The Use of Interchapters in The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath, is a narrative about the travel of the Joad family from Oklahoma to California. However, between many of the narrative chapters, Steinbeck inserts interchapters, which interrupt the flow of the narrative to provide the author's commentary. This technique is very effective because the interchapters create an image of the economic and social history that impact the story. They provide a broad picture of what is happening to the mass of migrants traveling to California on Route 66. Without the interchapters, the reader would be given a limited view of how life was for the migrants, and Stienbeck would not have been able to provide very effective commentary.
Steinbeck uses some of the interchapters to set the tone and mood of the novel and to depict the life of the migrants that had to travel down Route 66 in the 1930's. For example, Steinbeck writes chapter seven using a newsreel technique. By using small pieces of spoken conversation, and half-thoughts, Steinbeck is able to create a mood of confusion and chaos. He creates an image of how the migrants were taken advantage of and gives the reader an impression of the hard times many of the migrants had to face.
In addition, chapter five creates a clear image of the devastation that the farmers faced and their hatred for the "monster" bank. This interchapter allows the reader to experience the passion that the farmers have toward the land and the choices they had to make concerning betrayal of their own people. It presents the reader with a broad prospective of what is happening to the tenant farmers before ...
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...the same position and because they know that they can depend on one another they realize the need of family and unity to get through hard times. Without interchapters that give Steinbeck's own commentary on the subjects, the novel would lack the social background that gives the reader insight into the lives of those affected by the Dust Bowl and would not allow the reader to feel sorrow for the migrants.
The interchapters are very effective because they provide the reader with a clear image of what is happening physically, mentally, and emotionally to the migrants as they travel to California. Without the interchapters, the reader would not be able to fully understand the hardships these people faced and Stienbeck would not have been able to give his insightful commentary.
In this novel Steinbeck set forth with the intention of raising awareness to the general public of the difficulties and injustices these migrants faced during this period in time. It exposed the methods of the California farmer to use the migrants in order to lower their costs and make their profit margin higher. How they starved and cheated the poor, working man, in order to keep him desperate for food and too weak to protest. Above all, it showed everyone that these “damn Okies” were all simply men, women and children, no different from anyone else, just poorer. They were human beings with feelings and not the uncivilized beasts they were portrayed as at the time. Steinbeck portrays the “Okies” in a way no one before him had, and also managed to keep their story true to life. He did this by mainly using dialect, and wrote the “Okie” dialect just as it was spoken, breaking the lines of proper grammar and spelling. If he was concerned with such things it would have ruined the personality of the characters. His unique writing style to capture the atmosphere of these people and the era is evident in this excerpt from his book:
The use of Intercalary chapters is a complex technique. Writers use this structure to break up the plot with separate excerpts inserted into the novel. Intercalary chapters help to give the reader background knowledge or important information. This can help further develop the novels impact on readers. John Steinbeck displayed this strategy throughout The Grapes of Wrath, interrupting the Joad family’s journey with chapters describing other aspects of the novel’s setting. These chapters help readers envision a time period that otherwise may seem alien to them. They can better connect to the people of that time period and their struggles.
The Grapes of Wrath explicates on the Dust Bowl era as the reader follows the story of the Joads in the narrative chapters, and the migrants in expository chapters. Steinbeck creates an urgent tone by using repetition many times throughout the book. He also tries to focus readers on how the Dust Bowl threatened migrant dreams using powerful imagery. As well as that, he creates symbols to teach the upper class how the Dust Bowl crushed the people’s goals. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck utilizes imagery, symbolism, and repetition to demonstrate how the Dust Bowl threatened the “American Dream.”
In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes of the novel, as well to set the tone of the novel".
