From "I" To "We"--On The Momentous Theme Of The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck remains one of America's most significant realistic writers in the 20th century. As a Nobel Prize winner, his prestige is mainly associated with The Grapes of Wrath, which was published in 1939. In this undying masterpiece of his, social conditions in 1930s America were faithfully recorded and the darkness and the injustice during the Great Depression exposed.Centering on the Joads, a typical family on the westward journey of migration, the novel explains how they gain the education of the heart under the increasingly worsening physical conditions and how they finally achieve the conscious transition from "I" to "we", which is typically represented by the cases of Casy, Tom and Ma. Casy acts as a guide to all the loads. It is under his influence that Tom and Ma transcend the limitation of their own family and accept the idea of universal fraternity. Steinbeck uses symbolism to illustrate the theme of the novel. Especially its title and ending are significantly symbolic. They do forcefully further the momentous central idea of the novel-from "I" to "we". The novel is distinctive too for its journalistic style. The main story is the westward journey of the Joads while the interchapters show its typicality and universality. In this way, Steinbeck creates in The Grapes of Wrath not only a history of the westward journey of dispossessed families, but also a history of the education of the heart.