The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of sharecroppers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in financial and agricultural industries.
Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they were trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they sought jobs, land, dignity and a future.
When preparing to write the novel, Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]."
The book won Steinbeck a large following among the working class, perhaps due to the book's sympathy to the worker's movement and its accessible prose style.
The Grapes of Wrath is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes. A celebrated Hollywood film version, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, was made in 1940.
In 1962, the Nobel Prize committee cited Grapes of Wrath as a "great work" and as one of the committee's main reasons for granting Steinbeck the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Grapes of Wrath tenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Famous quotes from the book:
Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes.
The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 1
Before I knowed it, I was sayin' out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing.' . . . . I says, 'What's this call, this sperit?' An' I says, 'It's love. I love people so much I'm fit to bust, sometimes.' . . . . I figgered, 'Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe,' I figgered, 'maybe it's all men an' all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit-the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of.' Now I sat there thinkin' it, an' all of a suddent-I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.
The Grapes of Wrath
Jim Casy in Chapter 4
Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 14
They's a time of change, an' when that comes, dyin' is a piece of all dyin', and bearin' is a piece of all bearin', an' bearin' an' dyin' is two pieces of the same thing. An' then things ain't so lonely anymore. An' then a hurt don't hurt so bad.
The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 18
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 25
Whenever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there . . . . I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'-I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build-why, I'll be there.
The Grapes of Wrath
Jim Joad farewell speech in Chapter 28
The Movie:
The Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford.
The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F. Zanuck.
In 1989, this film was one of the first 25 films to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Awards
Academy Awards wins (1941)
Best Supporting Actress, Jane Darwell as Ma Joad.
Academy Award for Directing, John Ford.
Academy Awards nominations (1941)
Best Actor in a Leading Role, Henry Fonda as Tom Joad.
Best Film Editing, Robert L. Simpson.
Best Picture, Darryl F. Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson.
Best Sound Recording, Edmund H. Hansen.
Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, Nunnally Johnson.
Other wins
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures: NBR Award; Best Picture- 1940.
New York Film Critics: NYFCC Award; Best Director, John Ford; Best Film- 1940.
Blue Ribbon Awards, Japan: Blue Ribbon Award Best Foreign Language Film, John Ford- 1963.
National Film Registry—1989.
American Film Institute recognition
100 Years...100 Movies #21
100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary) #23
100 Years...100 Cheers #7
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains: Tom Joad, #12 Hero
Henry Fonda as Tom Joad
Tom Joad — Protagonist of the story; the Joad family's second son, named after his father. Later on, Tom takes leadership of the family even though he is young.
Ma Joad — matriarch. Practical and warm-spirited, she tries to hold the family together. Her given name is never learned; it is suggested that her maiden name was Hazlett.
Pa Joad — patriarch, also named Tom, age 50. Hardworking sharecropper and family man. Pa loses his place as leader of the family to his wife.
Route 66
U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926.
The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).
Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
The most touched speech by Tom Joad: " I'll be there":
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