Synopsis
Steinbeck’s classic novel of the Great Depression is as vivid now as ever. The story focuses on a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, farmers who work another man’s land for a share of the crops. Driven from their home by drought and poverty they take to the road in a battered old truck and make their way to California to look for work. When they arrive they find hundreds of others like them being forced to work for breadline wages. they begin working as fruit pickers, strike-breakers replacing the people who have been trying to establish a union but their consciences force them to leave.
Reflections
Review ★★★★★
This book is a true masterpiece in highlighting the human misery during an economic and societal crisis. The Joad family sets sails from Oklahoma to California to find dignity again. The loss of their land during the Dust Bowl forces them to find their luck in the lush valleys on the West Coast. On the journey, the family looses family members and hope. Faced with racism, hardship, and false promises, they struggle and barely survive. The grandparents die along the way, and the girl’s baby is stillborn. They were never able to catch a break on this journey.
At the end, when the cotton harvest is done, rain sets in, they find shelter in a barn. They find a starving man and his boy. Rose of Sharon is giving the starving men her breast to feed him.
We don’t know how this book ends, but we can only assume that the suffering continues, and there is no end in sight.
The focus on the human element in this book has left a lasting impression on me. Every migrant was taken advantage of, and you can feel the same what the Joad family must have felt: sadness, misery, and hatred.
Details
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- ISBN: 978-0-14-200066-3
- Started: 2025-09-26
- Finished: 2026-01-01