Analysis Of John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

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“And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime; watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath.”
Steinbeck’s closing of the chapter makes way for a breakdown of the earth, and an uprising of the people, tugging at the concept that the grapes of wrath will soon have their victims, both the ground they feed off of and the nation they refuse to feed. Every verb utilized is occurring within the present, “they stand,” “listen,” “watch,” “and “there is.” The overwhelming turmoil and poison of malicious farming practices has not passed and …show more content…
Additionally, the verbs used are simple, separately they seem incapable of overwhelming one, but in the situation, one who is just “listening” or “watching” the shattering of the earth is the weakest of them all. Instead of observing the ravaged oranges, one is watching them, instead of hearing the screaming pigs, one is listening. There is no effort to seize the potatoes, stop the murders, rescue the oranges. The people have fallen to a system of abuse, made so small where they are incapable of development, made primitive. Their whole attention has been tossed to the brutish images, harshly. They view the scene with wide eyes and no romance, no sweet tunes playing in the wind as it all comes to a crash. Subordination is at work, but where Steinbeck could’ve ended the sentence, he adds a semicolon, giving the final half, their fructifying fury as much weight as their passive reactions, or lack of. Broken, the people are as the oranges “slop down to a putrefying ooze,” crippled into futile position, but now as their eyes hold the visions of “growing wrath,” they evolve. In this final response of the people, their strength manifests itself, the years
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