Authored by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath is a novel which was awarded the honorable Nobel Prize in the year 1962 and it also received the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The novel is set at the time of the Great Depression and circles around Joads, poor families of sharecroppers. Joads were driven by the economic hardships they had to face, droughts and the changes in agriculture out from their house in Oklahoma. The situation is hopeless and being trapped in the Dust Bowl, they move towards California along with several other people from Oklahoma in order to find jobs, land, dignity and livelihood. The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that is read quite frequently in literature classes of American schools and colleges.
The plot of the novel begins when Tom Joad is paroled from prison for a homicide he had committed. While he is on his journey back home, he meets Jim Casey, an acquaintance from his childhood. They both travel to Tom’s house and going there they find out about the situation. They come to know from neighbors that the Joads have gone to stay in the house of Uncle John Joad. They are also informed that the crops were destroyed in the Dust Bowl and the bank has taken all the possessions from people to compensate for the loans that could not pay. The story takes the Joads further to California to find better paying jobs and survive. The story describes about how one by one the family members of Joads are either deceased or split up from the family.
The characterization of the novel has been done brilliantly by John Steinbeck. The novel has been written in a realistic way and truly details out the situation which was there during the Great Depression. The Grapes of Wrath is another one of those novels everyone should read.
