The Grapes of the Wrath

We are studying Steinbeck in "Literatura norteamericana III" but we only have time to read "The Pearl". Instead of reading The Grapes of Wrath, which is a long novel, we watched the film adaptation.


Are they different stories?

Well, I have not read the novel, so I can only tell you what we were told in class. It seems that the novel by John Steinbeck was very controversial, even banned and burned by citizens, but was also a success and Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1940.
And what about the film? Was it also controversial? We all know that Hollywood films are not done to make people think, but to make money, so the film is a sweeten version of the very controversial book. Even dealing with a difficult theme as the Great Depression, the film has some brief moments of comic relief (the dance at the government camp) which do not appear in the novel.


What I liked the most of The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940) is that you can find some of the Steinbeck's literature characteristics if you look closely. For example, generalization. Generalization means that one character does not only speaks for himself, but represents a collective. The story of the Joad's is also the story of a lot of people who were forced out of their lands, their homes. These people is somehow connected to their lands. As if they could not live out of it, as we can see when grandpa (Charley Grapewin) dies right after the trip starts. 

Another characteristic of Steinbeck's is that his works has references to the Bible. These family, that represents every family of farmers, set out on a trip to California, the promised land, as the Israelites crossed the Red Sea (Colorado river in the film).

Another reference to the Bible can be found. Casey (John Carradine) is seen as Jesus Christ, as both spread a message to the mass, especially to the poor people. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) is Casey's Peter. At first, Tom becames an apostle (follows Casey's ideas) and when he dies, he takes his places and becomes the responsible of spreading the message.

 Tom Joad after deciding to leave the camp.

To finish, I am going to discuss the ending. In the novel, after that long trip, the family loses everything after a big storm. However, they seem to have a future (not bright, but at least an opportunity) in the film.