1、the grapes of wrathwritten by john steinbeck about the titlewhile writing the novel at his home, steinbeck had unusual difficulty devising a title. the grapes of wrath, suggested by his wife carol steinbeck, which was deemed more suitable than anything by the author. the title is a reference to lyri

2、cs from the battle hymn of the republic“(共和國的戰斗贊美詩)- a war song of the civil war:mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord:he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:his truth is marching on.我們看到

3、上帝降臨的榮耀,他雙腳踏著憤怒的葡萄,他拔出閃電這把無敵的利劍,他的真理在奔騰呼嘯these lyrics refer, in turn, to the biblical passage.with the stock market crash of 1929 , america moved into the great depression.the economic structure in the u.s.a. changed.the gap between the rich and the poor lengthened.more and more people lost their jo

4、bs, so the unemployment and poverty became the main social problems.then a lot of people went along the highway 66 to california , hoping to find jobs , lands , dignities and their futures.backgroundthe great depressionthe great depression in 1930s the wall street crash in oct. 24, 1929, “the bottom

5、 dropped of the stock market”result: the dim decade of 1930s replaced the glittering 1920s. banks failed, factories closed and agriculture withered; jobless millions roamed the street; the breadless stretched long; absolute poverty and struggled for survival is a nightmarish experience of life. impr

6、essive charactersprotagonist of the story; the joad familys second son, named after his father. later on, tom takes leadership of the family even though he is young.tom joadthe mother of the joad family. practical and warm-spirited, she tries to hold the family together. she is the healer of the fam

7、ilys ills and arbiter of its arguments.ma joada former preacher who lost his faith. he is a radical philosopher, a motivator and unifier of men, and a martyr(犧牲者). he is a christ-like figure.jim casyrelationship of the major characterstom joadgrandpagrandmajohn joadruthie joadwinfield joadpa joadma

8、joadjim casyconnie riverrose of sharonnoah joadal joadmulley gravesplot. initial situationthe land is changing tom joad is paroled(假釋) from prison for homicide. on his journey home, he meets a now-former preacher, jim casy, whom he remembers from his childhood, and the two travel together. when they

9、 arrive at his childhood farm home, oklahoma， they find it deserted. theres been a drought, dust storms are rampant(the dust bowl黑色風暴), crops are dead, the economy is weak, and landowners must kick tenant farmers（佃戶，佃農） (like the joads) off of the land.plot. conflictthe joads must move westward. the

10、 joads buy a car and move west on route 66, like thousands of other families, in search of a new life, a new home, and new opportunity. with no work here in oklahoma, they have no other choice.11route 66plot 3.complicationcalifornia is not all that. over three hundred thousand people have moved to c

11、alifornia, all looking for the same thing: jobs. the joads cant find any jobs and cant settle down. they are hungry, they are tired, they lose four members of the family. plot. climaxtom kills a man. tom is reunited with reverend casy, who has become an agitator or a picketer, fighting for worker ri

12、ghts. the authorities murder casy, and tom kills one of the authorities. hes in big trouble now. suspenseruthie spills the beans. the floodwaters rise. tom tries to hide from the world until the murder hes committed blows over（平息）, but his little sister accidentally spills the beans（說漏嘴） and tells t

13、he world what hes done. meanwhile, it starts raining really hard and the creek beside the joads boxcar home rises.plot. denouementtom runs away, the joads escape not wanting to drag his family into his crime, tom runs away for good. as the floodwaters continue to rise, rose of sharons baby is stillb

14、orn（死胎）. the joads leave their boxcar in search of higher and dryer ground. . conclusion a dying man is nursed. in the end, rose of sharon commits the only act in the book that is not futile: she breast feeds a man too sick from starvation to eat solid food, still trying to show hope in humanity aft

15、er her own negative experience. this final act is said to illustrate the spontaneous mutual sharing that will lead to a new awareness of collective values.showing authors clear expression of sympathy with the dispossessed(失去產業的) and the wretched. purpose of the novelwriting styles metaphorical langu

16、ages significance of memory careful choice of words, lavish description, true-to-the -heart portrayal of people short sentences, prophetic and powerful toneallegory roadanimalsmusicfarmingbugsturtledog allegory the westthe sunbloodpregnancyallegory1. the saving power of family and fellowship the gra

17、pes of wrath chronicles the story of two “families”: the joads and the collective body of migrant workers. when the joads meet the wilsons, in a remarkably short time, the two groups merge into one anothers survival. this merging takes place among the migrant community in general as well: “twenty fa

18、milies became one family, the children were the children of all. the lose of home became one lose, and the golden dream in the west was one dream.” the livelihood of the migrants depends upon their union. as tom eventually realize “his” people are all people.impressive charactersprotagonist of the s

19、tory; the joad familys second son, named after his father. later on, tom takes leadership of the family even though he is young.tom joadthe mother of the joad family. practical and warm-spirited, she tries to hold the family together. she is the healer of the familys ills and arbiter of its argument

20、s.ma joada former preacher who lost his faith. he is a radical philosopher, a motivator and unifier of men, and a martyr(犧牲者). he is a christ-like figure.jim casy2.lies and deceit central to the grapes of wrath is a single lie: thousands of families move west to california because they believe it to

21、 be the land of plenty, a place full of jobs and opportunity. this lie is spread through a yellow pamphlet dispensed by a californian landowner looking for workers, and it both gives families a sense of hope and strips them of hope. several entities help to sustain this lie: the banks, the car sales

22、men, the merchants, and the landowners. the joads are deceived into thinking that their worries will be forgotten once they get to california.3.mans inhumanity to manthe migrants great suffering is caused not by bad whether or mere misfortune but by their fellow human beings. historical, social, and

23、 economic circumstances separate people into rich and poor, landowner and tenant, and the people in the dominant roles struggle viciously to preserve their position. the novel draws a simple line through the population- one that divides the privileged from the poor- and identifies that division as t

24、he primary source of evil and suffering in the world.4.the dignity of wrath the joads stand as exemplary in their refusal to be broken by the circumstances that conspire against them. steinbeck emphasizes the importance of maintaining self-respect in order to survive spiritually. the joads had suffe

25、red incomparable losses: noah, connie, and tom has left the family; rose of sharon gives birth to a stillborn baby; the family possesses neither food nor promise of work. yet it is at this moment that the family manages to rise above hardship to perform an act of unsurpassed kindness and generosity for starving man, show that the joads have not lost their sense of the value of human life.5.class conflictthe conflict in the novel between the impoverished migrants and the established, secure business people and californians serves as a strong criticism of economic injustice.