The Grapes of Wrath critics

Question 1

Community critics

Answer 1

Johnson:
“Our attention is drawn, not to a single hero, but to the group, as if to emphasise one of the novel’s messages – that strength, even survival, lies in unity.”

Cowley on the final moment = ‘to symbolize the fruitfulness of these people and the bond that unites them in misfortune.’

Question 2

“Not a promised …

Answer 2

Crockett:
“Not a promised land, but a blighted eden”

Question 3

Steinbeck against the American Dream

Answer 3

Hughes: “Steinbeck countered the idealism of the frontier”
Spangler: “Steinbeck has smashed the notions of the American dream”
- they don’t give up hope though = “the power of their California dreams” - Shillinglaw

Question 4

A novel fundamentally

Answer 4

Martin
A novel fundamentally about America’s failure to fulfil its possibilities

Question 5

Like Noah

Answer 5

the Joads go through the flood in an ark-like structure, but theirs cannot save the from the waters.’
- Rombold

Question 6

Character arcs

Answer 6

The book is about the education of Tom’s heart—as well as Rose of Sharon’s. Characters adapt.
= Shillinglaw
Tom is a kind of St Paul of social rebellion = Bloom

Question 7

Roosevelt

Answer 7

Eleanor Roosevelt stated ‘I had never thought The Grapes of Wrathwas exaggerated.’
– true relflection of poverty faced by migrants.

Question 8

Hope

Answer 8

Steinbeck did not want us to lose hope, he wanted us to get angry at those who would strip hope from us
Yuhas

Question 9

Gender

Answer 9

A theme in the novel is a loss of masculinity = Fernandes
Ma emerges as a central, cohesive force = Motley
The Joads go on mostly because of her [Ma’s] firm matriarchal will = Bloom
Rose of Sharon is “the inheritor of Ma’s matriarchal wisdom and power” = Williamson