The Grapes of Wrath 1013on farmers who suffer further degradation as the
sons of their former neighbors arrive on one of the
monster’s tractors to knock over their homesteads.
After they are forced off, their land will be farmed
as part of a huge tract of property by men who
admire the monster’s machinery but cannot love
the earth itself.
In perhaps one of the most moving sections
of The Grapes of Wrath, chapter 25 begins with a
beautiful description, given in biblical metaphors,
of a very fertile valley that is decidedly feminine,
with fragrant fruit blossoms, new life swelling from
the old vines, and full green hills that are round and
soft like breasts. The owners here do not love the
land either, but unlike the machine men, they are
scientists who experiment with seed and develop
the techniques for greater crops. These men become
proud because their knowledge has made the land
produce heavily, but this becomes a problem when
the market is glutted and the prices fall. And so,
fruit by fruit, vegetable by vegetable, the produce
is thrown on the ground to rot in order to raise
the price of commodities, including red apples,
black and red cherries, purple prunes, yellow pears,
green grapes, entirely new engineered foods such as
nectarines, 40 varieties of plums, and walnuts with
paper-thin shells. Coffee is burned for fuel, oranges
are sprayed with kerosene, potatoes are dumped
in the river, pigs are slaughtered and covered with
quicklime, and all these heaps of compost are
guarded by men with shotguns so that no hungry
migrants can salvage the discarded items for their
starving children.
It is the wrath of the poor to this injustice and
the starvation of their children that leads Jim Casy
to become a union organizer. He describes how the
migrants are like birds trapped in an attic who will
bust their wings trying to fight something they do
not understand, and later says they are more like an
army that needs a harness so that it can effectively
go to battle against the unjust economic system that
has so ruthlessly victimized them.
Kelly MacPhail
FamILy in The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck’s epic novel The Grapes of Wrath
chronicles the inhumane treatment of migrant
workers during the Great Depression and person-
alizes the story of collective hardship through the
Joad family. The novel’s protagonists must persevere
against landowners, starvation, and forces of nature
beyond their control that threaten to destroy the
one thing they have left after being uprooted from
their homes—the family. Consequently, the sustain-
ing strength of family is a driving theme from the
beginning to the end of the novel, echoed by Ma,
whose actions throughout are motivated by a desire
to keep her family intact. Yet Ma ultimately fails
to preserve her family, and in her defeat Steinbeck
offers a broader conception of family with a better
chance to succeed. Although family is one of the
most important themes of The Grapes of Wrath,
Steinbeck suggests that it is next to impossible for
the nuclear family to survive the migrant lifestyle,
which demands that individuals form new connec-
tions. Throughout the novel, the definition of family
expands to include friends, strangers, and finally any
human being in need.
From the beginning of the novel, Ma’s character
represents the strength of the nuclear family. She is
described as the “citadel of the family,” the strong
place that cannot be shaken. When the Joads are
kicked off the land, Ma’s greatest fear is not loss
of material goods but leaving home without Tom.
With Tom’s return, the family is complete, and
Steinbeck describes a smoothly functioning unit as
the various family members prepare for the journey.
As Ma later admits, the family unit has meaning
within the clear boundaries of home, but on the
road the value of the nuclear family is less clear.
Yet she continually believes in the strength of the
family and attempts to protect it at all cost. She
best displays family loyalty when she stands up to
Pa, threatening him with a jack handle if he allows
the family to split apart to fix the Wilsons’ car.
Unfortunately, Ma’s efforts are doomed to fail. One
by one, family members drift away, beginning with
Noah, who is the first to leave upon reaching the
California border.
While the Joad family falls apart as the novel
develops, unexpected new families form based
not on genetics but on common experience. First,
Reverend Casy expands the nuclear family. The
Joads convene the family government to decide if