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Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the category “For a book of fiction.” Included in many learning programs US schools and colleges. In 1940 it was translated into Russian.

Due to its detailed portrayal of hard life, it was initially withdrawn from libraries in New York, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Buffalo. Ireland banned the book in 1953, the Canadian city of Morris in 1982. Due to use vulgar words in the 1970-80s the novel was banned in some US schools.

Plot

The novel takes place during the Great Depression. Poor family Tenant farmers, the Joads, are forced to leave their Oklahoma home due to drought, economic hardship and changes in farming practices. Agriculture. In practice hopeless situation They head to California along with thousands of other Okie families, hoping to find a livelihood there.

Characters

• Tom Joad - main character novel, the second son of the Joad family.
• The mother is a practical and warm-hearted woman who becomes the center of the family in difficult times.
• Father - Tom Joad, 50 years old. A hard-working sharecropper, the leader of the family, but cedes leadership to his wife.
• Uncle John - John Joad, father's older brother. Full of guilt for the death of his young wife, for whom he did not bring a doctor, believing that her complaints were only pain from eating. Since her death, she has been trying to atone for her sin by doing good to people, mainly children. From time to time he breaks down and succumbs to his weaknesses for alcohol and women.
• Jim Casey is a former preacher who lost his faith. At the beginning of the novel he often talks about faith and human soul, during the road to California he is more silent and observing. By the end of the book he leads a strike against inhuman conditions labor. Dies at the hands of a member of the American Legion organization.
• Al Joad - third son, 16 years old, mainly interested in cars and girls.
• Rose of Sharon is a young dreamy daughter. At the end of the novel, she gives birth to a stillborn child, probably due to malnutrition.
• Connie is the husband of Rose of Sharon. Young and naive, he is overwhelmed by the responsibilities imposed by marriage and his wife's pregnancy. Soon after arriving in California, he leaves his family.
• Noah is the eldest son in the family. Suffered during childbirth, family and others consider him "a little strange." Leaves family, staying near the Colorado River.
• Grandfather - Tom's grandfather, wild and mischievous, at the beginning very joyfully accepted the idea of ​​moving. Put to sleep by his family and taken away by force, he dies on the evening of the first day, presumably from a heart attack. According to Casey, he died because he did not want to leave his native place.
• Grandma - Tom's grandmother, loses the will to live after the death of her husband, dies while moving through the desert.
• Ruth - youngest daughter family, 12 years old.
• Winfield - younger son family, 10 years.

History of creation

Steinbeck spent the summer of 1936 among seasonal workers in California. He collected material for a series of articles and essays under common name"The Gypsies of the Harvest Season." Everything he saw shocked the writer. It turned out that the overwhelming number of seasonal travelers are not newcomers from Mexico, but ordinary American citizens. Pictures of the miserable existence of seasonal workers could not leave his head, he decides to write about them new book, he will call it “The Affairs of Salad City.” But the work progressed slowly. Three more years will pass. Steinbeck would make more than one trip to seasonal camps and drive a car along their route from Oklahoma to California before he wrote the book that final version will be called "The Grapes of Wrath".

Screen adaptation

In 1940, director John Ford made a film of the same name based on the novel. However, the ending of the film differs significantly from the ending literary work- according to the canons of Hollywood cinema, the film ends with a happy ending, while the ending of the book remains open.

Title of the novel

The title of the novel goes back to Revelation of John the Evangelist 14:9-11, 18-20:

10 He will drink the wine of the wrath of God, the whole wine prepared in the cup of His wrath, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb... 18 You shall prune the grapes on the ground, because the grapes on them are ripe. 19 And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and cut off the grapes of the earth, and cast him into the great winepress of the wrath of God...

In the novel, "the grapes of wrath" is a metaphor. “In the souls of people, grapes of anger are pouring and ripening - heavy grapes, and now they will not ripen for long,” writes the author.

