"The Grapes of Wrath" Tone and Figurative Language

The tone set forth in The Grapes of Wrath, was a quiet, sad tone from the start, based on Steinbeck's description in the very first sentence of the book "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth..." Another tone portrayed early on was anger by sellers and businessmen, "Spend all their time looking. Don't want to buy no cars; take up your time. Don't give a damn about your time." Steinbeck achieved the poor, sad tone as one of his main objectives from the very beginning. He conquered it through his writing style. Every other chapter he set a tone, a mood, a sense of being, and what the time was like by taking the reader away from the Joad family, and painting a picture through a specific subject, but through random description. Steinbeck often used short sentences, fragments as a matter-of-fact, but he used them craftily and well to where they made sense. He used this to cause a tone of desperation. "If he'll take twenty-five, I'll do it for twenty. No, me, I'm hungry. I'll work for fifteen. I'll work for food. The kids. You ought to see them..."

Steinbeck is a sure fan of figurative language, his books wouldn't be as great with out them. In The Grapes of Wrath there are several examples of such figurative language. Here are a few examples of such language:

(1) Steinbeck compares a willow tree "....its load of leaves tattered and scraggly as a molting chicken."

(2) He described a man driving a tractor as "....a robot in the seat."

(3) Then, later, "....I'll pot you like a rabbit."

(4) When speaking of the condition of Tom Joad's house he came up with this, "....crushed like a bug."

(5) Around a campfire, Tom and his companions spoke of Grandpa's statement about a person named Albert, "...I'll take that squirt and wring 'im out like a pair of drawers."

(6) "The cat reached out a gray and questioning paw." A cat can't have a paw that asks a question.

(7) While cooking food "....the flames licked up around the meat and hardened and glazed the surfaces."

(8) At a family meeting just before heading west, Pa, Uncle John, and Grandpa had gathered. "...That was the nucleus."

(9) In one of his "mood setting" chapters, Steinbeck describes a tractor after being turned off. "...The heat goes out of it like the living heat goes out of a pig."

(10) "The siren screamed again and again, and always, it came closer."

(11) "The women went back to the fires that had died."

(12) While Ma was cooking, the "....frying pan of potatoes was hissing and spitting over the fire."