An Anniversary for an American Classic

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My much-read copy of The Grapes of Wrath that I’ve had since high school. (Photo by me.)

This month is the 85th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath, certainly in the conversation for The Great American Novel.

As many readers know, John Steinbeck’s April 1939-published classic is about the Joad family fleeing Dust Bowl/Great Depression-stricken rural Oklahoma for the “paradise” of California, which turns out to be more hellish than heavenly for the impoverished people moving there.

The Grapes of Wrath became a beloved bestseller, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and inspired an also-beloved 1940 movie somewhat more upbeat than the mostly downbeat novel — which chronicles the experiences of ultra-memorable characters such as main protagonist Tom Joad, family matriarch Ma Joad, and lapsed preacher Jim Casy (who appropriately shares the same initials as Jesus Christ).

Not surprisingly, the wealthy elite of “The Golden State” hated the populist book and its class-conscious author for depicting them, and things, as they were. The novel has also, to this day, been periodically banned by right-wingers who don’t like its expose-injustice bent. Yes, The Grapes of Wrath still feels relevant in 2024 — 85 years after its publication and more than six decades after Steinbeck won the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The well-researched/very readable Grapes of Wrath (title suggested by Steinbeck’s first wife Carol Henning) is the author’s best novel, but he of course wrote various other excellent books that linger in the American consciousness. They include East of Eden, Steinbeck’s longest and most complex work; The Winter of Our Discontent, with its themes of materialism and moral decline; and the emotionally wrenching Of Mice and Men.

Steinbeck (1902-1968) was also skilled at seriocomic writing, as can be seen in Tortilla Flat as well as Cannery Row and its sequel Sweet Thursday. All three are quite enjoyable and compelling.

Among the author’s many other worthwhile works is the lesser-known The Moon Is Down, set in an unnamed Nazi-occupied country during World War II.

Any thoughts on The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck’s other writing, and the author himself?

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a senior center finally coming to my town and the “political hit job” of two councilors on another councilor — is here.

99 thoughts on “An Anniversary for an American Classic”

  1. Hi Dave,

    I was watching “The Middle” last night and one of the characters had a big bag of what looked like tennis equipment. But it wasn’t equipment, it was books about tennis. ‘And “The Grapes of Wrath” in case these other books are boring’. Which seemed about right to me. That same character reads “Of Mice and Men” in a different episode and I don’t want to give too much away, but he’s pretty horrified and says it should have been called “Of Men Killing Other Men” which shouldn’t make me laugh, but always does.

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  3. Have written about this before, but we’ve discussed the book itself before, so I will send it in again, as it is pertinent to the week’s topic

    On the last page of the manuscript for “The Grapes of Wrath”,the word ‘Slut!’ appears, puzzling researchers for many years. 

    Why?

    It turns out that Steinbeck and wife had visited Sweden the year before, and probably picked up the word there. When the editing process was complete, one of them wrote that presumably naughty word. 

    Which is no naughty word in Swedish, but means, merely ‘The end’, as in ‘finis’.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/11/solved-the-mystery-of-the-slut-scrawled-on-the-grapes-of-wrath-manuscript

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    • Thank you for the comment and link, jhNY! A terrific story/anecdote! I imagine Steinbeck and Carol Henning greatly enjoyed planting this word in the manuscript to puzzle scholars and others.

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  4. Hi Dave, I loved Grapes of Wrath. I even used a quote from this book in my latest poetry collection as it inspired a poem. There is a lot of tragedy and death in this book and it does show up the wealthy classes in the area who totally abused these people. They should be ashamed and try to ensure this doesn’t ever happen again, not try to hide it by banning the book.

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  5. Oh dear, I’m very sorry but after reading ‘Of Mice and Men‘ when I was about 12 years ago in school, I decided that I would never read anything by John Steinbeck again, all because the little puppy died – and I know it wasn’t his fault, but… etc

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  6. Well you know that this is probably my favorite novel of all time 🙂 So I OF COURSE enjoyed this post. I enjoy everything by Steinbeck, as he is one of my favorite authors – the Moon is Down is probably another one of my favorites, along with East of Eden.

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    • Thank you, M.B.! Your favorite novel? Nice! “The Grapes of Wrath” might be my second favorite novel, behind “Jane Eyre.” 🙂 And, yes, “East of Eden” and “The Moon Is Down” are both riveting reads.

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  8. Happy…. erm… Wrathy “Anniversary Grapes of Wrath”!

    John Steinbeck certainly deserves mega KUDOS for this novel.

    Dave, you seem to have covered all I could think of about the book, and its author.

    Then I had a brainstorm. I’ll bet they’re having a heated intellectual discussion about John Steinbeck & “Grapes of Wrath” over on  “Montclairvoyant”!!

    And YES! I was wrong.

    Seems there’s a Hostile Senior’s Centre hostel being built by Halyey Mills.

    It seemed a Pollyanna topic, but once I got into it I realized it was more heated than a heating pad on 10.

    Now that I’ve returned to the sanity of this blog, I’d like to say thank you Dave for dealing in literal literature!

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  9. The tragedies in Grapes of Wrath make me think of the nowadays people, who have to leave their homes and try to find a better life elswhere and oftentimes their hopes are destroyed by reality! The Steinbeck book that also touched me very much is “East of Eden” and the family’s chinese help “Lee”
    and the “Timshel” and you mayest! Many thanks,Dave, for having remembered this great writer.

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  12. Worth celebrating, Dave. I’ve read this book a few times and I’ve seen the movie many times. It’s interesting. This is one of the few books that was assigned that I actually enjoyed reading for the assignment. What was interesting to me was learning about a different Depression experience than the ones shared by family members.

    I wonder how the story will age as we lose our collective understanding of the Great Depression. Not that 85 years hasn’t been a good run.

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    • Thank you, Dan! I have similar memories — “The Grapes of Wrath” was assigned in high school, I was bowled over by it, I soon bought my own copy (the one pictured above), and then reread it several times over the years. And, yes, Steinbeck’s novel depicted a different Great Depression experience; my parents, when they were kids, spent that time period with family struggles in an East Coast urban setting.

      Interesting indeed about how “The Grapes of Wrath” will age as the Great Depression recedes even further into the past. I suppose there will always be severe economic downturns (like the 2007-2008 one) not quite as bad but still pretty bad to remind us that things can get rather dicey.

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  13. Dave, I read the novel in my younger days back in Guyana and was struck by the suffering of those hit by tragedy in America. While it still remains very much relevant to our times, I cannot at this time revisit its pages. There’s a different kind of dust blowing through “The Golden State” that’s leaving thousands of my collective Californian family homeless while the wealthy minority elite continue to grow richer.

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! Yes, while specifics in California are quite different in the 21st century compared to the 1930s, there’s still WAY too much income inequality. (“…a different kind of dust blowing through” — brilliantly put.) I can see how rereading “The Grapes of Wrath” could hit too close to home.

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  14. I read The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men in high school. I read East of Eden a few years later. I taught Of Mice and Men to eighth graders, and a great discussion of it–unlike the YA novel I was required to teach them (The Pig Man.) The discussion the latter book prompted pretty much began and ended with “I can relate.”

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  15. This post was especially meaningful to me, Dave!

    “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck is a very difficult novel to read, given the harsh realities of life during the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s vivid descriptions of the hardships and its stark portrayal of human suffering goes deep and leaves unforgettable memories. His unflinching portrayal of greed and callousness challenges us to confront uncomfortable truths about the darker side of humanity.

    My mother and father lived through the dust bowl. Frances remembers when the afternoon sun was obliterated by dust in the air. It was so dark, the chickens thought it was night and went to roost. My grandfather worked a full day on a prosperous farm for 50 cents and then walked home 5 miles to work his own. Frances recalls hearing her parents talk late into the night worried about how they were going to pay their land tax and the worry of bank foreclosures.

    Regrettably, the struggle to survive in a society plagued by poverty, exploitation, and injustice, continues. “The Grapes of Wrath” is timeless and remains a powerful and important work of literature that sheds light on the struggles faced by marginalized communities. Even today, years later Steinbeck prompts us to reflect on current issues of social justice, inequality, and the enduring resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

    I had to leave a quote!!!

    “Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won’t all be poor.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Superb comment — including the fascinating, challenging family history you so vividly described. The amazing memories your mother Frances holds! Some of which we’ve been privileged to hear about in your wonderful podcasts. “The Grapes of Wrath” is definitely one of those novels that’s both of its time and timeless.

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    • Wonderful comment Rebecca. I think I’ve read all Steinbeck’s books and I have and love them still. He could turn out a classic like Grapes or East of Eden but also work on a far smaller but just as powerful scale, with books like Mice and Men. A wonderful post Dave. 

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      • Thank you, Shehanne! Very true about Steinbeck — he could do the stellar big epic, and also “paint” well on a smaller canvas. Even his so-so debut novel, the pirate story “Cup of Gold,” is kind of interesting in its way.

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        • Oh yes. The great thing at that time too …regarding that first book… you could write a story. I know that sounds silly, of course they are stories,.. but the time, the setting didn’t matter. So if that was a teeth-cutter and then he moved on to seam a more familiar vein, then that was fine. Now , for all the self publishing etc, it is far harder to do that because it more comparmentalised. You can’t have this, you can’t have that, you have to watch POV shifts, the god narrator is frowned on, books in certain time periods don’t sell..etc etc etc

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          • Very true and very well said, Shehanne. It’s nice when an author doesn’t have to be so conscious of being in a defined category. And getting a debut novel out is indeed helpful for the writing process, whether or not the book much resembles what an author will do later.

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  16. I have read and loved OF MICE AND MEN, CANNERY ROW, and SWEET THURSDAY (the short novels!), but I haven’t read THE GRAPES OF WRATH or even seen the movie. I haven’t read EAST OF EDEN, either, but I have seen the movie with James Dean at least three times, the first time when I was a teenager and it made a big impression on me.

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    • Thank you, Kim! You’ve certainly read some excellent Steinbeck novels! The “East of Eden” movie, while justly famous, left out a huge chunk of the novel. I guess a screen adaptation of the sprawling “East of Eden” book would best be handled by a miniseries. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Darlene! Great that you’ll be reading “The Grapes of Wrath” this year! As painful as some of the things in Steinbeck’s novel are, the book is also compulsively readable. (The non-Joad-family chapters about societal conditions go a little slower.)

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  19. It is not that long ago, that I read Grapes of Wrath, and I was completely taken by it. Unfortunately It does feel like a story with many similatities to what is happening around us today. And just like back then, there are those who are not happy to see this being pointed out. I have also read some of Steinbecks other books, and he is well worth his prizes, I would say 😀

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    • Thank you, Thérèse! “The Grapes of Wrath” is definitely a novel to be taken by. 🙂 And, yes, injustice, anti-poor bias, and other things unfortunately never go away — and neither does the resentment of the rich and powerful for being called out about that. They’re frustrated that they can’t completely censor everything negative about them, though they sure do try.

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  20. I’ve also read Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley.” It inspired me to do my own trip around America. I was living in Minneapolis when I read it and recall being disappointed that he barely mentioned his travels through that city. It felt like MN got short shrift in his book. But I liked the book!

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    • Thank you, Marie! Nice mention! I also liked the (mostly) nonfiction “Travels with Charley,” though it was kind of uneven and, yes, Steinbeck did focus a lot more on certain places than on other places. I can see the book inspiring people to do their own traveling — with or without a wonderful dog. 🙂 Sorry Minneapolis didn’t get much attention.

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