#The Grapes of Wrath

[chellilonaaphra]

[joy-haver]

The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow.

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.

And the smell of rot fills the country.

Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. 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.

-John Steinbeck, The grapes of Wrath

[storytime-reviews]

Shelf-Confidence Book Photo Challenge

March 19 2022 – Banned Books

Just some of the banned books I own.

[citizenscreen]

John Ford’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH had its world premiere in New York City on January 24, 1940. #OnThisDay

[lightpurplelilies]

where all my stanbecks at (john steinbeck stans)

[commonplacenook]

Three hundred thousand in California and more coming. And in California the roads full of frantic people running like ants to pull, to push, to lift, to work. For every manload of lift, five pairs of arms extended to lift it; for every stomachful of food available, five mouths open.      And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

[foxyfexyll]

suuper weird how how my blog has purged some of the few snake saga posts i have. here’s a new one i made for a class! and it actually made its way into being a sticker!!

[now-watching]

Recommendations 61-65:

61. THE NEW WORLD (2005), dir. Terrence Malick

“ONCE DISCOVERED, IT WAS CHANGED FOREVER.

A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.”

Availability: Available for rental on GooglePlay, AppleTV, VUDU, Amazon, and YouTube.

62. MUDBOUND (2017), dir. Dee Rees

“In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.”

Availability: Available on Netflix.

63. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940), dir. John Ford

“THE JOADS STEP RIGHT OUT OF THE PAGES OF THE NOVEL THAT HAS SHOCKED MILLIONS! 

Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life… Hopefully.”

Availability: Available for rental on GooglePlay, AppleTV, VUDU, Amazon, and YouTube.

64. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), dir. William Wyler

“THREE WONDERFUL LOVES IN THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR!

It’s the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare. Captain Fred Derry is returning to a loveless marriage; Sergeant Al Stephenson is a stranger to a family that’s grown up without him; and young sailor Homer Parrish is tormented by the loss of his hands. Can these three men find the courage to rebuild their world? Or are the best years of their lives a thing of the past.”

 Availability: Free on PlutoTV and available for rental on AppleTV and Amazon.

65. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944), dir. Vincente Minnelli

“M·G·M’S GLORIOUS LOVE STORY WITH MUSIC!

In the year before the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.”

Availability: Available on The Criterion Channel and HBOMax with subscriptions and available for rental via YouTube, GooglePlay, AppleTV, VUDU, and Amazon. 

[The American Experience Film Recs]

[history105rockandrollblog]

Lecture 19: Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello perform the powerful song “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” written by Springsteen in 1995 and released on his eleventh studio album of the same name. The song is based on the main character in the novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck. Tom Joad was a character who journeyed from Oklahoma to California with his family after they’re driven off their land in the Dust Bowl. Rather than finding the American Dream waiting for them in California, the family encountered poverty, labor strikes, and violence. Joad himself was radicalized and converted into an outlaw activist by the end of the book. This song hauntingly evokes the character’s odyssey and radical politics. Springsteen and Morello performed this song on October 29, 2009, at the 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

[tomesofthetrade]

“Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes it'll on'y be one.”

- The Grapes of Wrath

[illustration-alcove]

Bijou Karman’s illustrated book covers for new Penguin editions of John Steinbeck’s classics: East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony.

[zippocreed501]

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad and John Carradine as Casy

The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)

[dragonbadgerbooks]

@just0nemorepage​ January JOMP Photo Challenge: January 13, 2022: Classics

A friend and I started a classic book club last year and these are all the books we’ve read so far, plus the first book of 2022! Only thing missing is Little Women because I hated it.

[whilereadingandwalking]

“And it came about in the camps along the roads, on the ditch banks beside the streams, under the sycamores, that the story teller grew into being, so that the people gathered in the low firelight to hear the gifted ones. And they listened while the tales were told, and their participation made the stories great.”—from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

[citizenscreen]

John Steinbeck's classic “The Grapes of Wrath” was published #OnThisDay in 1939

[the-portrait-of-seraph]

June's Review...

I completely forgot about this, please forgive me

Lolita: Nabokov, Vladmir

A great book in the way it's written! I greatly admire Nabokov's style and prose and I think it's pretty hardcore that he translated his own book (Lolita) into Russian. But does that make it Russian or European literature???

