The Grapes Of Wrath
...Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. The reason why I chose this novel is that I am really fascinated by Steinbeck's style of writing which varies from symbolic to allegorical. After I have finished reading The Grapes of Wrath, which I consider to be one of the most effective social documents of the 1930s, I started thinking about which aspects would be the most interesting to concentrate on. Before I actually started reading books on John Steinbeck and his novels I was sure that in my paper I will deal with Christian parallels and biblical allusions. I must admit that it was a big problem to get information on this topic because most of the books only dealt with the social structure and the historical background of the novel. Therefore most of the assumptions made in this paper are based on my thoughts and interpretations, which are accompanied by various quotations taken out of Steinbeck's novel.
In the first part of this paper I will deal with the construction of the novel. The similarities between the three well-marked divisions of the novel drought, journey, and sojourn in California and the ancient biblical events will be discussed in detail.
In chapter 3 the biblical symbolisms of the grapes of wrath, the flood and the snake will be analysed.
In the chapters 4 and 5 the major and minor characters of the novel will be dealt with in terms of biblical allusions and Christian symbolisms.
2 Construction of the novel
The Grapes of Wrath is divided into thirty chapters, fourteen of which carry the Joad story. To every chapter dealing with the Joads, Steinbeck adds a shorter, more general, but often not less powerful chapter on the general situation. These sixteen so-called interchapters present the social, economic and historical background, telling the story of all the migrants. The novel's three well-marked...
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