|
The Grapes of Wrath has been criticised for being too sentimental and having Communistic overtones. Yes, there is a certain sentiment in this book but it is hardly a serious problem. In fact it may be necessary to leaven the darkness that pervades much of it.
As to being "Communist", one can hardly take that seriously as a literary criticism of this novel. Steinbeck does show the violence of the establishment forces, but if one examines the social history of the depression years then perhaps a good bit of the bitterness in the book's portrayal of a police force that was seen as the brutal weapon of a wealthy establishment may be understandable--if extreme. Consider the horrible shanty towns called "Hoovervilles" that existed during the Thirties. The worker population was depressed and despised. The Dust Bowl was awful. Steinbeck is simply writing in the tradition of Mark Twain when he shows the suffering of an underclass. He is not concerned with an economic theory; he is concerned with a human reality.
I'm not sure that Jim Casey is really a convincing figure but Ma Joad is brilliantly conceived.
I read this book some decades ago but I found it much more satisfying and significant this time around.
|