Full title · The Grapes of Wrath

author · John Steinbeck

type of work · Novel

genre · Epic; realistic fiction; social commentary

language · English

time and place written · Late May–late October 1938, Los Gatos, CA

date of first publication · April 14, 1939

publisher · The Viking Press

narrator · An anonymous, all-knowing, historically aware consciousness that is deeply sympathetic, not only to the migrants but to workers, the poor, and the dispossessed generally.

point of view · The narrative shifts dramatically between different points of view. In some chapters the narrator describes events broadly, summarizing the experiences of a large number of people and providing historical analysis. Frequently, in the same chapters, the narrator assumes the voice of a typical individual, such as a displaced farmer or a crooked used-car salesman, expressing that person’s individual concerns. When the narrator assumes the voice of an anonymous individual, the words sometimes sound like what an actual person might say, but sometimes they form a highly poetic representation of the anonymous individual’s thoughts and soul. The chapters focusing on the Joad family are narrated primarily from an objective point of view, representing conversations and interactions without focusing on any particular character. Here, the characters’ actions are presented as an observer might witness them, without directly representing the characters’ thoughts and motivations. At certain points, however, the narrator shifts and presents the Joads from an omniscient point of view, explaining their psychologies, characters, and motivations in intimate detail.

tone · Mournful, awed, enraged, sympathetic

tense · Mainly past

setting (time) · Late 1930s

setting (place) · Oklahoma, California, and points along the way

protagonist · Tom Joad

major conflict · The disastrous drought of the 1930s forces farmers to migrate westward to California, pitting migrants against locals and property owners against the destitute. Moreover, Tom Joad’s story dramatizes a conflict between the impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by focusing on one’s own needs and the impulse to risk one’s safety by working for a common good.

rising action · Tom is released from prison, determined to mind his own business; Tom encounters the devastation of the Dust Bowl; Casy presents Tom with his philosophy of the holiness of human beings in general; Tom is drawn into the workers’ movement.

climax · A policeman murders Casy and Tom kills the policeman, making himself an outlaw and committing himself totally to the cause of workers’ rights rather than the fortunes of his own family.

falling action · Tom’s explanation to Ma of the wisdom he learned from Casy; Tom’s departure from the rest of the Joad family; Rose of Sharon’s nursing of the starving man, which symbolizes the community in suffering formed by the destitute migrants.

themes · Man’s inhumanity to man; the saving power of family and fellowship; the dignity of wrath; the multiplying effects of altruism and selfishness

motifs · Improvised leadership structures

symbols · Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy; the death of the Joads’ dog

full title · The Catcher in the Rye

author · J. D. Salinger

type of work · Novel

genre · Bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel)

language · English

time and place written · Late 1940s–early 1950s, New York

date of first publication · July 1951; parts of the novel appeared as short stories in Collier’s, December 1945, and in The New Yorker, December 1946

publisher · Little, Brown and Company

narrator · Holden Caulfield, narrating from a psychiatric facility a few months after the events of the novel

point of view · Holden Caulfield narrates in the first person, describing what he himself sees and experiences, providing his own commentary on the events and people he describes.

tone · Holden’s tone varies between disgust, cynicism, bitterness, and nostalgic longing, all expressed in a colloquial style.

tense · Past

setting (time) · A long weekend in the late 1940s or early 1950s

setting (place) · Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at his former school, Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City.

protagonist · Holden Caulfield

major conflict · The major conflict is within Holden’s psyche. Part of him wants to connect with other people on an adult level (and, more specifically, to have a sexual encounter), while part of him wants to reject the adult world as “phony,” and to retreat into his own memories of childhood.

rising action · Holden’s many attempts to connect with other people over the course of the novel bring his conflicting impulses—to interact with other people as an adult, or to retreat from them as a child—into direct conflict.

climax · Possible climaxes include Holden’s encounter with Sunny, when it becomes clear that he is unable to handle a sexual encounter; the end of his date with Sally, when he tries to get her to run away with him; and his departure from Mr. Antolini’s apartment, when he begins to question his characteristic mode of judging other people.

falling action · Holden’s interactions with Phoebe, culminating in his tears of joy at watching Phoebe on the carousel (at the novel’s end he has retreated into childhood, away from the threats of adult intimacy and sexuality)

themes · Alienation as a form of self-protection; the painfulness of growing up; the phoniness of the adult world

motifs · Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality; loneliness; lying and deception

symbols · The “catcher in the rye”; Holden’s red hunting hat; the Museum of Natural History; the ducks in the Central Park lagoon

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 990