I thought The Grapes of Wrath was overall a pretty good book. But I have to say, it was kind of depressing. There was not one thing in the book that I really considered to be a great, happy moment. The things that they accomplished were great! But I think the overall story was kinda sad. There were many reasons that I thought it was depressing. Reason number one is that the Joads actually lose a lot of family on their way to California. They lose Grandpa first. That in itself was sad, but then shortly after they lose Grandma. That would be really sad of course, but at least Grandma and Grandpa had lived a good long life and them passing away was just kind of the natural way of things. But then after all of that, the family loses Noah. Now granted, Noah didn't pass away or anything but still, he decided to leave the family. Now, normally I wouldn't have thought that was that sad. He was getting older and he wanted to leave home. Fair enough. However, back then its not like you have cell phones and stuff. I mean I guess you could send a letter, but even then people probably moved around too much. You would never know where your family went. For example, when Tom came home and no one was there. (Steinbeck, 41) So basically, Noah really did leave the family.
There were some things that I did like about this book though. I did like how it was realistic, even though it was sad. You can learn a lot from books like these because they reflect events in history really well. I also liked parts where people would join together in the camps and play music because such a little thing like that was still so valuable to people because it lifted their spirits. (Steinbeck, 336)
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002.Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment