Grapes of Wrath: Comparing Film and Novel John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is a tale of pain, heartache, struggle, and endurance representative of the experience endured by Americans during The Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Steinbeck pasted the pages of his novel with clever imagery to pull at the heart strings of his readers, and reach the depths of their humanity to truly understand the trials endured by families seeking solace in the arms of the Californian government. In 1940 Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize winning novel was brought to life, but lacked some of the most controversial texts and attitudes of the novel. While the film portrayed many of Steinbeck’s ideals, producers cautiously omitted scenes that may offend or detour viewers. While the film’s producers were …show more content…
He was employing them to truly engage in the time period, the environment, and the innate capacity to care for fellow humans; humanity at its best ignited by a fictional novel based on a true struggle. According to New York State Writer’s Institute Steinbeck’s novel was brought to life by producer Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox. Steinbeck believed that his novel would never be converted to film. He was quoted as saying "I am quite sure no picture company would want this new book whole and it is not for sale any other way. It pulls no punches at all and may get us all into trouble but if so -- so." However 20th Century Fox took the challenge head on. Zanuck believed that his tale had the opportunity to convey two major points once on the big screen: First, it would be a document about the men and women whom Franklin Roosevelt had called in early 1933 "ill housed, ill-fed, and ill-clothed... the pall of family disaster hang[ing] over them day by day." Second, it would be a drama of fundamentally American optimism, of the triumph of "the little people" over the tyranny of economics and the poison of class