Intercalary Chapters In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath
In his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, author and journalist John Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to show the causes of the events in the narrative chapters and their broader implications upon the California migrants (edsitement). Chapter One shows the transition into the Dust Bowl and the farmers’ responses to these changes. Chapter 29 shows the changes caused by the California winter rains and the migrants’ responses to these changes. Steinbeck uses parallelism and inversion in his first and last intercalary chapters in order to emphasize the cyclical nature of the problems and the resilience of migrants during the Dust Bowl.
Steinbeck introduces in Chapter One the initial problems faced by farmers and suggests that there is still …show more content…
While the men look at their ruined fields in Chapter One, the women look to them to see if they will continue. They observe: “After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant. Then the women knew [...] that there was no break” (6). The anger of the men translates to a sense of safety for their wives, as they know that there is still hope and they will not give up. The same interaction occurs at the end of the novel. When the migrants emerge from their shelters after the rains pass in Chapter 29, the women again look to their husbands to see if they will continue. They see that “the break had not come; and the break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath” (556). In the first chapter, the men are said to become “angry,” which lets their wives know that they will continue. This interaction supports the claim of Chapter 29 that the migrants will continue as long as they can summon wrath. These interactions begin and end the novel with a sense of hope, as they show the migrants persevering. In particular, the final instance of the men, and therefore their wives, persevering implies that they will continue to do so in the future, which sets a tone of hope for the migrants’ experiences even after the novel
Steinbeck introduces in Chapter One the initial problems faced by farmers and suggests that there is still …show more content…
While the men look at their ruined fields in Chapter One, the women look to them to see if they will continue. They observe: “After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant. Then the women knew [...] that there was no break” (6). The anger of the men translates to a sense of safety for their wives, as they know that there is still hope and they will not give up. The same interaction occurs at the end of the novel. When the migrants emerge from their shelters after the rains pass in Chapter 29, the women again look to their husbands to see if they will continue. They see that “the break had not come; and the break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath” (556). In the first chapter, the men are said to become “angry,” which lets their wives know that they will continue. This interaction supports the claim of Chapter 29 that the migrants will continue as long as they can summon wrath. These interactions begin and end the novel with a sense of hope, as they show the migrants persevering. In particular, the final instance of the men, and therefore their wives, persevering implies that they will continue to do so in the future, which sets a tone of hope for the migrants’ experiences even after the novel