The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Published on July 11, 2025

I found some interesting notes in an old notebook that I wrote after reading "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. I write a lot by hand, with fountain pen and sometimes I browse through my old notes.

The story takes place during the Dust Bowl. Oklahoma farmers are faced with extreme conditions and are ruined by hunger and misery. They abandon everything to come to California hoping for a better life. The journey was already complicated for the time — once arrived in California, they find themselves crammed into camps with thousands of farmers who fled misery like them. Everyone is looking for work, but there isn't enough for everyone. Far from the promised eldorado, they discover a bitter reality.

This article, like my previous articles on other novels, is not meant to summarize the story. I will simply describe moments that I found particularly interesting.

The Migrants

What strikes you in this novel is how timeless immigration debates are. The Okies, Oklahoma residents who fled their state to take refuge in California, are treated exactly as foreigners are today: with mistrust, contempt and rejection. Yet they are Americans like the Californians.

This situation reveals something fundamental about human nature: since the dawn of time, human beings have treated those who come from elsewhere differently. Historical examples abound. The Irish fleeing the Great Famine to America in the 19th century were accused of stealing jobs and described as violent alcoholics. Southern Italians emigrating to the North of their own country were nicknamed "terroni" (the earthy ones) and considered an inferior race. In France, Bretons moving up to Paris were despised and their children punished for speaking Breton at school.

The Okies are crammed into camps, locals refuse to mix with them, they are perceived as dirty, uneducated and dishonest people. They are blamed for lowering wages, bringing crime, not integrating. These accusations can be found word for word in all migratory movements in History.

It doesn't matter whether this "foreigner" comes from the other side of the world or simply from the neighboring state — he remains the unknown, therefore a potential threat. It's an ancestral survival reflex: protecting one's territory and resources from those who could threaten them.

When we observe current debates on immigration in France or elsewhere in the world, we find exactly the same mechanisms, the same fears, the same arguments. Understanding this historical constant is essential: it allows us to step back from our own reactions and realize that rejection of the other is not a rational response to a contemporary problem, but an ancestral reflex that we must learn to identify and question.

Bravery

The characters in the story show admirable bravery that deeply marked me. These are people who have nothing left, nothing left to eat, but who keep their dignity at all costs.

This dignity manifests itself in a thousand ways. Despite the hunger that gnaws at them, they don't steal. When they find work, even underpaid and in appalling conditions, they accomplish it conscientiously. Men get up before dawn to look for work in the fields, accepting poverty wages rather than begging. Women maintain family cohesion, prepare meals with almost nothing, mend clothes worn to the bone.

There is something moving about their refusal to sink into delinquency despite distress. They would have all the excuses in the world to steal, cheat, lie to survive, but they don't do it. They prefer to keep their heads high and continue looking for honest work, even when all seems lost.

This attitude contrasts violently with how they are perceived by Californians who accuse them of all evils. While they are presented as potential criminals, they show exemplary moral integrity.

It's this lesson of dignity in adversity that inspired me most in this book. It reminds us that we can lose everything — our possessions, our job, our home — but it's always possible to preserve our honor and our values.

Hope and Adaptation

The characters never lose hope, throughout the story, they have nothing but setbacks one after another. But they persist, getting back up after each ordeal with fascinating resilience.

When their truck breaks down on the road, they repair it with whatever means available. When they arrive in California and discover that the job promises were lies, they continue searching. When owners lower wages because there are too many applicants, they accept rather than give up. When they are chased from one camp, they find another.

Each stroke of fate could be the straw that breaks the camel's back, but they always find a solution, a plan B, a new strategy. They adapt to the most hostile circumstances: sleeping in cars, rationing food, sharing their meager resources with other families in need.

What struck me most was their ability to keep projects, dreams, even in the worst moments. They still talk about settling somewhere, having a real house, giving the children an education. This faculty to project a better future despite a catastrophic present is remarkable.

This is nothing new, it's like Jack London, but I find this determination to never give up profoundly inspiring. Everyone has problems, all the time. And you have to adapt and bounce back — that's life. These characters show us that resilience isn't just a concept, it's a daily practice.

Uncle John and His Wife's Death

Uncle John's story is one of the most tragic in the novel. His wife died shortly after their marriage from appendicitis. She complained of stomach pains, but he brushed off her concerns with a wave of his hand, thinking it was just a passing stomachache. He didn't take her seriously, didn't call a doctor, did nothing. A few days later, she died in terrible suffering.

This tragedy chills my blood because it brutally illustrates how a seemingly harmless decision can destroy an entire life. A simple negligence, a lack of attention at a crucial moment, and everything tips over irreparably. Uncle John could have saved his wife if he had reacted differently, if he had listened, if he had acted. But he didn't.

Since then, this guilt eats at him day and night. He carries this weight eternally, this crushing responsibility in the death of the one he loved. Every passing day reminds him of his fatal error. He can't go back, he can't catch up with that moment when everything was decided.

