The investigation aims to explore the use of linguistic devices in representing poverty in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. In this investigation, I will be focusing on the writer’s craft in the choice of imagery and the choice of narrative viewpoint in influencing the reader’s perception of poverty.
Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is a realist novel set during the Great Depression. Grapes of Wrath developed from the Harvest Gypsies, one of Steinbeck’s earlier pieces of work. Steinbeck was inspired to produce the novel because he wanted to expose and ‘put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]." The novel was written in 1939 near the end of the Great Depression with the aim of providing his audience an insight into the emotional and physical strains that the migrant farmers faced.
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The narrative chapters follow the journey of the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California together with thousands of other "Okies", to seek jobs, land, dignity, and a future. The intercalary chapters utilize a collage of vignettes, monologues, and dialogues designed to show the context behind the events which occurred in the novel. He uses a combination of narrative chapters together with intercalary chapters to provide outside commentary on narrative