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THE GRAPES OF WRATH
Date of publication: 1939, by Viking Penguin Inc.
Plot synopsis: After four years in prison for commiting homocide Tom Joad comes back to his home to find that his family has left, to go to California. They could no loger stay in Oklahoma, as the dust destroyed all the crops and tractor drivers replaced dozens of workers. Tom finds his family again, and moves on with them to the west. Also a former preacher, Jim Casey, follows the Joad family. On their journey, Granma and Granpa Joad die. In California the Oakies aren´t welcome. They have to live in Hoovervilles and state-camps. It is hard for them to find work, as there are hundreds of workers needed, but thousands of people who want to work. After comitting murder again Tom has to leave his family. As the rain starts people know that there will be no food or work too soon. Roes of Sharon, Tom Joad´s pregnant sister, goes into labor, and so the Joads can not leave the camp, allthough the place might be flooded. In a barn the Joads find a starving man, Rose of Sharon nurses the man, so that he can survive.
Main characters:
Tom Joad: He is the central figure in the Grapes of Wrath. Tom was in prison for four years for commiting homocide: he was at a dance drunk, and got into a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the head with a shovel. But prison didn´t change him, he even enjoyed staying there. He was treated relatively well in McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. If he would meet Herb Turnbull, the man he killed, again he would kill him again. ´but if Herb or anybody else come for me, I´d do her again. Do her before I could figure her out. Specially if I was drunk. That sort of senselessness kind a worries a man.` (p 46) As his family sees him again, they fear that he broke out of Jail, but he was released out because of good behaviour. He is also the one who takes Jim Casey to the Joad´s farm and wants him to join them on their journey. As he is on parole, he would normally not be allowed to leave the state, but he decides to go with his family, as he would only be in danger if he comitts a crime. But his mother fears that if provoked he will do so, as she knows that he can´t keep his violent tendencies under control. As Casey knocks down a police officer Tom has to hide so that he won´t come into trouble. Casey is taken away with a pruod smile on his face. In Timothy and Wilkie Wallace Tom findes two people of the same kind as he is one. They want to build up an own administration in the camp. In California it is hard for him to find work. He has been there for one month and has only had five days of work. As ge goes for a walk at night he meets Casy again who is on strike with a group of men. As he get´s confronted with police officers during the strike he kills Casy´s murderer. As he tells Ma that he wants to leave, she makes a last try to keep the family together and decides, that they should go all together. But as Ruthie tells some other children about Tom´s being-on-the-run he has to leave his family, but promises to return, if things become better.
Ma Joad: She is the mother of Noah, Tom, Rose of Sharon, Ruthie and Winfield. The scene of the family meeting where they discuss their going to California shows that she is the real leader of the family and illustrates the family´s dynamic. The numerous relatives across three generations make it difficult to figure the real head. The Joad family has Grampa as the nominal head, yet he exerts no special influence. If any member of the family leads the others, it is Ma, who dominates by moral force. It is she who issues the final verdict allowing Casy to go with them to California. While Tom Joad is the main character in The Grapes of Wrath, it is Ma Joad who is the story\'s moral center, reminding everyone that they have greater concerns than just their own interests it would be wrong for them to refuse to give food or shelter to anyone. You can also see this in the last scene of the book. (look to Rose of Sharon´s characterisation ) During the whole novel it is her aim to bring the family to California and to keep it together (e.g. she doesn´t want to leave Tom, Casey and Al alone with the Wilson´s car for a day till it´s fixed again) . She also tells nobody that Granma is dead to get her family over the border. On the back of the truck My lay on the matress beside Granma, and she could not see with her eyes, but she could feel the struggling body and the struggling heart; and the sobbing breath was in her ear. And Ma said over and over,´All right. It´s gonna be all right.´ And she said hoarsely:´You knw the family got to get acrost. You know that.´ (p 196) ´I was afraid we wouldn´t get acrost,´she said. ´I tol´ Granma we couldn´t help her. The fambly had ta get acrost. I tol´ her, tol´ her when she was a-dyin´. We couldn´t stop in the desert. There was the young ones - an´ Rosasharn´s baby. I tol´ her.´ ...´The fambly hadda get acrost,´Ma said miserably. (p 199) But not just the death of Granpa and Granma split the family up, also the dissapperance of Noah is a shock for her. ´Family´s fallin` apart,` she said. ´Í don´t know. Seems like I can´t think no more. I jus´can´t think. They´s too much.` (p 187)
Pa Joad: Although Pa is the head of the Joad household, he is not a forceful presence. It is his wife who´s the real leader of the household. But he loves his family and his wife.
Rose of Sharon: She´s Tom Joad´s younger sister. At the beginning of the novel she´s married to Connie Rivers. They dream of buying a house of their own and their coming child, as Rosashan (= Rose of Sharon) is pregnant. Connie plans to work in a factory and take evening courses about the radio, to find a better job later. Rose of Sharon stands as a contrast to the rest of the characters in "The Grapes of Wrath". She is the only adult character who retains some sense of hope for their future; she believes in the possibility of living a decent life with her husband and child. The other characters expect little more from California than meager survival, while Rose of Sharon hopes to live the traditional American dream. She is the one beacon of hope within the Joad family. Frustraded of how things became Connie leaves his pregnant wife. `If I´d of knowed it would be like this I wouldn´t of came. I´d studied nights ´bout tractors back home an´ got me a three-dollar job. Fella can live awful nice on three dollars a day, an´ go to the pitcher show ever´ night, too.´ (p 219) After Connie leaves her Pa claims that Connie was too big for his overally, but Ma scolds him, telling him to act respectfully as if Connie was dead. Ma said: `Rosasharn gonna have a little fella an´ that baby is half Connie. It ain´t good for a baby to grow up with a folks a-sayin´ his pa ain´t no good.` `Better lyin´ about it,` said Pa. `No, it ain´t,´ Ma interrupted. `Make out like he´s dead.` (p 238) But Rose of Sharons baby is a stillborn baby. It is put into an apple box and floated down the stream. As they see a man starving after the flood in a refugee camp, she breast feeds the dying man. She moved slowly to the corner and stood looking down at the wasted face, into the wide, frightened eyes. Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon looses one side of the blanket and bared her breast. ´You got to,´ she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. (p 399)
Reverend Jim Casy: He was a preacher, but he has lost his belief in God, because he doesn´t believe in the absolute idea of sin.Throughout the novel, Casy must frequently perform the duties of a preacher. Despite his conviction that he no longer believes in preaching, he is forced into performing the role, whether praying for Grampa as he suffers his stroke or saying a few parting words at his burial. This seems to indicate that Casy is best suited for the role of a preacher, despite his disenchantment with religion. In his parting words for Grampa Joad, Casy does reiterate his belief that people are the source of holiness. In a fight he knocks down a police officer, and has to go to prison. Released from there he joins the strikers, and gets killed in another confrontation. I think that Steinbeck wanted to create a Jesus Christ of his time. Both have the same initials for example. And as Jesus, Jim dies as a martyr, somehow.