Many historians say that battle of Borodino the French did not win because Napoleon had a runny nose, that if he had not had a runny nose, then his orders before and during the battle would have been even more ingenious, and Russia would have perished, et la face du monde eut ete changee. [and the face of the world would change.] For historians who recognize that Russia was formed by the will of one man - Peter the Great, and France from a republic developed into an empire, and French troops went to Russia by the will of one man - Napoleon, the reasoning is that Russia remained powerful because Napoleon had a big cold on the 26th, such reasoning is inevitably consistent for such historians.
If it depended on the will of Napoleon to give or not to give the Battle of Borodino and it depended on his will to make this or that order, then it is obvious that a runny nose, which had an impact on the manifestation of his will, could be the reason for the salvation of Russia and that therefore the valet who forgot to give Napoleon On the 24th, waterproof boots were the savior of Russia. On this path of thought, this conclusion is undoubted - as undoubted as the conclusion that Voltaire made jokingly (without knowing what) when he said that the Night of St. Bartholomew occurred from an upset stomach of Charles IX. But for people who do not allow that Russia was formed by the will of one person - Peter I, and that the French Empire was formed and the war with Russia began by the will of one person - Napoleon, this reasoning not only seems incorrect, unreasonable, but also contrary to the whole essence human. When asked what constitutes the cause historical events, another answer seems to be that the course of world events is predetermined from above, depends on the coincidence of all the arbitrariness of the people participating in these events, and that the influence of Napoleons on the course of these events is only external and fictitious.

The novel, brutally exposing the reality of the lower class strata of the United States, became a classic of realism in modern literature. The author managed to convey all the horror and hopelessness of the wanderings of entire families across the expanses of a vast country in search of work during the Great Depression.

So, the main character Tom Joad returns to his home after serving a sentence in prison for murdering a man. Overcoming miles of land petrified by drought, he hopes to see his family and live as before. Only the house is destroyed and a fresh furrow with cotton shoots runs through the yard. The new owners of the land, faceless banks and trusts, decided that it was unprofitable to lease out the land. Every year, corn crops are destroyed by rain, drought, or strong winds that raise dust to the skies. Human labor does not justify itself. The efforts of dozens of families oppressed by slave labor can be replaced by one tractor. A simple calculation makes a person a hindrance for a huge colossus to extract profit from every hectare of land. Families who considered these lands theirs and once conquered them from the Indians are forced to leave their homes and go God knows where to work and feed their children. The whole country is in a fever of hunger and total unemployment.

The Joad family packs up their modest belongings and leaves their native land of Oklahoma. They, like millions of the same unfortunate people, are moving to California, where they hope that the fertile lands of the South will allow them to build a new, well-fed life. The road is long and brings even more losses and suffering. The Joads are not alone in their wanderings; everywhere similar refugees are setting up spontaneous camps and trying to create non-state associations to look for work and achieve decent wages. People are driven to despair, haunted by grief and death itself.

Having reached the cherished goal of California, the heroes see that there is the same poverty here, and the power of capital does not give a chance to get out of it. The poor can only cultivate other people's lands, receiving pennies for it. Despite the fertility of the land and the stable, rich harvest, people are starving here too. The smell of rotting fruits and vegetables engulfs the state. Anything that is not sold is destroyed. The harvest is burned, left to rot under the scorching sun, but not given to the hungry. So cruel and absurd new reality. All the owners of the land are interested in is profit. And wherever the heroes go, this law applies everywhere. The grapes of wrath are inexorably ripening in the souls of hungry people who have lost everything that was dear to them.

The novel is striking in its realism. It is saturated with the scorching sun, wind with dusty roads and the smell of death. The reader hopes to the last that these people will find a place for themselves in the land of opportunities, because too much has already fallen to their lot. But these hopes are as empty as the hopes of the heroes.

The last scene of the book makes the novel truly tragic. The mother of the Joad family and her unfortunate daughter Rose of Sharon, who recently gave birth to a stillborn baby, wander into an abandoned barn. There they see a child at the bedside with his father dying of hunger. The boy begs to save his father. The Joad women look at each other, they don’t need words to understand each other. Rose silently lies down next to the dying man and gives him her breasts, swollen from the flow of milk.

Even at the moment of loss and in the last stage of devastation from eternal suffering, and weak woman can find the strength to be generous. Having redeemed their souls in suffering, these wanderers were able to comprehend the essence of the true greatness of the soul.

Picture or drawing Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

Other retellings for the reader's diary

• Summary of Country of Scoundrels Yesenin

  The action of the poem “Country of Scoundrels” describes the events that took place in the Urals in 1919. The main character of the poem is the rebel Nomakh, in whom Yesenin means Father Makhno.

Plot

Dust storm in Texas, 1935

The novel takes place during the Great Depression. A poor family of tenant farmers, the Joads are forced to leave their Oklahoma home due to drought, economic hardship, and changing farming practices. In a virtually hopeless situation, they head to California along with thousands of other Okie families, hoping to find a means of livelihood there.

