In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters. Steinbeck includes shorter chapters that do not help the readers understand the main idea of the novel. As a reader, the intercalary chapters make the reading more confusing, but also help give a better understanding to the situations. Some of the chapters do not tie into the novel even at the end which makes the readers wonder why the chapter was included. For example, chapter three of The Grapes of Wrath is about a turtle trying to cross the road. While the turtle is crossing the road, he gets knocked over onto the back of his shell and cannot get up. “Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright”