Dusty Bowl Pt. 4

It all just keeps getting worse and worse for the Joads in California. Members of their family have either died off or ran away. They get chased out of the camp. Jobs are hard to find for them to make money and survive. Their dreams are always being systematically crushed due their “Okie” background. The longer this book goes on, the worse things get for the Joads. When are things going to start to look better for them? At the end of chapter twenty-five on page 349, Steinbeck quotes in this interesting quote, “In the souls of people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for vintage.” I do not really know much about Steinbeck’s other work, but I think he is alluding to Of Mice and Men. Maybe because, they were both written around the same time. It is a little bit hard to see. The quote is an interesting one however. The vintage means all of the bitterness, pain, and anger that has built up in the “Okies” after being mistreated after so long. How bad have they had it? Pg. 348, “The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land.” Hope is dying away too fast and despair has invaded. The “Okies” are now angry and bitter. For what purpose? The rich have crushed and trampled out everything that the poor folks have dreamed of. However, that can only last for so long before something gives. But, will it?