Dust in the Wind
To me, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck’s ode to the common man, is one of the greatest works of the 20th century. I read it back in the ‘70s when I was 14 years old and it stunned me. The idea of an entire chapter about a turtle crossing the highway was an epiphany to my still-forming mind (“you mean you can leave off the narrative in a novel and insert an allegorical passage that is seemingly unrelated, yet essential to the core motif? and you can do this every couple of chapters throughout the book?). This stylistic approach to writing, as such, was only a small part of Steinbeck’s influence however. His use of the journalistic form in a novel was another. The application of art as a cudgel across the skull of the oppressor, yet another.
The Grapes of Wrath concerns the Joads, a family of “Okies” forced to abandon their dust-bowl farm for the promise of the so-called “land of milk and honey”, California. Among the clan are: Ma Joad, the matriarch and spiritual cor…
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