Free Download: John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath"

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

“In John Steinbeck’s masterpiece, “The Grapes of Wrath”, a tale is told of migrant families in the Great Depression living in ramshackle camps known as “Hoovervilles”. However, the characters in the book are not portrayed as stupid. On the contrary, they know what happened to them. One exchange between the characters goes like this:

 “We’re sorry. It’s not us. It’s the monster. The bank isn’t like a man.” “Yes, but the bank is only made of men.” “No, you’re wrong there- quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it. The bank– the monster, has to have profits all the time. It can’t wait. It’ll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can’t stay one size.”

The protagonists in “The Grapes of Wrath”, the Joad family, had difficulty living in their Hooterville and fared much better in their next camp which was run by the government. Ironically, during the next Great Depression that is almost here, life may again imitate art, except this time the Hootervilles will be called “Trump Towns” and the government camps will be run by FEMA.

In spite of the depressing subject matter, the beauty of the prose in “The Grapes of Wrath” is hauntingly eloquent. In its timeless message Steinbeck has captured what is about to again befall the United States citizenry once again with these words: “A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.”

Yes, darkness comes from the east and an ill wind blows. There is a chill in the air that feels like judgement or even revenge.  The winners have won. Look at all they have won. The world in all of its entirety. The moocher classes have won a little more time to enjoy their free food, high definition televisions, low income housing and Obamaphones as they lip sync to their songs of hip hop and rap tunes in the ghettos. The high rollers have won consolidated global power, a lying media spinning statist narratives and ever growing bank accounts suckling imaginary green milk from the pigs in the pen of the Federal Reserve. They have won. Indeed, they have won, and at such a great bargain. All they had to trade in return were their nonexistent souls.”

Full, and highly recommended article, is here:

- http://www.theburningplatform.com/

Free Download “The Grapes of Wrath”, by John Steinbeck, here: