Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath (1)

John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath: brief analysis and main characteristics

John Steinbeck was a writer of the 20th century.

He published an important novel in 1939, "The Grapes of Wrath", that is considered by critics his masterpiece.
The novel was published in a dramatic context: the acme of the economic crisis started with the collapse of the 1929 Stock Exchange now behind, but had already produced its devastating effects on daily life and collective imagination. This novel tells a story set just in the scenario of the economic crisis: a peasant family contacted of misery and fame and left their native place to reach far California looking for a job and a place to live.
The protagonist is Tom Joad, who, together with parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, brother-in-law, and a casually encountered preacher friend, faces a journey of hope.
The crossing of American territory and the struggle for survival are
Like a village in hell that Steinbeck connects tells with great realism.
"The Grapes of Wrath" is a hard, cruel and tragic book, but full of sense of family, community, solidarity and the many difficulties that this story tells.
The physical and psychological descriptions of the characters, the protagonist, the mother, grandfather and so on, are engaging for the feelings they can convey to the reader.