Grapes of Wrath - Critics

Malcolm Bradbury - The American Dream is “the dream of an innocent pastoral America created by man’s desire for wonder”

Highlights the simplistic, work and farming based dreams of the Joads and vast amount of Americans. Want a prosperous life, ownership and farming.

 “part naturalistic epic, part labor testament,” - DeMott

Highlights how Steinbeck shows the real life struggles and pursuits migrant workers undertook in order to highlight their hard working nature and the difficulty of their position in society (sympathetic depiction created).

“Rose of Sharon symbolically transmutates her maternal love to a love of all people” - Carpenter

Highlights Steinbeck’s message of the importance of community and unity amount workers in order to get through struggle.

“Casy came to the conviction that holiness, or goodness, results from this feeling of unity” - Carpenter

Highlight Steinbeck’s portrayal of unity and togetherness as a means to relive pain and struggle - it is the only way to overcome terrible pain and suffering!

“The new moral of this novel is that the love of all people-if it be unselfish- may even supercede the love of family” - Carpenter

Highlights the hope that, despite the novel ending with the Joad family being separated, unity and togetherness can still be found and that this unity and love can provide relief and hope of change.

“Steinbeck has smashed the notions of the American Dream” - Spangler

Suggests the truth of the exploitative capitalist system and desires for individual success are what have destroyed society. This capitalist system has made the American dream impossible.

“The women… are stronger than the men” - Bloom

Suggests the power of maternal and nurturing instinct - a Marxist reading could interpret this as Steinbeck’s idolisation of unity, community, family and togetherness as women’s maternal nature represents the human necessity to be unified in a community and work together.