In his article “Dust Bowl Blues”, Peter Monro Jack says that The Grapes of Wrath is written in “superb style, one marvelous short story after another, and all melting into this long novel of the great trek.” The reader strongly agrees with Jack’s comment. The use of interchapters greatly adds to the understanding of the background of the novel. This technique provides a broader picture of what is happening to these migrant farmers as they give up their lives to move west. In addition, John Steinbeck would not have gotten his message across in the novel.
The first chapter sketches the setting before actually introducing the characters. The setting actually describes the characters and their personalities. It provides the fundamental background circumstances that are needed to understand why the families are to move west. It expressively describes the dust storms, which are what causes the moves. Also, the first chapter foreshadows wha
In chapter 7, the reader is introduced to the Used Car lot and the cheating salesman. The
Chapter 9 is another interchapter. It deals with the harsh reality that the families could not take all of their belongings with them to California. It is linked to the previous and following chapters. The car can only hold a certain amount of items. The tenants must sell all of their possessions or destroy them. The evicted tenants are very angry at the people who are coming to take their land, but there is nothing that they can do. This is significant because it shows the absurdity of the situation. They had no choice or say in the situation.
t is to happen through the novel. Without this chapter, the book would not have been established the way it was. The reader would have only be given a limited view on what life was like for the migrants.