercy.
- Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (Scripture)
Two are better than one; the strength of solidarity.
Logic and Rhetoric
Central argument: Economic forces strip people of land and dignity, but solidarity and compassion can preserve their humanity.
Rhetorical device: juxtaposition. General chapters on the migrants alternate with the Joads' particular story.
Debate: Resolved: that The Grapes of Wrath is more a work of protest than of art.
Writing Prompts
Essay: How does Ma Joad change over the course of the novel?
Comparison with Of Mice and Men: Compare The Grapes of Wrath with The Jungle as novels of protest.
Creative Prompts
- Essay
How do the intercalary chapters change our reading of the Joads' story?
- Fiction
Write a letter from Ma Joad to a relative in Oklahoma.
- Classroom
Compare Dust Bowl photographs by Dorothea Lange with scenes in the novel.
Further Reading
- Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Verification notes
Summary written from well-established knowledge of the novel. No quotations included because the novel is in copyright and verbatim wording could not be checked against a lawful full text.
No verification flags recorded.