Agitating. That's how I would describe how many parts of the book made me feel. It angers me how migrants were treated. All they wanted was a little bit of land. A little bit of food. But they were ostracized, deemed "Okies" and insufficient to live a decent life. "And while the Californians wanted many things, accumulation, social success, amusement, luxury, and a curious banking security, the new barbarians wanted only two things–land and food" (233). Steinbeck organizes The Grapes of Wrath in a back-and-forth narration about one family and brief, philosophical interludes. Page 233 is part of that interlude between the narrations of the Joad family. These interludes are what agitated me the most. They have a minimal amount of speech but are deluged with rich descriptions about the western lands, the Dust Bowl, the famine, and most importantly, how Okie families reached out to help each other during their journey west. At first, I was quite confused as to why Steinbeck chose to organize his novel with the disconnected narration and the interludes. I later realized that he chose to "disconnect" the reader from the Joad story with interludes and speak more broadly about issues of inequality because the Joad's are one family that represented hundreds of thousands of other families moving westward. That's what makes The Grapes of Wrath so grand: it simultaneously tells the story of one family while representing the experiences of hundreds of thousands of others who wanted nothing more than a little land and some food for their families.
Disgusting. Another adjective to describe how I felt at particular parts. What drew the most repulsion from me was when the police officers intentionally planned to wreak havoc in the government camp, which they otherwise couldn't enter. During one of the weekend dances, a man snuck into the camp and tried to cause a riot over choosing a dancing partner, which, as planned drew the police to the gates of the community. I was also very much disgusted by how the police officers treated the migrants, degrading them to anything but human. And this is quite a timely statement, considering the ongoing protests against police brutality in our nation today. As I was reading The Grapes of Wrath, I couldn't help but think, wow, one hundred years later the system still has not changed. Police brutality isn't new. It's a flaw in our institution that existed even during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
One of the most important themes I took away from The Grapes of Wrath was dignity and insistence upon being treated like a human. The inequality that eroded the 30s society was fueled in part by people's need for basic necessities like food but also by people, who were economically marginally ahead of the majority, and their desire to maintain whatever difference existed. This is why I was touched when the migrants began helping each other. Families would reach out and share what little food they had left and they would travel together to find work.
I was honestly surprised by the mellow ending Steinbeck chose. I thought the book would end more in a tragic light, similar to Of Mice and Men. But I suppose the Joads – or the migrants, rather – and their desire to preserve whatever decency they may have left allowed some of them to just make it. I will never forget the stress I felt as a reader learning that the Joads were once again on the road to find work. I think in total they must have found around four to five jobs, none of them prolonged or well paying due to the influx of migrants wherever the slightest inkling of labor could be performed for an even smaller sum of wages. "When there was work for a man, ten men fought for it… If that fella'll work for thirty cents, I'll work for twenty-five. If he'll take twenty-five, I'll do it for twenty" (283). But the Joads never lost their sense of humanity or dignity throughout the book. Even in times of struggle, they maintained what they felt to be the right thing to do. In times of crisis, they epitomized what it means to be human, even when others don't treat you like one.
This is one of those novels you don't stop thinking about when you're done. Certain scenes are still clear in my head, thanks to Steinbeck's vivid descriptions, and I can still almost feel the emotions of the characters in particularly dire situations. I rarely read a book and think wow as I'm reading it. Every chapter in The Grapes of Wrath simply had so much content and so much to absorb both intellectually and emotionally. As Penguin Classics wrote: "perhaps the most American of American classics".
No comments:
Post a Comment