Literary Devices
What literary device does Steinbeck employ for the waste in Chapter 25?
Anaphora
"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation." Identify the crime Steinbeck mentions in Chapter 25.
The waste of food
What is the purpose of the cotton pickers?
The cotton pickers represent migrant workers who suffer under the low wage and hard work conditions the landowners force onto them.
What do the grapes of wrath symbolize?
The buildup of resentment and wrath leading to resilience.
Does Steinbeck incorporate socialist ideas?
Yes
The repetition of waste, rot, and decay emphasize what?
The great sorrow created by a capitalist society.
“Well if it comes —fella says it’ll put han’ pickin’ out.” Identify what threatens all the hand pickers.
Machinery and industrialized agriculture
The lists of actions and directions of the cotton pickers serve what purpose?
Emphasize the shared struggle and harsh conditions of migrant workers
What do the cotton bags symbolize?
The harsh labor migrant workers endure.
How does Chapter 25 differ from Chapter 27?
What is the irony of the California farms created in Chapter 25?
Abundant food contrasting with the suffering and starving food
“If they was on’y fifty of us, we could stay awhile, but they’s five hundred.” What do the cotton pickers reference here?
Lack of work for migrant workers due to overpopulation in California
How do both Chapters 25 and 27 share commonly illustrate Steinbeck’s purpose?
Illustrates the exploitation and suffering of migrant workers.
What does the dialogue between the cotton pickers symbolize?
Shared struggle and collective survival among migrant workers.
Why do the landowners destroy the surplus of fruit they produce?
In order to keep prices and profit high
What does the repetition of “Cotton Pickers Wanted” emphasize?
Demand for labor contrasting with the harshness of labor and / or job depletion
"Wisht it would last...God knows, but I wisht it would last." What does this dialogue reveal about the cotton pickers.
Migrants' hopes for higher income in order to survive
The stream of consciousness with lack of quotations and fragmented sentences in Chapter 27 serves what purpose?
Continuous labor and the hectic, harsh conditions.
What do the foreshadowed winter, pervasive waste, and oncoming machinery symbolize?
Threats to the collective survival of migrant workers.
The topics of harshness and suffering of the migrant workers emphasize what theme?
The survival of migrant workers amid hardships
What is the general shift in tone created in Chapter 25?
The shift from praising the California farms to criticizing them due to waste, resonating an overall tone of moral and physical decay and suffering caused by a capitalist system
“The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals.” How does this quote relate to the American dream?
The wine represents the dream of an abundant, rich life, but in reality, opportunity is rotten and decayed.
How do the cause and effect of capitalism and suffering build on Steinbeck's purpose?
Highlights the injustice of migrant workers suffering amid hardships derivative of a false American dream created by the failure of a capitalist system, foreshadowing imminent class conflict, and criticizes the capitalist system.
What does the crime beyond denunciation symbolizes?
The failure of capitalist society, leading people to value personal profit over the suffering and livelihoods of suffering, dying, starving, people
The pervasive waste, the continuous stream of consciousness, and the great struggles of the migrant workers build on what previous idea?
The concept of "I to We" and the shared identity of migrant workers collectively surviving a capitalist world of struggle and hardship. This further highlights how a collective issue of suffering under harsh conditions foster a collective motivation, endurance, and resilience against the cruel derivatives of a corrupt society filled with waste, decay, and hardship. This idea intertwines the themes of the collective over-soul and survival, amalgamating the two into a archetype of collective survival.