Grampa Joad: He is the one out of the Joad family who doesn´t want to go west. ´You go right on along. Me - I´m stayin´. I give her a goin´-over all night mostly. This here´s my country. I belong here. An´ I don´t give a goddamn if they´s oranges an´grapes crowdin´a fella outa bed even. I ain´t a-goin´. This country ain´t no good, but it´s my country. No, you all go ahead. I´ll jus´stay right here where I b´long.`
(p 95) After the family forcibily takes him on the journey he soon dies of a stroke. ´No,` said Pa. ´There ain´t a drop a´whisky in the house. An´ John got no whiskey. He never has one when he ain´t dinking.´ Ma said:`Tom, I got a half a bottle soothin´ syrup I got for Winfield when he had them ear-aches. Think that might work? Use ta put Winfiel´ ta sleep when his ear-ache was bad.´ `Might,´ said Tom. ´Get it, Ma. We´ll give her a try anyways.` (p 96) As the family realize that Granpa suffers from a stroke, Granma tells Casy to pray for Grampa, even if he is no longer a preacher. Suddenly Grampa starts twitching and slumps. He dies. The Joads face a choice: they can pay fifty dollars for a proper burial for him or have him buried a pauper. They decide to bury Grampa themselves and leave a note so that people don\'t assume he was murdered. They write a verse from scripture on the note on his grave. After burying Grampa, they have Casy say a few words. The reactions to the death are varied. Rose of Sharon comforts Granma, while Uncle John is curiously unmoved by the turn of events. Casy admits that he knew Grampa was dying, but didn\'t say anything because he couldn\'t have helped. He blames the separation from the land for Grampa\'s death. Casy said:´He was foolin´, all the time. I think he knowed it the minute you took him off the place.´ (p125)
Granma Joad: Granma Joad does not survive much longer than her husband. After Granpa´s death the old lady starts to go crazy, yelling and talking to herself, she also believes that she sees granpa. She dies as the family crosses the border to California. ´Was granma bad?` Ma looked down at her hands, lying together like tired lovers in her lap. ´I wisht I could wait an´ not tell you. I wisht it could be all - nice.` Pa said:´Then Granma´s bad.` Ma raised her eyes and looked over the valley. ´Granma´s dead.` (p 199)
Al Joad: He ist Tom Joad´s younger brother. He is 16 years old. The only things he is interested in are cars and girls. He is the one who has the most knowledge about cars, so he also fears, that if something won´t work he will be blamed for it. Al was one with his engine, every nerve listening for weaknesses, for the thumps or sequals, hums and chattering that indicate a change that may cause a breakdown. He had become the soul of the car. (p 104) He dreams of becoming a mechanic and wants to start his own life soon. By the end of the novel he becomes engaged to Aggie Wainwright. ´Well, me an´ Aggie Wainwright, we figgers to get married, an´ I´m gona git a job in a garage, an´ we´ll have a rent´ house for a while, an´-´ He looked up fiercely. ´Well, we are, an´ they ain´t nobody can stop us!´ (p 373)
Noah Joad: He is Tom Joad´s older brother. He suffers from mental disabilities that maybe occured during childbirth. But he also cares for his family as much as possible. He leaves the family to remain an outsider. He wants to support himself by catching fish in the nearby river. ´Tom, I ain´t a-goin´ on.´ Tom sat up. ´What you mean?´ ´Tom, I ain´t gonna leave this here water. (...) Get myself a piece a line. I´ll catch fish. Fella can´t starve beside a nice river. (....) You know how the folks are nice to me. But they don´t really care for me. (...) It ain´t no use,` Noah said. ´I´m sad, but I can´t he´p it. I got to go.` (p 180) After he is gone people don´t talk about him any more.
Interpretation: The story of the Joad family is told chronologically and in many details. To me this book is not a novel that wants to amuse and entertain, but a novel, that wants to teach you values for your life. Steinbeck wanted his readers to think about the Joad´s situation and the way how they acted in their greatest misfortune. They helped a complete stranger, even or perhaps because they were close to death themselves.
I also understand how it comes, that Christian fundamentalists put this book on to the index. A preacher who has lost his belief in God and becomes a communist. And the similarities between Jim and Jesus. (explained earlier) Also the scene as Uncle John puts the stillborn baby into an apple box and sends it down the river, reminds of Moses.
Personal comment: It is a book that only Steinbeck can write it. He was writing about the lower class he lived in. Of course he used the typical slang, which you get used to quite soon. Steinbeck used too many words to describe the surroundings, and sometimes he forgot that he should be telling a story. Parts of the should have better become the additional word to a picture book about Oklahoma, Arizona and California. I liked reading Tortillia Flat and Of Mice and Man as both were funny, but as I already said this book´s aim is not the one to entertain, but to turn the world into a better place.
Of course also the American Dream is a major theme of the book. Rose of Sharon and Connie and also Al are a symbol for that.
Bookreport:
TORTILLA FLAT
Date of publication: Tortilla Flat was first Published in 1935 by MacIntosh and Otis Inc., NewYork
Plot synopsis: Danny comes home from the army and learns that his grandfather died and left him two small houses. The responsibilty weighs him down, so he first gets two gallons of wine before he takes a look at his property. While he is drunk he breaks some windows, so he has got to go to prison for thirty days.