Characters

• Tom Joad is the main character of the novel, the second son of the Joad family.
• The mother is a practical and warm-hearted woman who becomes the center of the family in difficult times.
• Father - Tom Joad, 50 years old. A hard-working sharecropper, the leader of the family, but cedes leadership to his wife.
• Uncle John - John Joad, father's older brother. Full of guilt for the death of his young wife, for whom he did not bring a doctor, believing that her complaints were only pain from eating. Since her death, she has been trying to atone for her sin by doing good to people, mainly children. From time to time he breaks down and succumbs to his weaknesses for alcohol and women.
• Jim Casey is a former preacher who lost his faith. At the beginning of the novel he often talks about faith and the human soul, but during the road to California he is more silent and observes. By the end of the book, he leads a strike against inhumane working conditions. Dies at the hands of a member of the American Legion organization.
• Al Joad - third son, 16 years old, mainly interested in cars and girls.
• Rose of Sharon is a young dreamy daughter. At the end of the novel, she gives birth to a stillborn child, probably due to malnutrition.
• Connie is the husband of Rose of Sharon. Young and naive, he is overwhelmed by the responsibilities imposed by marriage and his wife's pregnancy. Soon after arriving in California, he leaves his family.
• Noah is the eldest son in the family. Suffered during childbirth, family and others consider him "a little strange." Leaves family, staying near the Colorado River.
• Grandfather - Tom's grandfather, wild and mischievous, at the beginning very joyfully accepted the idea of ​​moving. Put to sleep by his family and taken away by force, he dies on the evening of the first day, presumably from a heart attack. According to Casey, he died because he did not want to leave his native place.
• Grandma - Tom's grandmother, loses the will to live after the death of her husband, dies while moving through the desert.
• Ruth is the youngest daughter of the family, 12 years old.
• Winfield is the family's youngest son, 10 years old.

History of creation

Steinbeck spent the summer of 1936 among seasonal workers in California. He collected material for a series of articles and essays under the general title “Gypsies of the Harvest Period.” Everything he saw shocked the writer. It turned out that the overwhelming number of seasonal travelers are not newcomers from Mexico, but ordinary American citizens. Pictures of the miserable existence of seasonal workers could not leave his head, he decides to write a new book about them, he will call it “The Affairs of Salad City.” But the work progressed slowly. Three more years will pass. Steinbeck would make more than one trip to seasonal camps and drive a car along their route from Oklahoma to California before he wrote the book that would eventually be called The Grapes of Wrath.

Screen adaptation

And the angel cast his sickle on the ground, and cut off the grapes on the ground, and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. (Rev. 14:19)

In the novel, "the grapes of wrath" is a metaphor. “In the souls of people, grapes of anger are pouring and ripening - heavy grapes, and now they will not ripen for long.” - writes the author.

Cultural influence

Paradise Pastures (1932) The Long Valley (1938) Snake Chrysanthemum

The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath (1936) They're of a Strong Kind (1938) Once There Was a War (1958) America and the Americans (1966) Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)

Abandoned Village (1952) Viva Zapata (1938)

Categories:

• Literary works in alphabetical order
• John Steinbeck
• Novels of John Steinbeck
• Novels of 1939
• Books in alphabetical order
• The Great Depression
• Great Plains
• Works awarded the Pulitzer Prize

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

• Hansen, Kai
• Gontier, Adam

See what “Grapes of Wrath” is in other dictionaries:

The Grapes of Wrath- From English: Grapes of Wrath. Title of the Novel (1940) American writer John Ernst Steinbeck (1902 1968), who speaks in his novel about the ruin of farmers by large monopolies and about the sentiments that are ripening among them: “In ... ... Dictionary winged words and expressions

The Grapes of Wrath- Book High About the just anger that has accumulated in the soul for the humiliation, oppression and lack of rights experienced. /i> Goes back to the Bible. BMS 1998, 138 ... Big dictionary Russian sayings

Due to its detailed portrayal of hard life, it was initially withdrawn from libraries in New York, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Buffalo. Ireland banned the book in 1953, the Canadian city of Morris in 1982. Due to the use of vulgar words in the 1970s and 80s. the novel was banned in some US schools.

Plot [ | ]

Dust storm in Texas, 1935

The novel takes place during the Great Depression. A poor family of tenant farmers, the Joads are forced to leave their Oklahoma home due to drought, economic hardship, and changing farming practices. In an almost hopeless situation, they head to California along with thousands of other Okie families, hoping to find a means of livelihood there.