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
Although both the novel and movie form of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath are considered to be American classics, the novel provides a deeper understanding of the story's time and meaning. Absent from the film, the novel's interchapters provide a greater understanding of the time in which The Grapes of Wrath takes place. First, in the movie it is unclear why the Joads are forced to abandon their farm. It is described very briefly by Muley Graves, leaving the audience in a state of confusion. However, in the novel, Chapter 5 explains exactly why the farmers are forced to leave. In this interchapter, Steinbeck uses a dialogue between a farmer and a representative from a bank; the farmer is forced to leave because the bank, or the"Monster" as Steinbeck says, needs to make a profit, and if the farmer cannot produce any goods to pay off debts, then the bank forecloses the land. This happened to many farmers in the 1930's due to a dr...
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
Using the symbol of the camps, Steinbeck illustrates the illusion of communism. The idea of communism is working together. The migrant camps are described as “a world” (ch.17; 265) and in the mornings are “torn down like a circus” (ch.17; 265). Through the illusion of Communistic ideas in the camp, the migrants are able to escape the realities of Capitalism. The camps are the migrants’ own worlds, created on the idea of a better life in California. Comparing the camps to a circus indicates the camps stand as an illusion, because like a circus, it is an escape from reality. Circus performers create an alternate world in the stunts and acts they perform. The description of the camps shows the reader the migrants’ illusion of Communism against the reality of Capitalism. The description of the Weedpatch camp is another of Steinbeck’s examples of Communism. As the Joads come across the camp, they notice “a high wire fence fac[ing] the road and a wide-gated driveway turn[ing] in” (ch. 22; 389). The fence separates the camp from the real worl...
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.
There are three reasons that Andrew Jackson won presidency. After the corrupt bargain where Adams and Jackson tied in popular vote, Clay became the factor for who would receive the honor of United States president. Adams promised Clay that if he voted for him than Adams would grant Clay the position of secretary of state, a position that usually the person holding will become president the following term. Americans did not trust Clay and Adams. To top it off, previous presidential elections did not concern the public. First, because you had to be a white man who owned property to vote, and two, the people knew that all the candidates for president usually had the same morals, background, and standards. Therefore, t...
In conclusion, if Macbeth was more headstrong in his scruples and his honored his position with integrity, he would have never been persuaded to do any of the horrible things he did. Macbeth was not an obstinate man; he was compliant with everything and rarely questioned what was asked of him. It wasn’t a lack of wisdom necessarily, but a lack of judgment, which created his impressionable flaw that ultimately leads to his demise.
Mandel, Stewart. “Big Bang Theory.” Sports Illustrated 119.7 (2013): 76. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
We know everything, from where Ma Joad keeps her letters, news clippings, and trinkets, to the precise part that is expected to settle the Wilson 's visiting auto. Actually, Steinbeck is so great at being exact that when we complete The Grapes of Wrath, we 've earned our PhDs in the specialty of auto workman repair. His parts that treat the Joad family are brimming with vivacious, bright dialog that nearly approximates the sound and rhythms of the Oklahoma discourse designs. We sense that we are in that spot, going nearby the Joads. Steinbeck blends his parts about the Joads with sections that investigate the life and times of the Dust Bowl through a wide, recorded lens. These sections have a tendency to accept a continuous flow, as it delineates banks expelling sharecroppers, degenerate auto sales people offering broken-down autos for an excessive amount of cash, and even the very clean storms that destroy the area. In these occasions, Steinbeck uses bunches of reiteration, making the dialect appear to be just about dreamlike and underscoring the urgent times of the Dust Bowl
Northouse, P.. (2007). A Comparison of Management and Leadership Competencies. In: Leadership Theory and Practice. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. p10
Fashion, psychology and the sociological perspective have long been perceived as mutually exclusive concepts. However, is there a possibility that a trinity exists in the former? To illustrate, it is evident that throughout history fashion has influenced society as a whole and has mirrored its aspects i.e. economical and sociological. Furthermore, this influence has developed to be perceived psychologically where individuals identify with fashion in the sense of translating visual information showing their personal views and attitudes. To that effect, what is fashion? Traditionally and in the literary sense, fashion is defined as ‘a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior’ . However,