As he is released he goes to live in his house, his friend Pilon move in the other house. Soon also Pablo and Jesus Maria Corcoran move with Pilon. As their house burns down they move in with Danny. They also ask the Pirate and his dogs to live with them as they want to steal his money, which doesn´t work. Also another of Danny´s friends comes to live with them, Big Joe Portagee. Together the friends go through various adventures and funny stories. Everybody except Danny seems to enjoy life. But he has problems as he can´t forget the responsibility he has. So he sells the house and lives like a tramp. But his friends bring him back to his home and they give a party for him. But Danny who isn´t happy at all about the party dies that night. After Danny´s funeral (the friends can´t attend it, as they have no clothes for such an event) they go to Danny´s house again and burn it, so that no stranger would own this symbol of holy friendship. The next morning all friends leave, alone.
Main characters:
Danny: He is the central figure of the story. After coming home from the army Danny finds himself the owner of two houses. When Danny hears about it, he is weighed down by the responsibility of ownership. Before he ever went to look at his property he bought a gallon of red wine and drank most of it himself. The weight of responsibility left him then, and his very worst nature came to surface. (p 11) So he is also put in prison. Danny´s great respect for the law caused him to go quietly. If he had not just been discharged from the army after the victory over Germany, he would have been sentenced to six months. As it was, the judge gave him only thirty days. (p 12) Danny is very hopitable, so he invites a friend, Pilon, to live in the other house. First they decide that Pilon should pay fiftteen dollars to live in the house but he never does. It is impossible to say whether Danny expected any rent, or whether Pilon expected to pay any.If they did, both were disappointed. Danny never asked for it, and Pilon never offered it. (p28) After Pilon and Pablo burn down Danny´s house (the one they "rented") they go to live with Danny in his house. Once Dany said: "Pilon I swear, what I have is thine.While I have a house, thou hast a house." (p 19) Also as they get to know the Pirate better Danny shows his big heart."Poor little lonely man," Danny added. "If I had known, I would have asked him long ago, even if he had no treasure."(p 86) All his friends are happy about the life they have. The friends had sunk into a routine which might have been monotonous for anyone but a paisano - up in the morning, to sit in the sun and wonder what the Pirate would bring. ... Occasionally the friends procured some wine, and then there was singing and fighting. (p 202,203) But Danny wasn´t happy about the situation at all. When Danny thought of the old lost time, he could taste again how good the stolen food was, and he longed for that old time again. Since his inheritance had lifted him, he had not fought often. He had been drunk, but not adventurously so. Always the weight of the house was upon him; always the responsibility to his friends. (p 203) To get out of this situation he runs away one night. Soon his friend are worried about what Danny is doing and search for him. Danny also sells the house to Torelli, a local shop owner. But the friends steal the paper that proves that Danny sold the house, so they can go on living there. (p 211-217)
As Danny returns he thinks about his friends again and brings them something to eat. (p 219) But something is wrong with Danny, he isn´t the way he was before. When Danny came back to his house and to his friends after his amok, he was not conscience-stricken, but he was very tired. The rough fingers of violent experience had harped upon his soul. He began to live listlessly, arising from bed only to sit on the porch, under the rose of Castile; arising from the porch only to eat; arising from the table only to go to bed. (p220)
To honour Danny and to make him feel better again the friends give a party. But Danny isn´t interested in it, he isn´t interested in anything. And Danny? He sat like a half-melted man. He moved only when the sun moved. If he realized that every inhabitant of Tortilla Flat had passed his gate that afternoon, he gave no sighn. Poor Danny! At least two dozen pairs of eyes watched his front gate. ( p 225)
It is a great party. Never had there been so many fights between two men, but roaring battles that raged through whole clots of men,each one for himself. As Danny comes to the party he is completely drunk and wants to fight somebody, as he is unable to find an enemy he leaves the house and goes out in the garden. There he falls or jumps into a gulch. They heard is last shrill cry of defiance, and then a thump. And then silence. (p 233) He is still alive as Pilon finds him at the bottom of the gulch but a few minutes later he dies.
