problematic(愤怒的葡萄)The Grapes of Wrath 英文介绍及赏析

2021年1月21日发(作者：seed是什么意思)
The Grapes of Wrath




John Steinbeck

Context
John
Steinbeck
was
born
in Salinas,
California, on
February
27, 1902.
He
attended Stanford
University
without
graduating,
and though
he lived
briefly in New York, he remained a lifelong Californian. Steinbeck began writing novels in 1929, but he garnered little commercial or critical success
until the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935. Steinbeck frequently used his fiction to delve into the lives of society’s mo
st downtrodden citizens. A
trio of novels in the late 1930s focused on the lives of migrant workers in California: In Dubious Battle, published in 1936, was followed by Of Mice
and Men in 1937, and, in 1939, Steinbeck’s masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath.

During the early 1930s, a severe drought led to
massive agricultural failure in parts of the southern Great Plains, particularly throughout western
Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. These areas had been heavily overcultivated by wheat farmers in the years following World War I and were
covered with millions of acres of loose, exposed topsoil. In the absence of rain, crops withered and died; the topsoil, no longer anchored by growing
roots, was picked up by the winds and carried in billowing clouds across the region. Huge dust storms blew across the area, at times blocking out the
sun and even suffocating those unlucky enough to be caught unprepared. The afflicted region became known as the “Dust Bowl.”

By
the
mid-1930s,
the
drought
had
crippled
countless
farm
families,
and
America
had
fallen
into
the
Great
Depression.
Unable
to
pay
their
mortgages or invest in the kinds of industrial equipment now necessitated by commercial competition, many Dust Bowl farmers were forced to leave
their
land.
Without
any
real
employment
prospects,
thousands
of
families
nonetheless
traveled
to
California
in
hopes
of
finding
new
means
of
survival. But the farm country of California quickly became overcrowded with the migrant workers. Jobs and food were scarce,
and the migrants
faced prejudice and hostility from the Californian
s, who labeled them
with the derisive epithet “Okie.” These
workers and their families lived in
cramped,
impoverished
camps
called
“Hoovervilles,”
named
after
President
Hoover,
who
was
blamed
for
the
problems
that
led
to
the
Great
Depression. Many of the residents of these camps starved to death, unable to find work.
When Steinbeck decided to write a novel about the plight of migrant farm
workers, he took his task very seriously. To prepare, he lived with an
Oklahoma farm family and made the journey with them to California. When The Grapes of Wrath appeared, it soared to the top of the bestseller lists,
selling
nearly
half
a
million
copies.
Although
many
Oklahomans
and
Californians
reviled
the
book,
considering
Steinbeck’s
cha
racters
to
be
unflattering repre
sentations of their states’ people, the large majority of readers and scholars praised the novel highly. The story of the Joa
d family
captured
a
turbulent
moment
in
American
history
and,
in
the
words
of
critic
Robert
DeMott,
“entered
both
the
American
cons
ciousness
and
conscience.” In 1940, the novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and adapted to the screen. Although Steinbeck went on to have
a productive literary
career and won the Novel Prize for Literature in 1962, none of his later books had the impact of The Grapes of Wrath. He died in 1968.
Today, readers of The Grapes of Wrath often find fault with its excessive sentimentality and generally flat characterizations, which seem at odds with
Steinbeck’s otherwise realistic style of writing. However, in wri
ting his novel, Steinbeck attempted not only to describe the plight of migrant workers
during the Depression but also to offer a pointed criticism of the policies that had caused that plight. In light of this goa
l, Steinbeck’s characters often
emerge
as
idealized
archetypes
or
epic
heroes;
rather
than
using
them
to
explore
the
individual
human
psyche,
the
author
presents
them
as
embodiments of universal ideals or struggles. Thus, the novel stands as a chronicle of the Depression and as a commentary on
the economic and
social system that gave rise to it.



