Book Review - The Grapes of Wrath

I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck yesterday. I had to read it for the college class I'm taking. The novel has become the story that has defined the Depression Era in the United States. No other novel has taken root in the American consciousness about that time like The Grapes of Wrath. The reasons may be many. It is a story about survival. The Joad family have to battle the elements on the exodus to California. Once they arrive, they have to deal with hostility from native Californians, greedy large landownders and corporations, starvation, and appalling living conditions. The novel also vividly depicts just how hard life was during the Depression. My step-mom had relatives who lived during that time and according to them, Steinbeck was smack on in his telling of how hard life was during that time. Another reason why the novel has defined the era is because it shows how the migrant families fit into the big picture of what was happening in the United States at the time. Ultimately, whatever the reason, the novel has defined the era like F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby defined the Roaring 20's.

The book itself is wonderfully written and is an easy read. My only complaint with the book is that it is so unbelievably sad. One disaster after another befalls the Joad family. They and other migrants are taken advantage of by greedy large landowners and companies who use them to make themselves rich. The books begs for justice for these suffering people. If you hate seeing people taken advantage of, you're not going to want to read this book. For myself, I didn't care to read the novel because some of the things in it hit a little close to home. I've had to deal with recruiters from various companies and like some of the agents in the novel who look for workers, the recruiters haven't been the most honest folks. Another item I discovered about the novel is that it isn't accurate or in some cases historically true. Keith Windschuttle wrote an essay called "Steinbeck's myth on the Okies." http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/jun02/steinbeck.htm. This essay shows that the number of Okies who migrate to California were not the number Steinbeck claims. It also shows that the Joad family would've been the extraordinary exception of those migrating. According to Windschuttle, the average size family that made the journey was approximately 4.4 members. Also, sharecroppers were far more prone to move than what Steinbeck shows. Overall, the novel can't be taken as historical fact.

Still, the novel does show how hard life could be during this great era in U.S. history. In that regard, the reader might find it an interesting read. Overall, I would say it is a great novel though one I wouldn't care to read. It is simply too depressing. I like to read more cheerful or escapist stuff. I can't recommend this novel unless you want to read something about the Great Depression in the U.S. Then, I would recommend the novel as long as you don't take it for historical fact. There is much that isn't true or is exaggerated in the novel. Also, Steinbeck was heavily influenced at the time he wrote the novel by his marriage to Carol Henning who was a Marxist as well as other Communist friends. Steinbeck talks about a future uprising in the novel. This was wishful thinking of those in the Communist movement of the time. As long as you take the inaccuracies that Windschuttle mentions, the novel will give you an idea of hard the Depression era was for people in the U.S.