Re-evaluating the Grapes of Wrath: the Bakhtinian connection

My goal in writing this paper is to examine the most common complaints against The Grapes of Wrath by a given community that will include, but not be limited to, the geographic area in which I teach as well as the adjacent areas that serve as the setting for the novel. Furthermore, I will propose a means by which The Grapes of Wrath can be viewed on a continuum which may accoimt, at least in part, for the imdeniably ambivalent interplay among Steinbeck's use of scriptural allusion, the characters, dialogue, and plot he constructed within the medium of the novel, and the primary audience to whom he writes. To this end, we will consider the initial reception of the work as it relates to the corresponding objections among readers, the theoretical basis upon which the current discussion will be based, and a thorough analysis of the text using that critical method. My hope is that, by the end of this discussion, my readers will have acquired a new perspective which may enable them to view The Grapes of Wrath and other pieces of literature in a altogether different light as well as a new willingness to step outside the prescribed parameters of reading which have been established by groups whose myopic vision can only be described as oppressive, and yes, ignorant.