On The Grapes of Wrath

Last week, there was an article on NPR about how The Grapes of Wrath is turning seventy-five soon.  Because I hadn't read it yet, I decided to start it (which is also what the NPR people are doing).  While it is a sad book, I'm enjoying it.  Here are some thoughts so far.  Coincidentally, to-day is also Steinbeck's birthday.  The following contains spoilers.

I like how Steinbeck constantly shifts his focus between the Joad family and either the nation at large or random people.  At least every other chapter takes a break from the Joads and is just a few pages on some vignette that still has the same sort of theme.  It really helps to give the novel a grander scale because it illustrates that the same things are happening all over, not just to particular people (although later there is a notable difference between rich employees and poor migrants).

But mostly what I want to talk about with the book is death.    In chapter 13, Granpa dies, and it's remarked upon a few other times later in the novel.  In Chapter 18, Granma - who is delirious from travelling in the heat and/or because Granpa has died - calls out to him.  "Granma called imperiously, 'Will!  Will!  You come here, Will.'"  Obviously, she's addressing herself to Granpa, but it could also be taken as if she's addressing herself to her will to live.  (She dies later in the chapter.)

Because of Granma's calling to Granpa after his death, I got to thinking about Granpa's death.  Shortly after his death, Casy (the former preacher who's travelling with the Joads) says that Granpa died when he left the Joad's farm.  "He died the minute you took 'im off the place.  ...  He was breathin', but he was dead.  He was that place, an' he knowed it."  From here, it's just a simple syllogism:  Granpa is dead.  Granpa is the land.  The land is dead.  And had the rest of the Joads stayed there, they would have died too.  Their voyage westward is their escape from death.