The Grapes of Wrath Critics

Question 1

M. Cowley

Answer 1

“A greater tragedy than death is a burned-out bearing”

“The novel […] is John Steinbeck’s longest and angriest and most impressive work”

Question 2

P. M. Jack

Answer 2

“the novel comes to no conclusion […] the story stops after 600 pages merely because a story has to stop somewhere”

“It may be an exaggeration, but it is the exaggeration of an honest and splendid writer”

Question 3

C. Allen

Answer 3

“the insufferable Ma Joad […] serving as a mouthpiece for Steinbeck’s hick-collectivist platitudes”

“’The Grapes of Wrath’ is a literary twofer: bad fiction and bad history”

“the Okies turned out to be the exact opposite of progressive collectivists, becoming the backbone of California’s political and social conservatism”

Question 4

Steinbeck

Answer 4

“I’m trying to write history while it is happening, and I don’t want it to be wrong.”

“[I]t is a mean, nasty book and if I could make it nastier I would…the book has a definite job to do…I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this.”