The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a sad story about the gritty travel to the west fleeing the dust bowl of Oklahoma during the slow and endless Great depression. Times were hard back then and Steinbeck made spot on metaphors to make the famine of food and opportunity come to life again. Of the many meaningful and true images and symbols he used throughout the story, which gave shape and character to the book, one specifically stood out to me.

This metaphor in the story takes place at the beginning of the adventure. The Joad family stops for gas and water, and their dog walks aimlessly around the camp until he walks purposely onto the high way and gets smashed by a speeding car. He knowingly ended his life! This is an extremely powerful metaphor, it signals that nobody, not even the dog wants to live through this horrible, depressing time in American history. It also foreshadows dark times for the Joad family as many deaths will occur in their future.

This tale, I see through the metaphor of the dog's suicide, gave me a much better understanding of what life was like in this time and place. Hot, dry, lonely, hungry, and thirsty, and completely hopeless. The Joad Family lost their farm to a bank foreclosure because the dust bowl turned their land to waste. With the economics of the Great Depression, there was no opportunity for other jobs, so they were forced to leave the only home they knew, and travel west to California. They were hill billy desperate Okies that nobody liked. Everything was backwards and awful for the Joads. It was as if the dog knew this before hand and avoided such catastrophes. Grandpa died of heat stroke, grandma died of thirst, Preacher Casey gets murdered, and Tom winds upon the run for killing Casey's murderer. Again, the dogs death seemed to foretell this.

I love this book. It is an interesting history that taught me of what went on in America's horrible past. It also represented the manner people behaved in such such times while trying to survive and stay together as a family. Furthermore, it is a great reminder to me of the present, and  how good I have it right now. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, however, The Grapes of Wrath are still sour. So sour that the beloved family hound refused to endure it.