Chapter Summary: The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck

Initially when reading the chapter, the reader would make the assumption that it is just about fruit. After some reflection, it is much more than that. This chapter is about humans playing god. They nurture and control their crops and then they destroy them because there are no buyers. Destitute people starve and are forced to watch food be destroyed before their very eyes. There is no humanity in the growers only a lust for money. Life is wasted by those that want profit. That sweet and sickly decay is not only the fruit but the people dying of malnutrition. On page 477 the people have grown weary and from that weariness has sprung something else: “In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy for the vintage.” . The book is called The Grapes of Wrath for a reason and now the reader understands it. Emotions of fear and hunger create a new feeling: wrath, anger for their misfortune.

In the first part, gender roles begin to be questioned. Ma is forced to take charge because the men have grown soft and hopeless. Pa obviously does not the swapping of roles. Through it though, he gets mad, exactly what Ma intended to do. Anger drives more than heartbreak. Moving on with more themes of roles, Tom feels displaced. Al is a philanderer, Pa gets mad, Uncle John gets drunk, and Ma takes care of the family. With Tom, the reader cannot exactly identify his role. That displacement is exactly what Steinbeck uses for the relationship between Tom and Casey. At the beginning, Tom is a man of action while Casey is a man of words. Later as Tom reflects and grows emotionally he becomes the man of words and Casey the man of action. At the end of chapter 26, we are finally reunited with Casey proving this