Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath is one of those books that I should have probably read while in high school but didn't. Then again, there are probably tons of books that every high school student should read, and there is no reasonable way all of these students could read all of these books while still learning everything else one has to learn at that age.

Whenever I told people that I was reading this book, I didn't find anyone who had read it and actually enjoyed it. They usually looked at me funny and then listed the four or five reasons why they disliked the book. One friend gave up reading after the first hundred pages because it was so slow and boring. Another friend hated the dialect spelling whenever the characters spoke. Though the dialect did not bother me, this book was not my favorite. I struggled to finish the first half of the book when the characters spent forever getting ready to leave Oklahoma. I began to skim the passages and just read the dialogue instead of the descriptions because it was so slow. I found the most fascinating chapters were the short ones scattered in between the regular chapters. These chapters told the stories of people who were not connected to the main story, and their stories told about the larger economic transition in the US during the depression. Some of the stories about the novel's actual characters were incredibly boring. For instance, the chapter in which Tom goes to a junkyard to buy a part for his truck's broken engine was pointless and did little to advance the plot. There was too much description of what he was doing with the truck. After skimming through large sections of the book, I finally reached an interesting section of the book when the characters finally arrived to California halfway through the novel. At this point the novel seemed to have a more deliberate purpose- showing how migrant workers in California lived. I enjoyed this part of the book, and I liked the ending even though I heard some people say they hated it. If I had expected the book to have been entertaining with a good, clear plot that moved smoothly throughout the novel, the book would not have been enjoyable. However, since the book had a social agenda, I could enjoy how Steinbeck presented the issue and tried to influence the reader's emotions.

Photo by Russell Lee. Delta County, CO. September 1940.

Hauling crates of peaches from the orchard to the shipping shed.

This photo came from a Denver Post photo blog.

The Grapes of Wrath talked about how the characters

wanted to go out west to pick peaches and other fruits because

the economy in Oklahoma was complete crap.

Jim Day. Las Vegas Review Journal.

While reading the book I thought about the

current economic crisis that has forced many

of my peers and former classmates to move to

places in order to look for work or to move

in with their parents when American culture

traditionally frowns upon this practice, especially

for the men (though this is rather common in Europe).

The economy is better now than it was back in 1930s,

but the problem then was not only an

economic crisis with the Stock Market Crash but

also an ecological disaster in the Dust Bowl.

If the US was to have an ecological disaster like

the Dust Bowl again while going through

these current economic troubles, I wonder if the

Great Depression and the current 'Great Recession'

would have more similarities.