The ending is really strange. Like I really didn't expect a book that is largely about a family struggling to make it after they lose their farm to end with Rose of Sharon breastfeeding a random dying man. I guess this supposed to be call back to the theme of the poor always helping each other out but like why make this the final scene.
My other problem with the ending is that it just kinda ends. Like we don't get much of a conclusion to our characters. They survived all sorts of things from discrimination to floods only to still be trapped in cycle of just barely hanging on by the end of book. I guess I was hoping it would work out a little better in the end for our characters but that life I guess.
Outside of the ending I really enjoyed the book. It can a little slow paced because steinbeck loves describing scenery for paragraphs at a time and every other chapter or so breaks away from the main plot to give us an interlude about what going on beyond the family. It's a really human story about the struggle of people just trying to survive after the dustbowl made their farmland unworkable.
I read this book because I really remembered liking of mice and men and I wanted to read something by the same author. Overall I liked the book and it's themes but would say that of mice and men is probably my favorite of the 2. If your planning on reading grapes of wrath it's like 450 pages so it's pretty long.
by boonyspard