SuitabookThe Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
- Reading
- Read steadily rather than rushing, pausing after episodes of loss or violence. Discuss the historical pressures alongside the characters’ choices, and consider using chapter questions or a shared discussion after completing sections.
- Themes
- Family, solidarity and community: The Joad family tries to remain intact while travelling, and migrants form connections and organise themselves in at least one camp. The book presents this favourably.
- Displacement and economic injustice: Sharecroppers leave Oklahoma for California during the Great Depression, amid forces that drive migration and intensify political, economic and social tension. The novel is framed as a realistic and passionate account of people struggling within harsh economic conditions, with social criticism central to its study.
- Violence, vulnerability and survival: Characters encounter killings, serious injury, starvation, deaths and a stillbirth while trying to survive displacement. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Worth knowing
- Expect strong language, smoking and drinking references, sexual references, and disturbing material involving killings, serious injury, starvation, deaths and a stillbirth. Some harmful attitudes are discussed without the described violence necessarily occurring.