Pilon: He likes the easy way of life. If somebody asks him to do something he will find an excuse for not doing it. "It would be nice to clean that window with soap and water," Danny said one time. Pilon´s sharp mind leaped to the problem with energy, but it was too easy for him. It did not require a decent quota of his powers. "More light would get in," he said. "We would not spend so much time out in the air if it were light in here. And at night, when the air is poisonous, we have no need for light."(p 186) But he is also grateful for what he gets and wants to show this also to Danny by searching for a tresure for him. I am digging this tresure for Danny. (p 103) He is also much more focused on money than his friends. (e.g. he is the one who wants to steal the Pirate´s treasure first, the others have seen the Pirate having money but they never cared. P 73 ->) Pilon is also interested in what is going on in Tortilla Flat. Pilon knew everybody and everything about everybody. (p74)
Pablo: There isn´t much to say about Pablo. He is also a friend of Pilon, so it comes that he lives with them together in the house. He isn´t very intelligent.
Jesus Maria Corcoran: He is described as the most positive character next to Danny. His heart was free for the use of anyone who had a use for it. His resources and wits were at the disposal of anyone who had less of either than had Jesus Maria. (p 136) It has been said that Jesus Maria Corcoran was a greathearted man. He had also that gift some humanitarians possess of being inevitably drawn toward those spheres where his instinct was needed. How many times had he not come upon young ladies when they needed comforting. (p 179)
The Pirate: He is quite lonely before he comes to live with the others. Before he goes there he has no friends at all. People think of him as just another one who is mad. Also the fact that he lives with his dogs in a chicken house doesn´t make him very poular. He has got something like a regular job: he cuts pinewood and sells it later. The friends think that he has a treasure, but once he swore that he would buy a candlestick if one of his dogs became well again and so he does, and the friends don´t get his money. (p 73 ->)
Big Joe Portagee: He is also one of Danny´s friends who comes to live with them. He was also in the army like Pilon and Danny. He isn´t very intelligent either and never stays awake very long when he is not moving. His role isn´t so important for the novel. There are only two episodes, where he takes a mayor part. Chapter 11 and as he is threeatened for stealing the Pirates money.
Interpretation: Just like in "Of Mice and Men" Steinbeck described a friendhip between men. "It is good to have friends," said Danny. "How lonely it is in the world if there are no friends to sit with one and to share one´s grappa." (p 70) And just like in "Of Mice and Men" there is no happy ending for the friendship of the men. Steinbeck used some chapters to write about ethic principles. (e.g. the episode with der corporal, or the episode as they hepl Teresina Cortez and her eight litte children by stealing food for them) Steinbeck invented "Tortilla Flat" and its citizens to describe the Mexican-Americans and their way of life.
Many people liked the vision Stenbeck had. Thousands of people, among them also Charlie Chaplin, came to Monterey to see this ideal place. It was a real fascination for the people of that time to read that there should be a place like Tortilla Flat in their country. A place where friendship is really existing and people aren´t always thinking of profit and business but from one bottle of wine to the next.
The book is not structured like a normal novel. There isn´t a story that goes through the book. First the situation is built up, and then the various episodes follow. I thought that in the end all the episodes might come together but even as they do not, the reader isn´t disapointed or confused, as Steinbeck knew what he wanted to tell his readers.
The book isn´t full of social criticism like "The Grapes of Wrath". Bt just like in the "Grapes of Wrath" he describes the country in a fascinating way. (e.g. the beginnig of chapter 5)
What confused me was when Steinbeck somehow seemed to enter the story. Oh, beware, Torelli, when Pilon moves smiling on you! ( p 215)
Personal comment: I liked reading "Tortilla Flat". The book was written in a lively and humorous way. Some of the adventures the friends went through were funny, others like the one with the caporal (p 136 ->) made you think of the situation. (Jesus Maria meets a corporal and his baby and brings them to their home. The corporal tells the friends that his wife, the one he has the baby with, is now in love with a capitan, and that this capitan made the corporal leave Mexico. While the baby is dying the corporal tells the friends that he want´s his son to become a general, so he tell´s this the baby twenty times a day. The friends think that he wants his son to become a general to take revenge. But the corporal tells the friends that he wants his son to become a general because he wants him to have more good things than he had. In the end the baby dies.)
What I also found very funny were the Spanish expressions Steinbeck used to catch the mentality of the paisanos.
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