Grapes of Wrath

The story and writing style of John Steinback and Robert DeMott in the book Grapes of Wrath reveal many things about both author's values and attitudes. The story is told from third person, but the feelings, thoughts, and personal stories of all the characters are told. This helps the reader get a feel for what life was like from all different points of view. In my opinion, the authors did this on purpose because it makes the plot more interesting. It also helps the reader understand what was going on, and the point of the story. By describing the heat, thirst, and desperation of the Joad family as they travelled west, it is easier to visualize it and picture what is happening. The Californians are portrayed as cruel without reason, unfair, and nasty to the families coming from the east. Although the reader experiences acts of cruelty, for example the derogatory use of the name "Okie," it is understood that they did not fully understand the situation of the families. Steinback and DeMott made a point of telling both sides to give the total picture of a time in our history of confusion and massive change. I think their thought and main goal while writing Grapes of Wrath was to make the story and the characters as real and as straight forward as possible. Both John Steinback and Robert DeMott obviously value the truth because they did not try to sugar coat anything. The story told the good, the bad, and the ugly, as it should. This book is a classic because it tells the tale of such an important time of our nations history. It tells the real tale, with every detail and image used to put the reader in the story. The attitude is not to pick sides of the stories, like from a Californian or from a moving farmer. Steinback and DeMott not only accomplished writing a novel that would become an American classic, but gave readers a tool to learn about and almost experience such a great changing time in our past.


Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006.