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The Grapes of Wrath

By John Steinbeck, Robert Dermott (Preface)

(36)

| Paperback | 9780141185064

5 Reviews

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Zero Hassle for the New Capitalists: and now we learn to keep the middle class.

    A book about the confrontation btw socialism and capitalism. A book about the Depression and America. A book about California and the America Dream. These themes destined this book to reach the high status it now enjoys, Pulitzer, Nobel, "high school & college must-read", "classic", "most criticized ... (continue)

    A book about the confrontation btw socialism and capitalism. A book about the Depression and America. A book about California and the America Dream. These themes destined this book to reach the high status it now enjoys, Pulitzer, Nobel, "high school & college must-read", "classic", "most criticized and debated", 80 years after it was published. The previous century was a turmoil of cooperationism against individualism, of colonization and the colonized. What the human being is and how should it live, and choose how to live, were the major topics of debate.
    However, as this century passed quietly by with the generation, life has moved on and the roar of the tides have retreated to a mere ech. In our world, rolled flat by the huge and growing snowball of global multinational empire, the scream of the depressed is eerily quiet. The story of the early industrial revolution and its tragic story of quashed workers and plump capitalists is replaying in a different way around the world, with countries exploited this time, but this time, no grapes of wrath are hanging in people's hearts awaiting to burst.
    The new capitalists have learned from the past: don't send in sheriffs busting people around, don't let them see no pigs slaughtered but not eaten because they don't make a profit, don't point guns at people, and rule number one: never, NEVER hunger the middle-class. In the The Grape of Wrath, there weren't any REAL middle-class, all there were was different degrees of capitalists. The middle-class today work, but don't make a profit out of capital itself. The small farm-owners of the Depression did make a profit out of their capital, they were just too small they were eventually absorbed by the bigger ones, and they themselves turned into the working poor. But with the middle-class today, there is no worry of owning or losing one's profit-making property, because they live on the salaries given by the capitalists.
    The new capitalists learned from the past: a strong middle-class guarantees a strong consuming force, one that sustains the cycle of produce and consuming of capitalism, one that would prevent the unprofitable pigs and oranges left to rot, because then there are people who can buy them.

    Therefore, the new capitalists learned. Don't hunger the middle-class. Always give them enough salary for them to consume, for them to live. Let them feel that they can one day make it to the top of the rung with you, and then they will stay put and fight back anybody who wants to rise from the bottom to the middle, anybody "reds" that might threaten their status.

    So the grapes of wrath continues in our century, but with no wrath, and no grapes.

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    ― Flybell said on Apr 18, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    I read this book a very long time ago and loved it. In my opinion it is one of Steinbeck's best novels and classified a modern classic for a very good reason. This is my copy and I plan to read it again (as soon as my huge list of to-be-read books gets smaller).

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    ― Icedream said on Apr 7, 2008 | 1 feedback

  • Extremely boring book. I had to read this for school and it was terrible. I would not recommend it to ANYone. It was long and dry, and seemed to continue on aimlessly forever.

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    ― A said on Aug 29, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

  • Wow, this book was so emotionally charged from the start that I didn't think I could read it without a vacation. I'll read it someday.

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    ― Ryjacks said on Aug 24, 2007 | 1 feedback

  • I read this during my sophomore year in high school (1984).

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    ― Batona said on Mar 24, 2007 | Add your feedback

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ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780141185064 Paperback $15.05 $15.05 Amazon US
£8.99 £5.30 Amazon UK
$18.50 $13.51 Amazon CA
¥2241.00 ¥2016.00 Amazon JP
€13.88 €13.88 Amazon FR
-- €13.95 Amazon DE
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