Characters [ | ]

History of creation[ | ]

Steinbeck spent the summer of 1936 among seasonal workers in California. He collected material for a series of articles and essays under the general title “Gypsies of the Harvest Period.” Everything he saw shocked the writer. It turned out that the overwhelming number of seasonal travelers are not newcomers from Mexico, but ordinary American citizens. Pictures of the miserable existence of seasonal workers could not leave his head, he decides to write a new book about them, he will call it “The Affairs of Salad City.” But the work progressed slowly. Three more years will pass. Steinbeck would make more than one trip to seasonal camps and drive a car along their route from Oklahoma to California before he wrote the book that would eventually be called The Grapes of Wrath.

Screen adaptation [ | ]

In 1940, director John Ford made a film of the same name based on the novel. However, the ending of the film differs significantly from the ending of a literary work - according to the canons of Hollywood cinema, the film ends with a happy ending, while the ending of the book remains open.

Title of the novel [ | ]

The title of the novel goes back to Revelation of John the Evangelist 14:9-11, 18-20:

10 He will drink the wine of the wrath of God, the whole wine prepared in the cup of His wrath, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb... 18 You shall prune the grapes on the ground, because the grapes on them are ripe. 19 And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and cut off the grapes of the earth, and cast him into the great winepress of the wrath of God...

In the novel, "the grapes of wrath" is a metaphor. “In the souls of people, grapes of anger are pouring and ripening - heavy grapes, and now they will not ripen for long,” writes the author.

There has long been a stereotype about America as an economic paradise. Country of freedom and democracy. However, John Steinbeck would probably disagree with this. “The Grapes of Wrath,” written by him, will tell the reader how difficult the life of an ordinary American could be during the Great Depression. The novel has not lost its relevance today, and not only in relation to the United States.

Friedrich Engels, in his unfinished work “Dialectics of Nature,” suggested: it was nothing more than labor that made a man out of a monkey. The thesis remained only a hypothesis, but there is some truth in the fact that work definitely ennobles and develops. It is through labor that a person earns a living for himself and his family. In work he realizes himself (this includes, of course, intellectual work).

But also exploitation has existed for centuries. Often someone else profits from the employee’s work. In this antagonism lies the class struggle. But what if a person who wants to work is simply deprived of the opportunity to work? Are they taking away all conditions for honest provision for themselves and their family?

These are probably the questions that anyone faced with unemployment has asked themselves. The author of this article himself quite recently, already in the 21st century, learned the hard way how cruel the labor market can be in a degrading market economy.

How to be unemployed? Anatoly Chubais once, in the 90s, said: “They didn’t fit into the market”.

In the United States of America, this Promised Land for any entrepreneur, a similar philosophy was in use 60 years earlier - the Great Depression was atrocious. The fair free market then threw 25% of the adult population onto the streets - also those who “didn’t fit in.” Declining profits, nothing can be done.

Great Depression in the USA

But these are people. Entire families who would simply like to work and live. Prose writer John Steinbeck wrote his novel about the fate of such people during the years of crisis. "The Grapes of Wrath" is great book about troubles working people under capitalism.

John Steinbeck, short biography

Steinbeck was a descendant of German and Irish emigrants who left their homeland in the nineteenth century. Son school teacher and treasurer, he spent almost his entire childhood in the rural province. As a boy, I saw the hard work of farmers and migrants. Images of people working on the land were subsequently constantly described in his works by John Steinbeck (“The Grapes of Wrath”, “Of Mice and Men”, “East of Eden”).

The writer was born in 1902. He can safely be attributed to that galaxy of authors who lived through such an eventful first half of the 20th century (in other articles we have already talked about and). By the way, just like his British colleague Orwell, in the 20s the American Steinbeck worked a variety of unskilled jobs, cherishing the dream of eventually becoming a writer. In the 30s literary career, finally began and coincided with the darkness of the Great Depression.

John Steinbeck

In 1936, John Steinbeck spent a lot of time with seasonal workers in California, planning to write a series of documentary essays. However, the original plan was greatly transformed. The writer was surprised to discover not only the monstrous living and working conditions of these people, but also that most of them were ordinary Americans, and not visitors from Mexico.

These and other observations ultimately helped the prose writer write one of the most important American novels 20th century – “The Grapes of Wrath”.

Among other things, Steinbeck visited the USSR twice: in 1937 and 1947. As a result of the second trip, a documentary appeared, designed to tell the American population about the life of an ordinary Soviet citizen. The works of John Steinbeck, including his collected works, were regularly published in the Soviet Union.

