The Grapes of Wrath

When Tom hitchhikes back to his hometown of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, after a four-year stint in prison, he encounters former preacher Jim Casy, who asks him about his time in prison. In his response, Tom tells a brief story saturated with situational irony: 

“They was a guy paroled,’’ he said. “ ’Bout a month he’s back for breakin’ parole. A guy ast him why he bust his parole. ‘Well, hell,’ he says. ‘They got no conveniences at my old man’s place. Got no ’lectric lights, got no shower baths. There ain’t no books, an’ the food’s lousy.’ Says he come back where they got a few conveniences an’ he eats regular. He says it makes him feel lonesome out there in the open havin’ to think what to do next. So he stole a car an’ come back.’’

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In one of several scenes in the novel that do not focus on the Joad family, Steinbeck presents a symbolic conversation between two unnamed male figures. One of these figures represents the tenant farmers in Oklahoma, and the other, a tractor-driver,  defends the banks that have evicted the tenants. Justifying the evictions, the tractor-driver uses an extended metaphor that imagines the banks as monstrous living creatures: 

But—you see, a bank or a company can’t do that, because those creatures don’t breathe air, don’t eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don’t get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so [...] The bank—the monster has to have profits all the time. It can’t wait. It’ll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can’t stay one size.

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While talking to Casy about his experiences in prison, Tom recounts an anecdote that ironically suggests that learning about the legal system only leads to greater confusion. Describing a man in McAlester prison who is very intelligent and spends most of his time reading, Tom states that: 

He’s sec’etary of the warden—writes the warden’s letters an’ stuff like that. Well, he’s one hell of a bright guy an’ reads law an’ all stuff like that. Well, I talked to him one time about her, ’cause he reads so much stuff. An’ he says it don’t do no good to read books. Says he’s read ever’thing about prisons now, an’ in the old times; an’ he says she makes less sense to him now than she did before he starts readin’ [...]  He says for God’s sake don’t read about her because he says for one thing you’ll jus’ get messed up worse [...]

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When Al Joad, Tom’s younger brother, returns to Uncle John’s house with the new family car, Steinbeck uses ironic metaphors drawn from the language of monarchy to describe Grampa Joad: 

Grampa was still the titular head, but he no longer ruled. His position was honorary and a matter of custom. But he did have the right of first comment, no matter how silly his old mind might be. And the squatting men and the standing women waited for him. “You’re all right, Al,’’ Grampa said. “I was a squirt jus’ like you, a-fartin’ aroun’ like a dog-wolf. But when they was a job, I done it. You’ve growed up good.’’ He finished in the tone of a benediction, and Al reddened a little with pleasure.

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Steinbeck employs lush imagery when describing the fertile lands of California during the Joad family’s first spring in the state: 

THE SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes, swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants.

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Heavily pregnant, Rose of Sharon’s contractions begin during a dangerous rainstorm that threatens to flood the boxcar where the Joads have lived during their time picking cotton. She gives birth but the baby is stillborn. Mrs. Wainwright, who assisted in the delivery, asks Uncle John to dispose of the body of the stillborn baby, which has been placed in an apple box. Uncle John decides to send the stillborn baby, cradled in the apple box, down the current formed by the rainfall. Speaking to the stillborn baby, Uncle John uses an ironic metaphor in which he imagines the baby speaking as it is carried downstream by the water: 

[H]e edged through the brush until he came to the edge of the swift stream. For a time he stood watching it swirl by, leaving its yellow foam among the willow stems. He held the apple box against his chest. And then he leaned over and set the box in the stream and steadied it with his hand. He said fiercely, “Go down an’ tell ’em. Go down in the street an’ rot an’ tell ’em that way. That’s the way you can talk. Don’ even know if you was a boy or a girl. Ain’t gonna find out.”

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