The Grapes of Wrath and The Human Condition

I just finished John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath yesterday, after reading his most popular work, Of Mice and Men, and it was such a painful and bittersweet novel.

Steinbeck in this book, and in Of Mice and Men, understands and empathises with The Human condition so passionately, and it makes his characters so relatable and tragic.

While I was reading this book, I actually felt like I was living the lives that were being presented to me. I felt like my land, my home, was being tractored and that I had to help my family drive to California. I felt the humanity when the Joad family tried to help Sairy and her husband to get east by fixing their car, or when all the men helped to dig a bank to prevent flooding. I felt the frustration when the "Okies" were bullied and harassed by police officers and local people. I felt the pain and the loss when Grandpa and Grandma died, when Connie left his pregnant wife, when Rosaharn's baby was stillborn. Yet, I felt the hope that, after all this injustice, all this sickness, all this sacrifice, all this suffering, things would eventually, slowly but surely, get better.

Ma was really the best character here. Even though she did lose her cool at (understandable) points, like against an officer who was harassing her, and against the woman who was cursing Rosaharn's baby with sin, she managed to stay as the patient, emotionally mature, rock solid heart of the family and was the only reason they could keep sane. She was the only reason I had any hope for the Joads.

I also loved the character of Casy, the "preacher", particularly the conversations he has about religion, sin, and humanity with Tom Joad and Uncle John. His brutal death only further accentuates the dsicrimination and dehumanisation of "Okies", as they are treated like illegal immigrants in their own country. It's insane how applicable this can be to the modern era with the treatment and demonisation of immigrants in the US.

The way it was written was also interesting, with every odd numbered chapter being a short, general overview of life for the average lower class citizen in America during the dust bowl: this mass of people is treated like one amalgamated force of refugees and migrants. Every even numbered chapter is much longer, specifically focusing on the Joad family as they are unfairly driven out of their home via poverty and must travel a couple thousand miles all the way to California and find work there to feed themselves. The sudden changng in pace and person between chapters could get weirdly jarring at times, though.

9.1/10, I hope East of Eden is just as good, if not better.