The Grapes of Wrath

Have you ever read or seen John Steinbeck’s classic work about a family who seeks refuge from the Dust Bowl by migrating to California? Steinbeck’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, came out in 1939 and instantly became a national sensation in America. Over time, it won international recognition and has been on numerous “Best 100 Books” lists in both America and Europe.

My dad as a university student (circa 1939)

My father, who grew up out west during the Great Depression, considered it one of the best books in the English-speaking world, and it was a staple on his list of required reading for his college students after he became a professor of English literature.

The Grapes of Wrath, 8.1 IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes 100% Tomatometer and 88% Audience Score

Just one year later (1940), a movie by the same name came out, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, the recently paroled son who returns home to find his farm family in the midst of being forced off their land during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.

Although I probably heard more about The Grapes of Wrath than the Bible as a child (not growing up in a Christian home), I became a Christian when I was twelve and found myself shying away from works of fiction after that. I realized how vulnerable I was to becoming sympathetic toward immoral behaviors as portrayed by powerful writers who made evil sound natural, good, and right.

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940, Public Domain)
(When I saw this photo, it reminded me of my father!)

Sixty years later, and in an effort to understand more about this aspect of America’s history (and my own family background), I decided it was time to watch the classic movie version of The Grapes of Wrath, which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for 5 more (along with all sorts of other awards over the years).

It is a deeply moving portrayal of what life might have been like for many of the 2,500,000 people who left their homes during the Dust Bowl in search of water, food, shelter, and work.

Steinbeck researched before he wrote, including borrowing field notes from Sanora Babb, who worked for the Farm Security Administration. There are two major controversies over Steinbeck’s book: One is that it has so many elements similar to Babb’s work that some accuse him of borderline plagiarism. The other is that he wrote too harshly about the legal authorities’ treatment of migrants and was unrealistic. Go figure! I guess it’s not impossible that he mooched some of the story line but also sensationalized the conflict between authorities and migrants to push a socialistic agenda (although Steinbeck wasn’t a true socialist).

In defense of Steinbeck, I believe that all effective writing is both believable and realistic (personal opinion). We inevitably take as the framework for our stories some incident from our own experiences, so since Steinbeck studied Babb’s field notes, if he told her story, he was likely speaking into the reality of the situation (which wouldn’t justify stealing her intellectual property).

On the other hand, making the authorities out to be the “bad guys” and creating empathy for bloodshed as a necessary part of fighting oppression isn’t biblical. At least not killing other people.

Strangely enough, in the New Testament we also find authorities who are supposed to be good but are actually the “bad guys.” However, the remedy doesn’t come through killing all the bad guys. The remedy comes through Jesus Christ, who gives up his own life to rescue everybody.

Jesuscristo crucificado by Diego Valazquez. Public Domain

Jesus Christ offers us forgiveness for our sins, new birth into the Kingdom of God, the promise of hope from now through forever, the Bible as an instruction manual on spiritual truth and wisdom, and the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us into paths of holiness, peace, and prosperity (see Psalm 23, and then Jesus’s words in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly“).

Human writing gets some things right and some things wrong, so whenever we’re reading stories or watching movies, we (I!) need to measure everything against the truth as much as we can.

“Your word is true from the beginning:
and every one of your righteous judgments endures for ever.”
(Psalm 119:160)

“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: 
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”
(Psalm 19:7)

(Photos of the book and movie covers from Wikipedia; all others are photos from the movie, except for the photo of my dad and the seventeenth-century painting of Jesus!)