The Joads' Odyssey

In our first class discussion on The Grapes of Wrath, someone (and I apologize for not remembering who it was) mentioned the Odyssey as a basis of comparison for the Joad family's archetypal quest. As I read the rest of the book, I could hardly keep from thinking about the Odyssey.

The Grapes of Wrath and the Odyssey are both stories about long, dangerous journeys. The lead character in both stories is initially characterized by a testing time in his past: Odysseus fought in the Trojan War for a decade, and Tom Joad spent four years in prison. Both stories are structured episodically, with the heroes facing a series of challenges, like the Sirens and the sea monsters for Odysseus and his crew or the continuing car troubles for the Joads. Interesting, the heroes meet a one-eyed figure in both stories, and although the attendant at the car lot is less menacing than the Odyssey's Cyclops, both encounters provide an opportunity for the lead character to show his strength and intelligence. In both stories, the episodic chapters dealing with the journey are so complete and self-contained that they could be rearranged or sometimes even removed without greatly affecting the story as a whole. The groups in both stories diminish in size as the journeys progress, though the loss of each ot the Joads' family members is always a harsher blow than the loss of the interchangeable sailors on Odysseus's crew.

Odysseus and the Joads reach their destinations (Ithaca and California) with plenty of pages left in their respective books. In both cases, reaching the destination is not the resolution of the story because the situation they find is not whay they had hoped. In California, living conditions and job prospects are poor and the residents and law enforcement are hostile to newcomers. Ithaca is overrun with rowdy suirots for Odysseus's wife. In both cases, the main character kills someone (or many someones) who threatens what the main character sees as his right - the right to a fair wage for Tom, or the right to his kingdom and wife for Odysseus.

While the Odyssey and The Grapes of Wrath have these elements in common, and certainly plenty of others (pig farmers, frequent religious references, extreme weather, and many I've missed), I will not go so far as to say that The Grapes of Wrath was directly inspired by the Odyssey. I am more inclined to believe that the common elements appear in these two enduring works (a classic Greek epic and a possible contender for the title of the Great American Novel) because they communicate some universal hopes or fears that resonate with readers across time and cultures.