"There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do."
The grapes of wrath. What a book!!! Epic. Although I have read about the great depression and the Dust Bowl migration also I read The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah previously but this was something else. Often said to be the 'American' novel with the American dream and its ways being the center of the plot but this book was something more. Steinbeck consistently and woefully points to the fact that the migrants’ great suffering is caused not by bad weather or mere misfortune but by their fellow human beings. Historical, social, and economic circumstances separate people into rich and poor, landowners and tenants, and the people in the dominant roles struggle viciously to preserve their positions. The Joads stand as definitive figures in their refusal to be broken by the circumstances that conspire against them.
People on the internet are saying this was difficult. This was one of the most effortless classic reads. I never wanted to keep this book down.
I especially liked the alternating narrative between the Joad family and the rest of happening during that period. The history, how people are reacting to the migration, and how cooperation and difficult times evolve people. The exposition between chapters was an incredible way to bring to the forefront the real transgressions of the time and place while using the story of the Joads as a tool to do so. Some of the most memorable passages I have read.
"and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; 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."
The Joads were victims of both a changing social structure and the ravishes of an environmental disaster. I agree that there were shreds of hope, human dignity, and kindness in the story, but in my opinion, those elements were overwhelmed by the pure hopelessness of their situation. Although I liked the... strange end and how they were still, after all, what they faced, willing to help some stranger in need. The end doesn't seem like things are going to be better in the future but I would like to believe they would survive. Also, Ma is one of the greatest characters and the whole book shows how women are often the foundation of human survival.
The book was raw, and intimate and reaffirms my belief in the persistence and strength of human dignity, kindness, and endurance.
This book will stay with me.
"Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be everywhere — 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 stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build–why, I’ll be there. See?”
