World Famous Comics: The Grapes of Wrath (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
The Grapes of Wrath (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
By: John Steinbeck Publisher: Everyman's Library Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 608 Publication Date: March 09, 1993 Release Date: March 09, 1993 Studio: Everyman's Library
Product Description: Forced from their home, the Joad family is lured to California to find work; instead they find disillusionment, exploitation, and hunger.
A Tragedy that Lifts Our Big Human Soul ^ More than grapes and more than wrath, "The Grapes of Wrath" is a story about everlasting hope and compassion, despite pervasive hardship, poverty and death. The Joad family, uprooted from their 40-acre Oklahoma farm during the late 1930s by economic hard times, brought on by drought and dust storms and exacerbated by corporate greed and efficiencies of big agriculture, journey westward to California because they "got to" in order to stay alive, make a decent living, and retain a tenuous sliver of human dignity.
Through strife, exhaustion and personal tragedy, the Joads maintain their faith that the sun will shine tomorrow, no matter how heavily the rain falls today. In sharp contrast to Grampa's dream to "get me a whole bunch a grapes off a bush . . . [and] squash `em on my face an' let `em run offen my chin," and the family's hope that "it'll be all different out there--plenty work, an' ever'thing nice an' green, an' little white houses an' oranges growin' aroun'," California for the newcomer Joads is synonymous with difficulty finding work, menial wages when work is available, harsh living conditions, blatant animosity towards "Okies" from the local residents, constant money shortages, and always being hungry. By story's end, we are left wondering how the Joads are any better off after being flooded out of their railcar encampment next to a cotton field in central California, but we somehow find solace and comfort in the poignancy of Rosasharn's bighearted willingness to give from her own breast the precious life she has to share.
According to Steinbeck (and I think he is right on this point), the most generous people are those who have the least material wealth and fewest possessions. "For the quality of owning freezes you forever into `I,' and cuts you off forever from the `we.'" Further, in the words of (reformed) ex-preacher Casy (whose voice is probably Steinbeck's), "a fella ain't got a soul of his own, but on'y a piece of a big one." If only each of us, in our consumerist 21st century material bliss, could take this message to heart, perhaps our ever-so-efficient, profit-oriented, techno-mechanical world might become a friendlier, more compassionate place better fit for our one big human soul.
From a stylistic point of view, I found the many interludes juxtaposed between the primary chapters of the book more distracting than informative, particularly the ones written in stream-of-consciousness form. If the reason for including these "extraneous" interludes is to provide background information to complement the "Joad" chapters, then, in my opinion, Steinbeck should have adhered to a more documentary form in these sections, doing the research to develop the interludes into a more substantive and factual picture of the historical setting, condition of American society during the Great Depression years, and ironies of California as a land of boundless opportunity.
The Grapes of Wrath ^ The condition of the book was not as described in the offer....I believe it was described as nearly new or "as New" and the book was very tattered and marked up with a red felt pen in places. not real happy with that. Haven't had a problem in the past with Amazon.
My favorite book (tied w/ Anne of Green Gables) ^ This book isn't for everyone. People I know who haven't liked it say that it was too slow, or "What's the deal with the turtle?" and didn't get past the first couple chapters. Some say it's just too sad.
For me, this book meant everything. "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth." When I read this first line, I remember feeling like it was a line that I would always remember. I had the sense that I wasn't reading a story that some guy named Steinbeck came up with. I felt like the true feelings and experiences of a very real group of people were simply being funneled to me via Steinbeck's pen.
The story felt very relevant to early 21st century America in that Fear seemed to be at the root of all evil. The Grapes of Wrath showed how Fear could be used to control and exploit people on a huge scale. It also depicted the human experience as profoundly intertwined with the earth. The characters' lives were turned upside down by nature, first by drought and later by flood. The very last scene showed how all of us are on this earth, in this life, together, like it or not and I found comfort in that.
I had goosebumps and a pounding heart. All this for a book where the main characters speak in dialect about the "Fambly". Somehow John Steinbeck managed to fit what, to me, is essentially the meaning of life into a short novel about sharecroppers in the 30s.
An amazing book. Please read it (all of it).
A Must Read For Readers Of Every Age ^ If you have not read this timeless classic yet in your lifetime, you have missed out on beatiful literature and amazing adventures. This story is not the classic that no one wants to read. If you haven' read this yet, what are you waiting for? It's not too late to read an unbelievable story that you will never forget.
I'm bored ^ Delivered quickly. But some of the pages (chapter 25)were so marked up I couldn't read the text.
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