Grapes of Wrath- Values and Attitudes

The author reveals a lot of his values and attitudes by writing the Grapes of Wrath. I think that by including historical events it shows that the author values the past and all the events that have brought us to where we are now. the author included major historical events such as the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in this book, which I think shows us as readers that the author understands what people went through back then. I think that the author knows what people had to go through just to survive because he included so much of that in this book. The Dust Bowl is, in a way, the conflict that poses a problem for many farmers, including the Joad family. The Dust Bowl was a drought that was so long that the farmers were not able to grow any more crops and therefore they had to leave their farms behind and go search for more jobs and a better life elsewhere. Also, this story is told from a third person perspective. I love when books are told from a third person perspective because then we are able to form our own opinions of the characters and the events that occur based on what actually happened, not by what another character in the story is telling us. Even though I like books in third person, I think that this book would have been very interesting if it was told in first person because then we could get a first hand account of all the struggles these people went through. I think that through writing this book, the author reveals that he values history and hard work. I know it must not have been easy for these families to pack up and leave, and the Joad family shows us that staying together is not always easy, but with a little hard work they finally made it to California. The author did a great job including historical events in this book.

Bibliography

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print