Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath; 1940 film

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2006)

The following comment surmises the Classic book: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, but also pertains to scenes and events from the award winning 1940 picture.
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a stunningly realistic account of the daunting lifestyles of mid-western and southern farmers, who after having endured the vicissitudes of several consecutive years of drought and the lack of crop growth are compelled to relinquish ownership of their properties and move west for the prospect of a frivolous life, where fruits and vegetables are abundant and where labor is easy and prevalent. The historical significance of this movement is portrayed through the eyes of Steinbeck's memorable fictional characters: Casey, Tom Joad and his family. Having been recently released on parole from prison for the execution of a man, Tom Joad is keen on returning to his family once more. The identity of the man Tom has killed remains undisclosed throughout the book due to the fact that the significance of Tom's atrocity is not of the man he killed, but the reason he killed him. John Steinbeck built his book on characters with dormant animosity. The poor yield of the crops, the famine and pessimism of the future has all amounted to irrational wrath and unconventional violence. On his journey homebound Tom confronts a listless figure with his back against a tree bark and is surprised to discover that the person is none other than Casey, the preacher. Casey enlightens Joad that he is no longer a preacher and has given up a life of piety for the life of a "normal man". Here again, the ingenuity of Steinbeck's plot is witnessed, because the preacher's neglect of God shows that he unequivocally faces the predilections and dilemmas of the common people. He being a pastor does not make him exempt of the impending crisis soon to befall. By the time Tom Joad and Casey have reached Tom's former abode, they perceive that it has been abandoned and has been left to decay and disintegrate in putridity. When Tom asks a fellow farmer as to what has become of his family, he is aware that they have relocated elsewhere and are planning to embark on a tedious exodus west in a few days time. The grapes of wrath are beginning to plant their roots.
Tom and Casey reach Tom's family by nightfall and Tom asks his mother when they were to leave. She replies that they were to leave tomorrow morning. He then inquires whether or not they would have left, had he still been in prison. Tom's mother (alluded to as Ma) assures him that they would have dispatched an epistle. Now Steinbeck addresses the dire earnestness of the situation, by showing that Tom's family would have went west, whether he was in prison or not. When Tom's capricious grandpa adamantly rejects to moving west with the rest of the family he is knocked unconscious and sprawled upon the tarpaulin, which furthermore shows the vital importance of the move west. Soon after their departure, Grandpa falls ill and later succumbs to his sickness. He is given a banal burial, and the family along with Casey moves on, showing that even death would not intervene with the necessity of a better life out west. Later in the story when Tom's grandmother falls ill, the truck stops in front a checkpoint and an officer peruses about the items and occupants on board. Tom's mother ardently refuses for the mandatory checking, claiming that there are no liquids on board and that they have an ailing woman who is in need of critical medical attention. The officer permits them through out of maudlinness and when the rest of the family realizes that the grandmother is deceased they ask why she never informed them. She replies that she was scared the guards wouldn't let them through if they had known it was so, and once again we are blatantly witnessed to the importance of the migration west.
From thence forth the family is labeled as "Okies", not pertaining to the place of their birth, but a bias slur, generalizing them as simpletons who have neither food nor work, and ramp about the country pleading for undeserved privileges and necessities.
Goaded on by the lack of food and substantial work, the Joads reach California. Pa says something along the lines of "It will all be better once we get to California." and Tom replies that "We are already in California", signifying that life for them in the Midwest would be no different from life in California. Acres upon acres of plentiful fruits and vegetables which were not of their possession, but of the possession of the affluent, avaricious landowners were a mere ploy in the eyes of the Okies. They were there, redolent, serene and glistening, mocking the "Okies" for having come all that way merely to perceive something they would never have the ability to obtain. The grapes sagged on the branches of the Californian bushes. Troubles sagged on the hearts of the Okies and the wrath intensified into pure rage. The grapes of wrath had sewn their stalks in the hearts of the Okies.
Envy and spite instills within the former preacher Casey, to audaciously strike a cop who arrives to intentionally conjure trouble out of his own initial contempt. Casey is sent to prison and the family resumes in search of work and solace. Solace is found when the family reaches a stable government camp, where not only are hot baths and commodious tents bourgeois accessories but the affable people accentuate the atmosphere. The realization that life in the government camp is ephemeral goads the Joads onwards once more and Steinbeck idyllically portrays his use of deception by making his readers believe that a glorious life is prevalent when in all actuality it is not (he uses this style in Of Mice and Men as well).