This story haunts me because it could happen to anyone. We all make light decisions, we sometimes neglect warning signals, we postpone important things. Most of the time, these negligences remain without consequence. But sometimes, just once, they can destroy everything.

It's terrifying to realize how much our lives hang on so little, and how a fraction of a second of inattention can haunt us for eternity.

Connie Rivers' Abandonment

Rose of Sharon, one of the daughters of the Joad family, is married to Connie Rivers and is expecting their first child. In California, faced with the misery that befalls them, Connie Rivers disappears overnight. He abandons his pregnant wife and unborn child without a word, without explanation, without even a backward glance.

This cowardice revolts me as much as it fascinates me with its brutality. Connie was there, an integral part of the family, sharing their hopes and struggles. And then, suddenly, he cracks. The pressure becomes too strong, the responsibilities too heavy, the future too dark. So he flees, like a trapped animal that gnaws its own paw to escape.

What makes this betrayal even crueler is the era. No telephone, no way to find him, no news. Rose of Sharon finds herself alone with her rounding belly, abandoned in a hostile world, without even knowing if her husband is alive or dead. This uncertainty is perhaps worse than anything.

Connie's abandonment illustrates in a chilling way how distress can reveal the worst in human beings. When everything collapses, some grit their teeth and fight, others run away abandoning those who count on them. It's a brutal character test that no one wishes to pass.

This story haunts me because it shows that we only truly know someone in adversity. The one who shares your bed and your dreams can betray you at the moment when you need them most. It's a terrible lesson about the fragility of human bonds when facing extreme ordeals.

Ma Joad, the Family Pillar

Ma Joad, the family's mother, is the true beating heart of this story. Faced with the collapse of their world, she becomes the rock on which everyone can lean. When the men lose their bearings and sink into despair, she keeps a cool head and maintains family cohesion at all costs.

Her strength is all the more remarkable because she sacrifices everything for others. She eats last so that the children and men feed first. She hides her own fears to reassure her family. She makes difficult decisions when others no longer have the strength. Even when she has to bury her own mother-in-law on the roadside, she still finds the energy to console others.

Ma Joad embodies absolute self-sacrifice. She never thinks about herself, never complains, never retreats. She is a heroine in the noblest sense of the term: someone who transcends their human condition through the love she bears for her own.

The Sisters

In total opposition to this self-sacrifice, the Joad family's sister offers the distressing spectacle of pure selfishness. Where Ma Joad sacrifices herself, she only thinks about herself. Where the mother unites, the daughter divides.

While the family goes through the worst ordeals, she only cares about her appearance, her little pleasures, her teenage whims. She sulks when no one takes care of her, makes scenes over trifles, refuses to participate in collective efforts. She's the perfect embodiment of immaturity in the face of adversity.

The contrast is striking: on one side a woman who grows with ordeals and becomes a force of nature, on the other a kid who shrinks in the face of difficulties and withdraws into her navel. Steinbeck thus shows us two opposite ways of reacting to misfortune: elevation or regression.

This opposition struck me because it perfectly illustrates how the same circumstances can reveal the best or worst of human beings, sometimes within the same family.

Jim Casy the Preacher

Jim Casy perfectly embodies the man in search of meaning in a collapsing world.

Casy gradually finds new meaning in his life through human solidarity. He discovers that his vocation may not be to preach God's word, but to defend the oppressed. He begins to campaign for the working conditions of agricultural workers, finding in this social struggle a new form of spirituality.

His death during a demonstration is not in vain: it symbolizes the transformation of a lost man into a martyr for a just cause. Casy shows that we can rebuild our life on new foundations, even after losing everything. He's a profoundly human character in his vulnerability and search for meaning.

Conclusion

This novel is a true masterpiece that deeply marked me, not only by its historical dimension, but especially by the psychological richness of its characters. Steinbeck created human beings of striking complexity, far from the simplistic archetypes sometimes found in literature.

Each character carries within them contradictions, flaws, grandeurs that make them authentic individuals. Ma Joad with her quiet heroism, Uncle John gnawed by his guilt, Connie Rivers and his cowardice in the face of adversity, Jim Casy in his spiritual quest, the sister with her adolescent selfishness... All these characters form a gallery of portraits of troubling truth.

What fascinated me most was recognizing in these characters behaviors, reactions, character traits that I encounter daily. This sacrificial mother who reminds me of certain women in my family, this man who flees his responsibilities like I've known, this self-centered person who only sees their navel... Steinbeck managed to capture the very essence of human nature in all its diversity.

This is the strength of this book: it holds up a merciless mirror to ourselves and those around us. Through the Joad family's story, it's the entire human comedy that unfolds, with its heroes and cowards, its saints and selfish people. A timeless masterpiece that continues to resonate today.