Plot Overview
Released from an Oklahoma state prison after serving four years for a manslaughter conviction, Tom Joad makes his way back to
his family’s farm in
Oklahoma. He meets Jim Casy, a former preacher who has given up his calling out of a belief that all life is holy
—
even the parts that are typically
thought to be sinful
—
and that sacredness consists simply in endeavoring to be an equal among the people. Jim accompanies Tom to his home, only
to find it
—
and all the surrounding farms
—deserted. Muley Graves, an old neighbor, wanders by and tells the men that everyone has been “tractored”
off the land. Most families, he says, including his own, have headed to California to look for work. The next morning,
Tom and Jim set out for Tom’s
Uncle
John’s,
where
Muley
assures
them
they
will
find
the
Joad
clan.
Upon
arrival,
Tom
finds
Ma
and
Pa
Joad
packing
up
the
family’s
few
possessions. Having seen handbills advertising fruit-picking jobs in California, they envision the trip to California as their only hope of getting their
lives back on track.
The journey to California in a rickety used truck is long and arduous. Grampa Joad, a feisty old man who complains bitterly that he does not want to
leave
his
land,
dies
o
n
the
road
shortly
after
the
family’s
departure.
Dilapidated
cars
and
trucks,
loaded
down
with
scrappy
possessions,
clog
Highway 66: it seems the entire country is in flight to the Promised Land of California. The Joads meet Ivy and Sairy Wilson, a couple plagued with
car trouble, and invite them to travel with the family. Sairy Wilson is sick and, near the California border, becomes unable to continue the journey.
As the Joads near California, they hear ominous rumors of a depleted job market. One migrant tells Pa that 20,000 people show up for every 800 jobs
and that his own children have starved to death. Although the Joads press on, their first days in California prove tragic, as Granma Joad dies. The
remaining family members move from one squalid camp to the next, looking in vain for work, struggling to find food, and trying desperately to hold
their family together. Noah, the oldest of the Joad children, soon abandons the family, as does Connie, a young dreamer who i
s married to Tom’s
pregnant sister, Rose of Sharon.
The Joads meet with much hostility in California. The camps are overcrowded and full of starving migrants, who are often nasty to each other. The
locals are fearful and angry at the flood of newcomers, whom they derisively label “Okies.” Wor
k is almost impossible to find or pays such a meager
wage that a family’s full day’s work cannot buy a decent meal. Fearing an uprising, the large landowners do everything in the
ir power to keep the
migrants poor and dependent. While staying in a ramshackl
e camp known as a “Hooverville,” Tom and several men get into a heated argument with
a deputy sheriff over whether workers should organize into a union. When the argument turns violent, Jim Casy knocks the sheriff unconscious and
is arrested. Police officers arrive and announce their intention to burn the Hooverville to the ground.
A government-run camp proves much more hospitable to the Joads, and the family soon finds many friends and a bit of work. However, one day,
while
working at a pipe-laying job, Tom learns that the police are planning to stage a riot in the camp, which
will allow them to
shut down the
facilities. By alerting and organizing the men in the camp, Tom helps to defuse the danger. Still, as pleasant as life in the government camp is, the
Joads cannot survive without steady work, and they have to move on. They find employment picking fruit, but soon learn that they are earning a
decent wage only because they have been hired to break a workers’ strike. Tom runs into Jim Casy who, after being
released from jail, has begun
organizing workers; in the process, Casy has made many enemies among the landowners. When the police hunt him down and kill h
im in Tom’s
presence, Tom retaliates and kills a police officer.
Tom goes into hiding, while the family moves into a boxcar on a cotton farm. One day, Ruthie, the youngest Joad daughter, reveals to a girl in the
camp that her brother has killed two men and is hiding nearby. Fearing for his safety, Ma Joad finds Tom and sends him away.
Tom heads off to
fu
lfill Jim’s task of organizing the migrant workers. The end of the cotton season means the end of work, and word sweeps acros
s the land that there
are no jobs to be had for three months. Rains set in and flood the land. Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn child, and Ma, desperate to get her
family to safety from the floods, leads them to a dry barn not far away. Here, they find a young boy kneeling over his father, who is slowly starving
to death. He has not eaten for days, giving whatever food he had to his son. Realizing that Rose of Sharon is now producing milk, Ma sends the
others outside, so that her daughter can nurse the dying man.

