John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was first published in 1939, and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. That same year, the movie version of it was released in theatres, starring Peter Fonda. John Steinbeck, in 1962, won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and it's obvious that The Grapes of Wrath was the main reason why he won it. It is, afterall, considered his "magnum opus", or greatest artistic work, and one of the greatest American novels of all time. This phenomenal, life changing novel got number 10 on Modern Library's top 100 novels of the 20th century. Other juxtaposed landmarks include 1984 by George Orwell at number 13, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller at number 7, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald at number two, and Ulysses by James Joyce at number one.

Like how Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe nationally defined and represented slavery (and some say this book was the impetus of the Civil War) such is The Grapes of Wrath's take on the Great Depression. It starts with the rise of the Dust Bowl, and how the Joad family, (consisting of Tom Joad, Ma Joad, Pa Joad, Grandpa and Grandma Joad, Ruthie and Winfield Joad, the children of the family, Al Joad, Noah Joad, Uncle John, Jim Casy (not a part of the BIOLOGICAL family, but still a part of the family) Rosasharn Joad, newly pregnant, and Connie, her husband) is evicted from their land in Oklahoma, and forced to move, with great struggles, to California, where they envision a new and fecund life full of hope-full of jobs and opportunities. Finally reaching California, however, it turns out to be the antithesis of their fantasy. The people are cruel, calling them "Okies", there are very few jobs, and the living conditions, like the Hoovervilles, are deplorable. People have, by then, after all the gas and food, scarce money and as a result people starve and die. And when people DO find jobs, it's for extremely slim wages that can't buy them dinner, like 2 and a half cents an hour. To make matters worse, the cops also hate the "Okies" and do everything they can to drive them OUT, even if it means bashing a few heads in and getting bashed some... Overall, The Grapes of Wrath is not about one family's struggle, but of an entire nation's struggle, of man's inhumanity to man, the important role family plays, and the prospect that hope DOES exist in the most hopeless of situations.