The Grapes of Wrath

by Steinbeck

Paperback, 455 pages

English language

Published Jan. 8, 2002 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-200066-3

Steinbeck’s classic novel of the Great Depression is as vivid now as ever. The story focuses on a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, farmers who work another man’s land for a share of the crops. Driven from their home by drought and poverty they take to the road in a battered old truck and make their way to California to look for work. When they arrive they find hundreds of others like them being forced to work for breadline wages. they begin working as fruit pickers, strike-breakers replacing the people who have been trying to establish a union but their consciences force them to leave.

5 editions

stefun reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

When prayers end, the sound of money remains

5 stars

Content warning Spoilers!

This book is a true masterpiece in highlighting the human misery during an economic and societal crisis. The Joad family sets sails from Oklahoma to California to find dignity again. The loss of their land during the Dust Bowl forces them to find their luck in the lush valleys on the West Coast. On the journey, the family looses family members and hope. Faced with racism, hardship, and false promises, they struggle and barely survive. The grandparents die along the way, and the girl's baby is stillborn. They were never able to catch a break on this journey.

At the end, when the cotton harvest is done, rain sets in, they find shelter in a barn. They find a starving man and his boy. The girl is giving the starving men her breast to feed him.

We don't know how this book ends, but we can only assume that the suffering continues, and there is no end in sight.

I was tearing up at the end. The focus on the human element in this book really spoke to me. Every migrant was taken advantage of, and you can feel the same what the Joad family must have felt: sadness, misery, and hatred against people who see making money as their only moral compass.

Tereza reviewed Hrozny hněvu by Steinbeck

Syrová výpověď o sezónních pracovnících

4 stars

Sucho + intenzivní zemědělství + finanční krize 30. let = farmářská rodina Joadových se stěhuje z Oklahomy do Kalifornie, kde doufají v lepší zítřky. Syrová výpověď o sezónních pracovnících.

TL;DR ➡️ Super kniha, která by mohla být ještě lepší, kdyby byla v některých směrech trochu dotaženější. Skvělý portrét sezónních pracovníků v Americe za finanční krize. A dokonale vystihnutá proměna “starého” zemědělství v “nové” zemědělství.

Od Steinbecka jsem četla k maturitě O myších a lidech. Po Hroznech hněvu jsem sáhla téměř o deset let později, protože mě zajímalo právě téma sezónních pracovníků v zemědělství. Četla jsem v překladu Radoslava Nenadála.

Kniha se mi líbila. Zabývá se tématy, která mě zajímají: mechanizace zemědělství, zemědělství jako průmysl, vztah k půdě. Ta moderní zemědělská revoluce byla hrozně dobře vystihnuta. Je to celkově dobrá kniha, ke kterém mám ale pár výhrad. Proto jsem nakonec zvolila 4/5 hvězdiček.

Co by bylo za …

Co by bylo za 5 hvězdiček 👍 Ten jazyk! To mě moc bavilo. Steinbeck velmi dobře umí vést dialogy, zatímco se odehrává děj. Navíc byly dialogy velmi živé, opravdové a uvěřitelné. Líbila se mi obraznost, až určitá kinematografičnost. Zajímavé bylo proložení “dějových” kapitol více “lyrickými”, které podávaly obecnější výpověď, přesahující Joadovi. No a hlavně silný závěr.

Co by bylo za 3–4 hvězdičky 👎 Kvůli té obraznosti to bylo dost zdlouhavý, četlo se to někdy dost ztěžka, klidně by to šlo zkrátit o třetinu až polovinu. Ty “lyrické” kapitoly mohly být víc promyšlené, často nastiňovaly děj následující “dějové” kapitoly. Hlavní výtkou je určitá jednostrannost, zaujatost autora – chápu, mám na věc asi stejný nebo podobný názor, ale myslím si, že to není černobílé. Přidávalo by to na věrohodnosti, kdyby i ti zaměstnavatelé byli trochu plastičtější.

marca reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

socialism or barbarism

5 stars

little known fact: during the Great Depression hundreds of thousands of Americans have emigrated to the Soviet Union

DThoris reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Review of 'The Grapes of Wrath' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Read this originally in high school, like many other Americans, I'm sure. I didn't recall much about the book 40 years later, so I decided to read it again.

This is an amazing slice of life story from the Great Depression. It follows the Joad family from their farm in Oklahoma, where they lost the land due to the Dust Bowl and corporate farming, to California, where they struggled to find work, empathy, food, or any sense of stability or worth. The story is simple in its premise and stunning in its execution.

As a country, we failed our people in the lead up to the Great Depression, allowing for the 1% (as we say now) to move all the money to them and ignore the plight of the rest of the country. As a country, we are doing the same now. The rich pile more money into their coffers, …

DaveNash3 reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Review of 'The Grapes of Wrath' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Epic. Came here from Rage Against the Machine’s cover of The Ghost of Tom Joad, captures Tom’s speech to his ma near the novel’s end. If anything it’s a little long, but the writing is fantastic.

PanaX reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Review of 'The Grapes of Wrath' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Certainly lives up to its hype. And the ending is a hard kick to the genitals.

loppear reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Review of 'The Grapes of Wrath' on Goodreads

4 stars

Depressing, strong reminders of The Jungle in tearing at the American causes of poverty and desperation to retain one's humanity. Unabashedly pro-collectivism in the face of banks and capitalist landowners, and a darkly felt portrayal of "economic migration" and oppression whether you stay or go, perpetually relevant.

ToadyNerd reviewed The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck

Review of 'The Grapes of Wrath' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Steinbeck makes you really feel that you are on the battlefield. Some of his descriptions were repetitive, but I almost think that was on purpose... as the soldiers likely felt that way. The infantrymen very much felt they were small cogs in a large machine that just needed to keep moving without knowing where the machine was going. Some of the dialog was a little hard to follow, with the accents and slang.