In 1962 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Book "The Grapes of Wrath"

USA, 1930s. Southern Oklahoma. Due to a series of lean years that coincided with a total economic crisis throughout the country, large landowners and banks, guided by considerations of financial expediency, are beginning to evict farmers renting plots. Hundreds of families are simply being driven away without any alternatives or assistance being offered.

The Grapes of Wrath

The presence of these people on earth is no longer profitable - big capital is not interested in the rest. Tractors arrive, level the houses to the ground and begin cultivating those areas where just recently farmers lovingly worked. Confused, unemployed Oklahoma farmers use their last savings to buy dilapidated used trucks and move en masse with all their belongings to sunny California, hoping to find work on the endless fruit plantations.

It is at such a time that the young guy Tom Joad returns home. He spent four years in McAlester prison for murder - in self-defense, he killed a drunk acquaintance with a shovel. Tom was released early for good behavior, and now he hopes to simply come to his native farm, meet his loved ones and relax a little. But the house is destroyed. No family.

Only the philosophizing former preacher Casey wanders around the area, and the farmer Muley dives from one ditch to another, contrary to the law, refusing to get out of native land. From them Tom Joad learns last news. The rest of the Joads, like other farmers, were forced to leave the house and the plot - they were about to leave for California, but for now they were temporarily housed with Uncle John, the brother of the head of the family.

As a result, Tom is reunited with his family and decides to go with them to look for better life. But a happy fate is unlikely to await them. All over America, large capitalists are trying to maintain their fortunes in the conditions of the Great Depression, and the issues of employment of rural farmers (even if there are thousands of them) are of little concern to businessmen.

This is what the book “The Grapes of Wrath” will tell you about.

Analysis of the novel"The Grapes of Wrath"

Real material gleaned from Steinbeck's life, combined with expressive artistic power the writer's language creates a truly powerful mixture that has a tremendous impact on the reader. As you read it, it is very difficult not to feel sympathy for the disadvantaged workers of America and not to feel a blaze of rage against the greedy, calculating bankers, businessmen and even small private shopkeepers. It’s not for nothing that the novel is called “The Grapes of Wrath” - it is extremely accurate (the author of the article would venture to say that perhaps this is one of best titles in world literature).

Large landowners, such as those who own thousands of acres of land in Oklahoma or California, either mercilessly throw people with children onto the street without food or shelter, or pay starvation wages for backbreaking physical labor, knowing that a man with a starving family will agree to any payment. And some scoundrels, for example, used car dealers, sell naive peasants all sorts of rubbish at exorbitant prices, without any shame.

Show from all sides the powerless malice of some, the unprincipled greed of others and general character the cruel world of capitalism, John Steinbeck is helped by the unique structure of the work. He alternates chapters that focus on the individual Joad family with chapters that provide a broader look at American life at the time. In these second-order chapters, we either observe the work of a roadside eatery, or learn about the policy of destroying excess crops on plantations, or listen to the dialogue of a nameless farmer with an equally nameless bank clerk. Thanks to such digressions, the writer conveys his civil position and does it extremely convincingly.

Here are a few quotes:

“A slight movement of the lever - and the caterpillar tractor would deviate from its path, but the tractor driver’s hand could not make this movement, because the monster. the monster that created the tractor, the monster that sent him here, owned the hands of the tractor driver, his brain, his muscles; it dressed the tractor driver in eyecups, in a muzzle, darkened his mind with eyecups, muffled his speech with a muzzle, darkened his consciousness, muffled his words of protest. He saw the earth differently. what she really was, he could not inhale her scent; his feet did not knead the clods of this earth, he did not feel its warmth, its strength. He sat on an iron seat, his feet stood on iron pedals."

“The tenants were indignant: my grandfather fought with the Indians, my father fought with snakes over this land. Maybe we should kill the banks - they're worse than Indians and snakes. Maybe we need to fight for this land, like our father and grandfather fought for it?”

“This is a crime that has no name. This is a grief that cannot be measured by any tears. This is a defeat that destroys all our successes. Fertile soil, straight rows of trees, strong trunks and juicy fruits. And children dying of pellagra must die because oranges are not profitable."

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad

To some extent, between the novels “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck and “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand (we will definitely talk about him one day) there is a whole dialectic American society. On the one hand, the life and problems of hard workers honest people, on the other hand, the concentrated egoism of businessmen.

Returning to The Grapes of Wrath, it is worth saying that psychological portraits The main characters allow you to sincerely empathize with them. And we consider it necessary to highlight several particularly noteworthy characters.

