Figurative Language In The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath has become an American classic in its seventy-eight years of existence due to its accurate interpretation of the struggles faced by midwestern farmers and their journey west. The book is formatted using intercalary chapters, which tell a broader story than just the narrative. This is a strong decision that enhances the novel with expertly executed figurative language and furthers the plot by giving explanations to past events. Steinbeck’s choice to use this structure is quite beneficial and is partially to blame for the novel’s literary credibility. The novel begins with the first intercalary chapter, which includes a vivid painting of the last rain of June in Oklahoma. In the west, the main source of income is farming and being that the sun beats down for long days and rainfall is scarce, the crops become fewer and fewer, which means less profit. Farmers begin to fear the future and the feelings of desperation

Early chapters revolve around young Tom Joad, who has recently been released from prison and is hitchhiking his way home. He and his companion Reverend Jim Casy eventually reach the property to find it destroyed and abandoned. Chapter five, the next intercalary chapter, tells how some unnamed tenants are forced to leave the property because the bank declared that they were not making profit from the farms. The tenants threaten to fight the bank, pondering, “Maybe we got to fight to keep our land, like Pa and Grampa did” (pg. 46). In the following chapter, when Steinbeck switches back to the narrative, Muley tells Tom, “Your grampa stood out here with a rifle, an’ he blowed the headlights off that cat’, but she come on just the same” (pg. 63). This implies that the “tenants” described in Chapter Five are actually the Joads, because they fought off the bank like they said they