John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath :: essays research papers

John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath serves as a milepost in the plethora of literature addressing the lives, adversities and perseverance of those affected by the American Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s. However, the responses generated by the book vary greatly. Some defecate hailed it as one of the great American masterpieces, flaws included, whilst others describe it as a so-so book fraught with distorted, dramatised history and propaganda. The question that persists sixty-six years later on the publication of the novel, and sixty-five years after the dbut of John Fords black and white drama, is can this work serve as reliable history and enduring literature? The novel was always intended to be a literal account of the hardships of the migrating Okies, yet as Keith Windschuttle eloquently dissects in his article Steinbecks Myth of the Okies, the historical distortions of the narrative, regardless of the authors intention, abound.Before assessing the historical merit of such a work it is important to consistently debunk the gross inaccuracies of the text. When assessing the historical writing of narrative, especially fictitious writing that presents itself as history, it is important to take into account the inherent subjective nature of a narrative. When creating any account of history it is unavoidable that the writer of fiction (or even brute fact) will select and combine sources he designates as relevant in order to aid the overall meaning-making process of the text. Thus, Steinbecks attempt to generate dramatised myth around the history of depression and in particular the Okies, is only a function of the narrative intended to capture the reader. For example, in response to Keith Windschuttles article some readers of the New Criterion have been quoted the greatness of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbecks masterpiece and one of the great American novels, should not be minimized, and I believe Mr. Windshuttle was wrong to do so. It is a story of the b ravery and perseverance of three-dimensional homo beings who come to life on the novels pages. The Grapes of Wrath is not a mere recounting of history, demography, or geography. -Grey Satterfield , Oklahoma City However, one cannot discard that the text is grossly distorted and propagandist at points. For example, the dust storms spoken of repeatedly in the novel would not have affected many of the regions draw , such as the area inhabited by the Joads, Salisaw Oklahoma.