The Grapes of Wrath

by Frank Galati (Adapter), John Steinbeck (Source Material)

The Grapes of Wrath is the brilliantly written story depicting the life of Americans during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s when Oklahoma farmers were forced off the land they had farmed for generations and they moved to California for the better life they believed they would find picking peaches and grapes. The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 by John Steinbeck (1902-1968). In 1940 it was made into a movie staring Henry Fonda. The title comes from a line in the song -The Battle Hymn of the Republic-. The book is still controversial and efforts are still made to ban it from school libraries. The movie has not been remade, probably for the same reason.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Theatre, Historical, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published June 1, 1991

Reviews

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

An American classic novel, adapted for the stage by Frank Galati. I'm very familiar with the original, and the history of the Okie migrants in the mid 1930s, off to California in search of better pastures during a dark period in my country's history. The story of the Joad family is bitter indeed. Listening to the actors' voices and the background music was an incredible addition to this rich story.

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE GRAPES OF WRATH-JOHN STEINBECK
✒"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that
weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success.
The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And
children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an
orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate-died of malnutrition-because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold
them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the
kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to
the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch
the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the
people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing
wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing
heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
🍇Pokušaću da vam predstavim knjigu a da vam što manje prepričavam. Podaci koje moram navesti su-Velika Depresija,Oklahoma-putem 66 prema obećanoj zemlji Kaliforniji. Egzodus. Veliki kapital i mali farmeri.
🍇Roman prvenstveno govori o porodici. Joad ovi su ovde samo jedna od hiljada i hiljada porodica koje su bile previše "sitne i nebitne" pred velikim kapitalom.
🍇Ovo je priča o putovanju u neizvesnost,o nadi,o želji da se živi od sopstvenog rada. Ovo je priča o čudesnom osećaju kad te posle bezbrojnih ponižavanja i vređanja neko tretira kao ljudsko biće. Ovo je priča o solidarnosti,o preživljavanju.
🍇Tu su starci i deca. I potajne sahrane kraj puta i nemogućnost školovanja. I glad. Glad koja iscrpljuje i telo i dušu.
🍇Stainbek oštro kritikuje bezobzirnost i gramzivost velikih kompanija i iznosi pred naše oči bogatstvo i obilje plodova koji su ostavljeni da trule i propadaju,jer nisu "rentabilni",pred očima izgladnelih.
🍇Ovo je najviše od svega priča o Majci,o majkama ovog sveta koje hrane i drže na okupu svoje porodice.
✒"Ever'thing we do-seems to me is aimed right at goin' on. Seems that way to me.
Even gettin' hungry-even bein' sick; some die, but the rest is tougher. Jus' try to
live the day, jus' the day."
🍇Kraj će možda nekima biti šok i kontraverza ali meni je jedan od najdirljivijih krajeva ikad pročitanih,koji uprkos svega pročitanog ili baš zbog toga budi nadu
🍇Ogromna preporuka

[Jason Holliday · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't give many 5 star ratings and I had a hard time deciding between 4 and 5 stars but the way this play ended kind of shocked me and I'm not easily shocked. I'm sure part of what made this a five star was the incredibly high quality performance of the voice actors as well as the authentic dialog. This production was violent, obscene, profane, and a hundred other things but yet entirely believable and understandable. I can't wait to read the book. Warning. Do not listen to this audio drama from the play if you are easily offended.

[Brittney Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in the rural south this made me reminiciant of the older people my childhood that were probably alive during the time the books were written. It also made me think that things are still so similar today... people die every day due to poverty.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Galati’s adaptation, like the novel, combines grandeur with sentimentalism and didacticism.

[Atul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wondered why would a book be titled ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ ! Well it is a story that reveals human dignity, an innate goodness and an unrelenting pride of people. Picked up a play write instead of a the book itself, as I was looking for an interpretation and some dramatization of the toughest period on human kind (We could be in one too these days #Coronavirus 3.31.20)
Might just go for the book itself also in future.

There is a sudden end with a scene that sends shivers but is totally apt. As the family falls apart they become desperate but their love and compassion grows for other people. We are all connected in this world.


“Our people are good people, our people are kind people. Pray God someday kind people won't all be poor. Pray God someday a kid can eat. And the associations of owners know that some day the praying would stop.

