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Book Club Questions for The Grapes of Wrath
1. Look closely at the opening paragraphs. Steinbeck notes details as well as the wide angle shot. He was influenced by film - Pare Lorentz's documentaries The Plow that Broke the Plains and The River - and his description of place is cinematic here. The structure of these paragraphs mirrors the structure of the book, as it moves back and forth from the detailed Joad chapters to the inter chapters that cover a wider perspective.
2. The end of this opening chapter focuses on the people on the land, men vs. women. Note the ways that the book contrasts men's "figuring" to women's methods of coping.
3. Why does Steinbeck first introduce Tom Joad leaving jail? What thematic concerns are thus introduced?
4. The turtle chapter is justly famous. Early reviewers often focused only on the historical accuracy of the novel, whereas Steinbeck insisted that he was not writing merely social history. His vision was also highly suggestive, symbolic, mythic. The book, he said, had four layers - readers could take out of the novel what they could, based on their sensitivity and sophistication as readers. The turtle symbolizes the migrants in several ways. Discuss.
5. The meaning of home is important throughout this book. Discuss what home means initially to Muley, to Tom, to Ma and the other migrants. Does the definition of home shift throughout the novel?
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6. Muley and Casy is that each offers an alternative life to Tom, two ways to respond to crisis. Examine the central ideas and beliefs of each.
7. Steinbeck often read his books aloud to friends. Note how each of the Joads is initially introduced through stories. Note the passages where Ma talks to Tom, to Rose of Sharon and discuss the quality of those speeches.
8. Why do granma and granpa die before the family reaches California? Why does Noah leave?
9. Uncle John is called the "Lonest goddamn man in the world." What is his role in the book? How important a character is he?
10. Steinbeck includes a number of characters who work and have jobs. Indeed, if Fitzgerald is the American novelist who writes most convincingly about money, Steinbeck may well be the novelist who writes most convincingly about people who work. Cite examples.
11. The inter chapters serve a number of purposes: stylistic variety, pace changers, historical overview, repositories of Steinbeck's social and political ideas. Find examples of each. Note how his prose often echoes the King James Bible. Why would Steinbeck have included these echoes?
12. What is the role of the Wilsons and other migrants that the Joads meet? How is the family redefined as the journey progresses?
13. An early and thoughtful essay called "The Philosophical Joads" by Frederic I. Carpenter (1941), ends with this comment: "For the first time in history, The Grapes of Wrath brings together and makes real three great skeins of American thought. It begins with the transcendental over soul, Emerson's faith in the common man, and his Protestant self-reliance. To this it joins Whitman's religion of the love of all men and his mass democracy. And it combines these mystical and poetic ideas with the realistic philosophy of pragmatism and its emphasis on effective action. From this it develops a new kind of Christianity - not otherworldly and passive, but earthly and active." Trace these threads.
14. Consider the implications of the title, taken from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," whose lyrics Steinbeck had printed in the endpapers of the first edition. ("He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.") The title also refers to the Book of Revelations: "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God" (xiv.19). Comment on references to grapes - as representing both want and plenty.
15. References to water are equally abundant in this novel. Consider why water is such a powerful referent.
16. Compare the ending of John Ford's film - which ends with Ma Joad declaring that "we're the people" - to Steinbeck's ending. Why would Ford change the end? Why would he shift the placement of the government camp section?
17. Consider the importance of the Casy/Tom relationship as compared to the Ma/Rose of Sharon relationship. Both Tom and Rose of Sharon are being mentored; what is the significance of the growth of each character?
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