Sunday, September 20, 2009

Eating Dust: Movement in The Grapes of Wrath


For this post I would like to look at Steinbeck's use of movement to shape The Grapes of Wrath. Much like the winds swept away families, homes and crops in the Dust Bowl-- Steinbeck uses interchapters and a quick pace to keep the narrative engaging. "The wind grew stronger, whisked under stones, carried up straws and old leaves [...] marking its course as it sailed across the fields" (TGoW 2). From the very beginning the reader gets a sense that this novel is about transition. A move from something solid, marked-out, and understood to something much darker and unknown.

In chapter two the reader gains his first look at who will become the main character- Tom Joad. However his appearance is skewed by two things. The first is that we must perceive him through the eyes of the truck driver who delivers him. Secondly, it is hard to gain a sense of who Tom is because, not surprisingly, he is in transition-- returning home from prison. These two obstructions act as a barrier to the reader, setting up boundaries. Furthermore they keep the tone of the novel somewhat transitory. Before we truly understand the depth of Tom's character he jumps from the semi and walks away down the dirt road, back facing the reader.

From here the reader is thrown back into an interchapter. This motion, the interchapter to Joad and vice versa, further heightens the novel's momentum. Right when we begin to get the flow of a chapter it is cut off and re-directed. As soon as the Joad's arrive somewhere and settle they must pack up and depart.

Steinbeck's constant unpacking and packing of the novel is a key part of its overall effectiveness. The winds pushed the crops out of existence and the frantic pace the characters in The Grapes of Wrath must keep mirrors that. "There was a rush to go. And when the sun arose, the camping place was vacant, only a little litter left by the people. And the camping place was ready for a new world in a new night" (TGoW 200).

1 comment:

  1. This is an important comment, I think. It does add yet another dimension to the narrative trajectories we have identified. Apart from the linear quest motif and the moment frozen in time (or mini-narratives within the narrative, about people who are NOT moving), there is also the attempt to lend timeless grandeur to the characters, to describe their movements as part of the cycles by which nature renews itself.

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