Grapes Of Wrath Movie Essay

Almost immediately after the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, John Ford began directing the movie, which was released March 15, 1940. The book was so controversial in this period, that a lot of copies were burned, which just brought more attention to this incredible story. It was great to have a movie so quickly, to display the piece visually.

However, the overall feel of the movie was quite different from the book. For example, the movie left out some important parts of the story because not all the contents of the book could appear in a two hour film. The movie left out the Wilson family completely, meaning that grandpa did not die in their tent, like he did in the book. Leaving out the Wilson’s also caused the movie to leave out the important concept of “I” becoming “We” which was shown by families coming together and supporting each other in this difficult time. The Joads and the Wilsons helped each other and were there for each other in this time of need. Later in the book it explains how the family is caused to split up because the Wilson’s car breaks down. Ma makes a stand and the two families wait for Tom and Al to go get the parts they need to repair the car. The two families stay

together until Mrs. Wilson can not go any farther and the Joads continue on without them.

Another part that was different was that the Joad family went to the peach farm before they came to the nice government camp where there was running water and clean bed sheets.

This was one of the only times in the book that the Joads were comfortable and it was a good spot to appreciate what they had. I think that these parts were switched in the movie to show a hopeful and happy ending.
Because some of the major events in the story were altered, the movie did not show the same amount of character development that the book had. The characters that grew the most in the book were Ma and Rose of Sharon, but in the movie their character stayed the same throughout the entire story. These character’s growth was most recognizable in the last scene of the book

particularly.

The story was cut a little short in the movie also, the very last scenes of the book were not exactly what you would call the perfect end to a story. Showing the desperation that so many families had, with so few possessions and literally no money, the story ends with Rose of Sharon offering her breast to a dying stranger having just lost her stillborn child. John Steinbeck said to his publisher that this scene was not supposed to satisfy the reader, but to show the true lives of these people of this hopeless time and what the struggle was really like. They had come to such a desperate point, that giving up a breast was just like giving someone a piece of bread.

The style of writing that Steinbeck uses in The Grapes of Wrath alternates between general overall scenes that explain the Great Depression and the main plot. In the movie some of the general chapters were described as a memory of Muley Graves, a character in the story, who stayed on his land while the rest of his family left for California. In these memories he explained how his family was kicked off of their property and how the bank was a monster. In the book, it describes many families in this situation and what the bank is thinking. I liked the way movie chose to portray these types of scenes because it gave the same idea as the book, but just pulled off a little differently.

To conclude, the book tapped into a much more emotional side of the audience than the movie did. It delved deeper into the reality of the families living in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression while the movie was made more cinematically. The book had so many intricate levels to it and the movie just could just not show all of the symbolism behind each scene the same way that John Steinbeck did. However, it was a good movie, especially for its time, and it won many academy awards no matter how different it was.