Tom Joad- the hero we have already mentioned, who returned from prison. He is an honest, straightforward guy, with a keen sense of justice, who is not used to giving himself offense (that’s why he ended up in jail). He doesn't specifically look for trouble and doesn't like to think too much. “Step left, step right” - this motto seems to him to be the most effective.

Tom says to the driver whose passing truck is returning home:

“I’m not going to hush anything up. Well, I was sitting in McAlester. I rattled off for four years. And they gave me clothes there before leaving. Let everyone know, I don’t care about it. Now I’m going home to my father, because you won’t find a job without lying, and I’m not going to lie.”

But as the story progresses, Tom will have to realize that he can no longer just walk. His ardent soul cannot indifferently observe the vileness happening everywhere.

Jane Darwell as Mama Joad

Mother- perhaps the most good image, which is offered by The Grapes of Wrath. This simple woman represents the core of the entire family. She encourages everyone, runs the household, teaches and looks after the children, and prevents the men from falling apart. The mother takes this load for granted and stoically withstands all the blows of fate - in this she is a little like the heroine of the book by Maxim Gorky. Even when men give up, not understanding how to react to reality, a woman embodies firmness and determination. Only with her eldest son Tom can she be completely frank at times:

“You are young, you look ahead, but I... now I only have the road before my eyes. Yes, I’m also wondering if they’ll soon get hungry, if they’ll soon ask for pork bones.<…>I've had enough. I can't do anything more. And when I think about it, it will be worse for you. You all stick to the fact that I care about my business.”

John Carradine as Jim Casey

Jim Casey– he was once a priest, but stopped religious activities because he felt that he did not believe strongly enough and sinned too often. Doubt crept into his soul. Despite the fact that many still call him a preacher, he denies this title in every possible way. Casey is the most reflective, detached character in Steinbeck's work.

Somewhere in the middle of the trip, Casey says to Tom:

“I listen all the time. That's why I'm thinking. First I listen to what people say, and then I begin to understand how they feel. I hear them all the time, I feel them; people beat their wings like birds flying into the attic. They will end up breaking their wings on the dusty glass, but they will never break free.”

He is trying to understand the meaning of life, to understand a person and his soul, to understand how everyone should proceed. And, apparently, in the end, he understands it.

Uncle John- the elder brother of the father of the family, a bitter drunkard. For many years, he has been consumed by guilt over his wife's death. Once he did not call her a doctor on time, and she died. Since then, John has not been himself, and in a desperate attempt to somehow atone for his guilt, he tries to do good to his brother’s children. Despite the difficult mental condition, he goes on a trip with his whole family and tries in every possible way to be useful.

Of course, other heroes are also bright. Both the elder Joad and Al ( younger brother Tom), and very little Ruth and Winfield. To enjoy the whole kaleidoscope of reliable, interesting personalities, we recommend picking up and reading the novel.

Film "The Grapes of Wrath"

We usually talk about the film adaptation, if there is one, and it’s not entirely embarrassing to talk about it. And the film “The Grapes of Wrath,” directed by John Ford, is not something to be ashamed of.

director John Ford

Before us is the one rare case when the great book gave birth to no less great movie. John Ford directed the film almost immediately after the publication of John Steinbeck's novel in 1940. And we can definitely call the film adaptation one of the most striking American films 40s. Ford's screen version depicts the United States during the Great Depression in a realistic manner, and the excellent cast successfully brings Steinbeck's characters written on paper to life in the frame. The works of Henry Fonda (Tom Joad), Jane Darwell (Mother) and John Carradine (Casey) are memorable for a long time.

movie The Grapes of Wrath

At the same time, the film in some aspects deviates from the literary source. The most noticeable difference is the level of stiffness. Steinbeck is merciless to the reader. His reality burns, angers and leaves no hope that everything will get better on its own.

John Ford himself is sentimental (this is noticeable throughout his filmography), and he greatly smoothes out the rough edges, in addition, Hollywood of that time was not too fond of presenting life as it is - it spared the viewer (or sent him to the world of dreams). Therefore, the film “The Grapes of Wrath” is much softer in its general mood. Which, of course, does not reduce its artistic value.

The film won two Oscar awards: for best director and best female role background.

Still The Grapes of Wrath?

Is the book that John Steinbeck wrote relevant today? The Grapes of Wrath does not belong to literary history alone. The novel raises the same questions that are extremely acute today throughout to the globe. In Russia as well. There are still unemployed people. There is still a predatory desire to profit from the misfortune of others. Unscrupulous exploitation of human labor still exists. Grapes of anger continue to ripen in people's souls. And as before, these challenges can only be overcome together.