Meeting the Joad family
Welcome to a special Summer Session of Closely Reading, where we’re slowly reading John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath along with companion reads, all summer long. You’re welcome to join us any time. Paid subscribers will be invited to a live video chat with me at the end of the session, in August. Full schedule available here.
Dear reader,
Today, we’re looking at chapters 8-13 of The Grapes of Wrath along with entries 11-22 in Steinbeck’s journal, Working Days.
If you’re just joining us, you have plenty of time to catch up with the previous week’s guides:
→ Chapter 1
→ Chapters 2-7
→ Bonus post (paid subscribers only!)
As a reminder: you can read any edition or copy of the novel (used, new, audio, digital). Here are my recommended editions —
→ The Grapes of Wrath (Be aware: this edition has deckled edges!)
→ The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classic: this edition has normal page edges!)
→ Working Days
The Joad family
This week, we met Tom Joad’s family.
I was struck by the vivid depictions of each family member, and most especially Tom’s mother. She acts as the healer and heart of the family and her questions to Tom — about how he survived prison, wondering whether he’s really okay, curious about whether California holds more broken promises — reveal that she carries the weight of the world in her heart and her mind.
At first, I found myself bristling at a few of Steinbeck’s chosen descriptors for Ma. Were they too bodily? Overly sexual? Assumptive?
Then, I looked back at the descriptions of Pa, the grandparents, Reverend Casy, and even of Tom himself. I realized there’s a lot of bodily, physical language in this novel. I noticed it in Ma the most, perhaps because I’m used to attuning myself to descriptions of women’s bodies from my PhD focus areas.
But when I took a step back and looked at her depiction in the larger family setting, I realized how much attention Steinbeck is paying to bodies, clothing, sweat, skin, hair and mood overall — in every character, regardless of gender. The flies of pants are open; bare feet walk across the kitchen floor. The portrait of the family we get here feels deeply tuned to the lived, bodily realities of the Joad family.
Then, when we “zoom out” to those parable-like chapters, I noticed we lose some of those particulars in favor of the larger and wider metaphors. Our aperture adjusts and shifts; with these moves in perspective, Steinbeck seems to be training our minds to look for certain narrative devices and techniques in these patterns.
The micro gifts us the particulars: the small moments when Ma catches Tom’s eye and asks how he’s really doing.
The macro puts the individuality into historical perspective: like a Greek chorus, these parable-like sections work to capture larger overarching themes that are hinted at in the microcosm of the Joad family.
An exercise in close reading
Here are a few ways to deepen your reading this week.
Map the characters. Grab an index card and on it, create a web or map of the characters so far. Use different kinds of lines to signify tensions, relationship types, or other connections you’ve noticed. (For example: you might use a dotted line to show immediate family connections and a squiggly line to show neighborhood connections.)
Identify themes. Look for a blank page or space in the front of your book. Mark the date and write down a few themes or topics you’ve noticed. As you continue reading, come back to this page to add the date + new themes you’re uncovering. (You can even write down the page numbers you find these themes on — creating a custom index for yourself!)
Commit some sincere flattery. Look back through the chapters you’ve read so far and identify the paragraph that, for you, has the most compelling voice and style. Read it over at least twice more, and think about why you find this excerpt so special. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, write the exact same passage in your own voice. Imitate Steinbeck, but do so by making changes that feel meaningful to you. Why do you change certain words? What deeper meaning do you uncover by trying your own approach to the style you admire?
What are you noticing?
Let’s get conversation going in the comments!