Humbert is the only unreliable narrator I don't like, I wonder why. Maybe it's because he was pining after a freaking twelve year-old? I know that this books gets a lot of hate for its depiction of pedophilia, but Nabokov had stated that this book was written for the opposite intention, to show the disgusting nature of pedophilia and even had specific instructions for the book's cover, which many did not listen to-

It's an interesting book to say the least, the characters, the plot, and even the setting really plays into Nabokov's masterpiece.

The Grapes of Wrath: Steinbeck, John

Ugh, I love this book!!!! The Grapes of Wrath is oftentimes considered Steinbeck's greatest work (I can refute that lol) and for good reason. The story is about the Joad family, who travel to California in hopes of a better life, but when they get there, life isn't all that it seems, and Tom Joad finds himself caught up in a worker's revolt.

Honestly, the stars of the show were the Ruthie and Willie interactions. They're so cute haha, especially when they see a flushing toilet and thought they broke it-

Rose of Sharon,,, she's so lovely. I felt so bad for her and her baby, and she was so excited too.

Connie really just left her because the responsibility was too much? Ran away and began studying hard to become the president of the U.S. huh?

There's a lot to unpack, but I am such a horrible explainer. It's not only the Joads, but the Reverend and the revolt also have so much more depth and allegory in them.

The Idiot: Dostoevsky, Fyodor

Myshkin,,,, I loveeee youuuuuu. No but seriously, I loved Myshkin throughout this whole book, he was the light in the dark dingy world of 19th century Russia. Truly a holy fool.

There was so much happening in this story??? The Rogozhin/Nastasya/Myshkin drama, the Aglaya/Myshkin development, the Rogozhin/Myshkin rivalry???? How Myshkin vehemently denounces Catholicism? The Rogozhin/Nastasya escape? Nastasya's death??? It will be hard to keep up with, but I promise you, the Idiot is so good.

Man, I love Nastasya Fillipovna. Fuck Trotsky though, he literally molested Nastasya throughout her time as his ward, that's not cool. And how Nastasya just burns a hundred thousand roubles, has two men wrapped around her finger, and ends up with neither of them? Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss!!!

Sonya and Raskolnikov wanted to be everything that Nastasya and Myshkin were/j (Take a shot everytime Hyeji says Nastasya). Myshkin had pure intentions and saw the good in Nastasya/wanted to help her, and Nastasya absolutely lost it fr.

First Love: Turgenev, Ivan

I liked this one! First Love tells the story of Vladmir Petrovich and his love for his next door neighbor, Zinaida. However, Zinaida is aware of her good looks (as she should!!!) and has a lot of men vying for her hand, Petrovich being only one of them. She goes on to play her suitors against each other, while Petrovich is not aware of his real rival (spoiler, it's his dad).

Turgenev describes love as a summer torrent that changes a person once it's over, and he was damn right. As much as I wanted to root for Petrovich, I was also hoping for some sort of tragedy to act as character development.

It's very short, so you could read it in one sitting! I highly recommend it, if you like the feeling of hand sanitizer on half-healed cuts.

Poems of James Joyce and the Exiles

Okayyy, I see you Joyce!!!! I've only really considered James Joyce as an author, so reading his love poetry and only play really paints him in a new light!

Ugh, his poetry describes everything that I've ever felt about every person I've loved. I don't know if it's a lot, but I'm digressing. And his play??? Gorgeous, but sort of messed up? You have Robert and Bertha, the unmarried couple with their son Archie; they return from Rome to Ireland, to run into Richard, Bertha's ex and Beatrice, Robert's ex. Harmful hijinks ensue. I know that this play wasn't as successful as his other works, but I really liked it.

In Search of Lost Time: Proust, Marcel

I didn't not enjoy this as much as I thought I would. That doesn't mean I hated it!!!! I do admire Proustian writing style, but there wasn't that sort of compelling force that wanted me to keep turning the page. It certainly was interesting, I have a love and hate relationship with this series though haha.

June was not my month, too many things to do and now its my summer break!!! Going to try and be more active here now :)