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Heres a virtual movie of the novelist John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) discussing his reasons for writing his great novelThe Grapes of Wrath in a sound interview recorded in 1952. To my knowledge thei. . .
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John Steinbeck “discusses His Reasons For Writing The Grapes Of Wrath” Literary Discussion Animation
December 14th, 2009 | The Muse
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10 comments ↓
I’ve always been a big Steinbeck fan. I thought Cannery Row and its follow up Sweet Thursday, were great. The name Steinbeck is synonomous with great writing,, i think.
Ask people who lived through the Great Depression, or those who where born during it. Discrimination was economically class based. It did matter your religon, sex, creed, or color. What does poverty mean to you?
I wonder if we could make the book or movie required for right wingers who don’t ever believe in gov’t intervention to help the downtrodden?I figure it would be banned by them as socialist..look at how the wealthy few owned all the land, land that could have provided sustenance to thousands were it distributed..and the poor lived in misery til they found the gov’t run camp..I find its analogies so true today.
I enjoyed Voltaire, Victor Hugo and the Brontes but always felt a little of the endings were leaning towards fairy tale, look to The Grapes of Wrath, no fairy tale ending there. (Excuse me if that should be possessive )
Grapes was meant to never be over-exaggeratedly optimistic due to the depression, similar to Shakespeare, i think he wrote endings like in Wrath or of Mice and Men because he was bored with the “happily ever after” cliche. Those two respective books “and many others by him” had specific and deliberate endings to give the typical reader a meaningful impact. Even though Steinbeck is a firm believer in the journey matters more than the destination, he still felt his endings needed to be aimfull.
The Grapes of Wrath is the most powerful novel I’ve ever read; I was physically exhausted after reading it. In retrospect,it is is haunting, but his charicatural rendering of the “bad guys” in the book fails to make it a perfect novel.But had Steinbeck not been so indignant, and thus been reasonable in his presentation of these characters, his book would have been pedestrain, passionless. I recommend the book to everyone.
Agreed, it is a timeless book that tells a story everyone needs to hear. The choices we all make, how do you live your life, what are your values – these things impact me every single day and always will. I think everyone should read this book, I don’t think it is possible to be the same, after.
So many great writers, it’s kinda hard placing them in order or greatest lol.
I’m gonna go with Hemingway, but Steinbeck is a close second. Hemingway writes better, Steinbeck tells a better story. Actually…they tie lol
100 percent agree. For me Hemingway is a distant second.
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