And there's the end.”
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

[Ruth Lanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh. The story just stops in the middle of a rainstorm, with the surviving Joads having no money, no food, and no job prospects. No warning, no tying up of loose ends, no epilogue. It. Just. Stops.

However, the social commentary is excellent, and a lot of it still applies today. All the focus on bigger and bigger companies, the bottom line, and ignoring the real needs of human beings is still relevent now.

[pilnok · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I check things out from the library without paying attention
This is one of those times

I guess I'll be back this week for real Grapes of Wrath.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ending?!?! oh my god like a punch to the gut

[eej · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ending was freaking weird

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grapes of Wrath was such a good take on America’s history, and what it was like to pick up and leave home to travel somewhere else. There’s not a lot of joy in this - it’s a rough world to live in and it doesn’t pull its punches even for the cast. I’d recommend a read.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished re-reading this book and loved it all over again. It's such an appropriate topic in this day of economic strife, job loss, starvation, and the break-down of societal norms. While this book was set in the Depression, which was more "in your face", similar struggles can be seen across America today. Steinbeck does a great job of portraying one family's struggles and the importance of that familial bond when you can count on nothing else. Admittedly the ending was a bit depressing and left me with the feeling that the story was only half-way finished, but I also can't think of how else you can possibly end a book about one family's struggles in the depression era without following their trials for another ten to twenty years (but I'd love to see a follow-up story on the Joads 20 years later - ha! Too much reality TV for this girl.) I also loved Steinbeck's usage of misspelling and "twang" in the conversation of the family members - again totally appropriate for the time period and a fairly uneducated family. He also does a great job of portraying the reality of the times by emphasizing the tough journey with depressing lows (hello starvation) and very below-average highs (the ability to get a car fixed in half a day instead of the 3 days they expected.) I love some of the family characters and despise others - much like any average family - which again I think is a great way of portraying how "real" this fiction portrays the times.

As a side note, I just found last night a document that describes some great great aunt's journey in the late 1800s from Kansas to Oregon in wagons and as I was reading through it, I was struck by the similarities between this non-fictional journey and the fictional world that Steinbeck has created in a very believable Grapes of Wrath. While the stories are very different, the overall language, spelling, and topics covered in each family's (the Park-Sturfus family in my great-great-aunt's journal and the Joad's in Grapes) story are almost identical. I think that lends an extra kudos to Steinbeck's amazing talent at bringing to life a story that is difficult to identify with in today's technologically advanced world, and yet has many appropriate lessons to teach in the basics of human struggle that continue on today.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grapes of Wrath has rhythmic style. It is a steady beat of a fictional family living in the very real time and circumstances of the great depression constantly juxtaposed against social commentary from John Steinbeck. The beat was easy to follow and easy to know what comes next. You become content for it to go on that way forever.

Then an abrupt end. And with such a powerful scene I couldn't believe it. I almost cried. At first I felt adrift and wondered why he would end the book at that moment, but after further reflection it was the only place he could have ended this book. I won't tell you what exactly happened, but it has to do with as this family fell apart, became more and more desperate, their love and compassion for other people grew. Every human is connected in this world.

I have always wondered why this book was called The Grapes of Wrath. When I was little and heard the title I couldn't understand how Grapes could have wrath. During the great depression, someone, distributed hand flyers advertising jobs in California to the 'dustbowl' of the midwest. "More jobs than we have men! A wonderful place to live! You can have an orange tree in your backyard! White picket fences!" Hundreds of thousands of people migrated to California. When they got there? There were more people than jobs. The groves and farms could pay men to work for less than those men needed to even eat. People starved to death. Families. Children. There was something more sinister going on. Like the oil cartels, the owners of the land purposefully threw away most of the fruits of their labor to keep the price up. Simple economics right? Not so fast. They also burned it, or threw it in rivers and guarded the river with armed men to prevent the starving people from getting it. Because that would defeat the purpose. John Steinbeck has an axe to grind. You can actually hear his anger coming off the pages.

The book is 4 stars, not 5 because after further reflection there is way too much pro-union message in it. Maybe unions weren't as ridiculous as they are today (I mean it takes like 3 years to fire a teacher who also is a child molester in some states), but still. I am diametrically opposed to Steinbeck's political views.

[Krystal 🦢 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like John Steinbeck's writting style in this book. Every other chapter is specifically about one Oklahoma family whose farm gets bought out by the bank, they are kicked off their land and head to California looking for work, the off chapters about different snippets about the time period in general and what was going on in the country more broadly. The language Steinbeck uses is absolutely beautiful. The story is sad. It made me frusterated, and I felt like I wanted to do something about the suffering, or prevent it from happening again. I wouldn't say it's an uplifting book so much as an enlightening book. I really makes you think.

There is some language and a little bit of sexual content, but nothing sleezy or crude. Just the way of life.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm happy that I listened to this instead of reading it. It had a full cast, and it read like a play instead of a novel, and with so many characters and the accents, I liked it a lot and found it still very easy to follow from that aspect.

The story itself...I mean, what is there to say. It's not a happy one. Knowing the history of how it came about, it serves as a cautionary tale and a way to shed light on a little depicted segment of American life. I definitely didn't love it, and I was a big wigged out at the end, but I do appreciate it.

[Cherokeec · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book seemed to really drag on. Every other chapter was nothing about the book. I did'nt even finish this book because it was so boaring.
This book was about a man named Tom Joad who lived durring the Great Depression. He and his family left left to go to California when thier land was taken away from them. It shows you the hard times people went through durring this time. It also shows how people join together and help each other when they are going through the same trubles.

[Sytze Hiemstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not read, as such. Listened to, On Spotify. Although it captures the core of the book, the abbreviation does not make it better. Nice while driving, though.

[Meredith Hoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well the only thing I remembered from high school was the ending. I liked this version with the full cast and songs! Should be a good discussion with my book club.

[Semi-Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Play Review:
Now this may be a bit of a cheat as I watched this play rather than read it but to me I’ve consumed the story just the same so I’m adding it to my Goodreads! I saw this at the National Theatre in the Lyttelton space.

In that classic Steinbeck way I found the story really simple and clear making space for big drama without lots of exposition. The story is plain a family move from their barren homeland to California to seek the work that is promised there; to be financially comfortable ala Of Mice and Men. Unfortunately, they lose lots of their family on the way there due to death, mental illness, and disagreements. The obstacle when they get there is that the work is exploitative and under paid but they’ve used all their money to get there and are now on a rat wheel of hand to mouth unable to get out of the cycle of exploitation.

It’s supposed to be an in-depth look at the prisoners dilemma with explorations of strike action and unionising. But ultimately the message seems to be, starving people will choose selfishly instead of working towards a greater good for everyone. Leading two of the protagonists Jim and Tom to basically become martyrs for the cause.

My main problem with watching the play is it felt utterly, utterly hopeless. Which I understand is probably the point but actually it meant I stopped caring for them as there was no possible way out of this Kafkaesque working class nightmare. I truly believe just a glimmer of hope threaded throughout in one story line would have made all the difference for keeping the fight for their rights active, and worth investing in.

Nonetheless I enjoyed the performances and would like to read the book which theatre critics are heralding as a much better telling of the story.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m reading the actual John Steinbeck book, The Grapes of Wrath, and thought I was getting it in audio as well, to keep reading when I’m gardening, cooking etc. but this is a play, which is good, but rather like clif notes of the actual book. Still, it is a great story of the hard times that one of thousands of families had to endure, when the dust storms drove them out of Oklahoma to hopefully a better life in the West. Now I’ll finish the real book.

[Dan DiGregorio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath at the L.A. Theater Works. A great story depicting the hard life of Americans during the Dust Bowl era of 1930s Oklahoma. The Great Depression forced desperate farmers off their land. They moved to California hoping for a better life picking grapes, peaches, and oranges. Instead, they find more mistreatment, starvation, and death.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio version
Interesting perspective on land ownership and the manipulation of those in need

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a better way to read this with a class when time, their age, or other limitations are in issue.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good adaptation, but I don’t think I would have liked it on stage.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

My idea of an epic book

[Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice adaptation. Had some of the best writing of Steinbeck but it occasionally feels more like a splattering of vignettes (like the best of moments), rather than a towering/definitive adaptation

[Stacey Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the LA Theater Works production of this theatrical adaptation as an audiobook available on Hoopla.

[James Ingram · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to this abridged version on Libby - the L.A. Theatre Works production. It's fine, but really doesn't have great impact.

[Ashna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful tale of The Great Depression, detailing the struggles of the people at the time.

[niusia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really weird but i can see why the author decided to create a story like this for the times he lived in