Character List
Tom Joad -

The novel’s protagonist, and Ma and Pa Joad’s favorite son. Tom is good
-natured and thoughtful and makes do with what life hands
him. Even though he killed a man and has been separated from his family for four years, he does not waste his time with regrets. He lives fully for
the present moment, which enables him to be a great source of vitality for the Joad family. A wise guide and fierce protector, Tom exhibits a moral
certainty throughout the novel that imbues him with strength and resolve: he earns the awed respect of his family members as well as the workers he
later organizes into unions.
Tom Joad (In-Depth Analysis)
Ma Joad -

The mother of the Joad family. Ma is introduced as a woman who knowingly and gladly fulfills her role as “the citadel of the family.”
She is the healer of the family’s ills and the arbiter of its arguments, and he
r ability to perform these tasks grows as the novel progresses.
Ma Joad (In-Depth Analysis)
Pa
Joad
-

Ma
Joad’s
husband
and
Tom’s
father.
Pa
Joad
is
an
Oklahoma
tenant
farmer
who
has
been
evicted
from
his
farm.
A
plainspoken,
good-hearted man, Pa directs the effort to take the family to California. Once there, unable to find work and increasingly desperate, Pa finds himself
looking to Ma Joad for strength and leadership, though he sometimes feels ashamed of his weaker position.
Pa Joad (In-Depth Analysis)
Jim Casy -

A former preacher who gave up his ministry out of a belief that all human experience is holy. Often the moral voice of the novel, Casy
articulates many of its most important themes, among them the sanctity of the people and the essential unity of all mankind. A staunch friend of Tom
Joad, Casy goes to prison in Tom’s stead for a fight that erupts between laborers and the California police. He emerges a det
ermined organizer of the
migrant workers.
Jim Casy (In-Depth Analysis)
Rose of Sharon -

Th
e oldest of Ma and Pa Joad’s daughters, and Connie’s wife. An impractical, petulant, and romantic young woman, Rose of
Sharon begins the journey to California pregnant with her first child. She and Connie have grand notions of making a life for themselves in a city.
The harsh realities of migrant life soon disabuse Rose of Sharon of these ideas, however. Her husband abandons her, and her child is born dead. By
the end of the novel, she matures considerably, and possesses, the reader learns with surprise, so
mething of her mother’s indomitable spirit and grace.

Rose of Sharon (In-Depth Analysis)
Grampa Joad -

Tom Joad’s grandfather. The founder of the Joad farm, Grampa is now old and infirm. Once possessed of a cruel and violent tem
per,
Grampa’s
wickedness
is

now
limited
almost
exclusively
to
his
tongue.
He
delights
in
tormenting
his
wife
and
shocking
others
with
sinful
talk.
Although his character serves largely to produce comical effect, he exhibits a very real and poignant connection to the land. The family is forced to
drug him in order to get him to leave the homestead; removed from his natural element, however, Grampa soon dies.
Granma Joad -

Granma is a pious Christian, who loves casting hellfire and damnation in her husband’s direction. Her health dete
riorates quickly
after Grandpa’s death; she dies just after the family reaches California.

Al Joad -

om’s younger brother, a sixteen
-year-old boy obsessed with cars and girls. Al is vain and cocky but an extremely competent mechanic,
and his expertise proves vital in bringing the Joads, as well as the Wilsons, to California. He idolizes Tom, but by the end of the novel he has become
his own man. When he falls in love with a girl named Agnes Wainwright at a cotton plantation where they are working, he decides to stay with her
rather than leaving with his family.
Ivy and Sairy Wilson -

A couple traveling to California whom the Joads meet on Highway 66, just before Grampa’s death. The Wilsons lend the
Joads their tent so that Grampa can have a comfortable pla
ce to die. The Joads return the couple’s kindness by fixing their broken
-down car. Hoping
to make the trip easier, the two families combine forces, traveling together until Sairy Wilson’s health forces her and Ivy t
o stop.
Connie -

Rose of Sharon’s husban
d, Connie is an unrealistic dreamer who abandons the Joads after they reach California. This act of selfishness
and immaturity surprises no one but his na?
ve wife.
Noah Joad -

Tom’s older brother. Noah has been slightly deformed since his birth: Pa Joad h
ad to perform the delivery and, panicking, tried to pull
him out forcibly. Slow and quiet, Noah leaves his family behind at a stream near the California border, telling Tom that he feels his parents do not
love him as much as they love the other children.
Uncle John -

Tom’s uncle, who, years ago, refused to fetch a doctor for his pregnant wife when she complained of stomach pains. He has nev
er
forgiven himself for her death, and he often dwells heavily on the negligence he considers a sin.
Ruthie Joad -

The second and younger Joad daughter. Ruthie has a fiery relationship to her brother Winfield: the two are intensely dependent upon
one another and fiercely competitive. When she brags to another child that her brother has killed two men, she inadvertently
puts Tom’s life in danger,
forcing him to flee.
Winfield Joad -

At the age of ten, Winfield is the youngest of the Joad children. Ma worries for his well-being, fearing that without a proper home
he will grow up to be wild and rootless.
Floyd Knowles -

T
he migrant worker who first inspires Tom and Casy to work for labor organization. Floyd’s outspokenness sparks a scuffle with

the police in which Casy is arrested.
Muley Graves -

One of the Joads’ Oklahoma neighbors. When the bank evicts his family, Muley
refuses to leave his land. Instead, he lets his wife
and children move to California without him and stays behind to live outdoors. When he comes upon Tom at the abandoned Joad farm, he directs the
young man to his Uncle John’s.

Agnes Wainwright -

The da
ughter of the couple who shares the Joads’ boxcar toward the end of the novel. Agnes becomes engaged to Al, who
leaves his family in order to stay with her.

Analysis of Major Characters
Tom Joad
Tom begins the novel in possession of a practical sort of self- interest. Four years in prison, he claims, have molded him into someone who devotes
his time and energies to the present moment. The future, which seems illusory and out of reach, does not concern him. He adopts this philosophy
toward living not because he is selfish but as a means of coping: he fears that by putting his life in a context larger than the present day, he will drive
himself mad with anger and helplessness. Of course, Tom, who exhibits a rare strength, thoughtfulness, and moral certainty, is destined for more than
mere day-to-day survival. Tom undergoes the most significant transformation in the novel as he sheds this carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy for
a commitment to bettering the future.
During their journey west, Tom assumes the ro
le of Jim Casy’s reluctant disciple. The former preacher emphasizes that a human being, when acting
alone, can have little effect on the world, and that one can achieve wholeness only by devoting oneself to one’s fellow human
beings. The hardship
and hosti
lity faced by the Joad family on their journey west serve to convert Tom to Casy’s teachings. By the time Tom and Casy reunit
e at the cotton
plantation, Tom realizes that he cannot stand by as a silent witness to the world’s injustices; he cannot work for
his own family’s well
-being if it
means taking bread from another family. At the plantation, Tom abandons the life of private thought that structures the lives
of most of the novel’s
male characters
—
including Pa Joad and Uncle John
—
and sets out on a course of public action.
Ma Joad
A determined and loving woman, Ma Joad emerges as the family’s center of strength over the course of the novel as Pa Joad gra
dually becomes less
effective as a leader and provider. Regardless of how bleak circumstances become, Ma Joad meets every obstacle unflinchingly. Time and again, Ma
displays a startling capacity to keep herself together
—
and to keep the family together
—
in the face of great turmoil. She may demonstrate this faculty
best
during
the
family’s
crossing
of
the
Cali
fornia
desert.
Here,
Ma
suffers
privately
with
the
knowledge
that
Granma
is
dead,
riding
silently
alongside her corpse so that the family can complete its treacherous journey. At the end of the episode, Ma’s calm exterior c
racks just slightly: she