Grapes

[Finmandos12]

I have to read Grapes of Wrath and man, its boring! He spend a whole chapter talking about a turtle crossing aroaad! ARGH!:mad:

[AACHOO]

Patience grasshopper,'tis a work of literary greatness.

[Sakata]

yikes, I got to read that in a few months for English class, is it really bad?

[Finmandos12]

It is UNIMAGINABLY BORING!!!

[Sakata]

Thanks for encourgement...:rolleyes:

[Finmandos12]

It's gotten a little better Sakata, once you get to about the 20th chapter..... (sigh):( :(

[Sakata]

How many pages?

[Werewolf]

Originally posted by AACHOO
Patience grasshopper,'tis a work of literary greatness.
I didnt think it was that great...

[Renille]

A turtle crossing the road??? Is there really a chapter about a turtle crossing the road??? What is the book about, anyway? (I'm sure I'll have to read it at one point in the next 4 years of accelerated english courses.)

[Churl]

To me, The Grapes of Wrath is a great, yet unpretentious, masterpiece. That said, it's very sad and devoid of many uplifting moments.

Without revealing any of the plot, it's largely about people doing what they have to (and eventually whatever they can) to survive when everything they had is torn away from them.

What struck me most was its scope: sure, there's a passage involving a turtle crossing a road … undoubtedly full of symbolism which is best interpreted in the context of the story. But there's also a chapter which sweeps across the entirety of 1930s California, revealing the population's factions by exploring their goals, fears, and plans. (Trust me: it's more interesting than I make it sound.)

Something that might have helped my enjoyment of the book is the fact that I read it by choice, not "under the gun" in a classroom setting. I also read it in my late twenties instead of in high school, for whatever that's worth.

I doubt that anyone would describe The Grapes of Wrath as a "fun" read. But for me, at least, it was definitely worthwhile.

[Finmandos12]

I finished it a while ago, and the ending was *different* to say the least. (shudder)

How far are you Sakata.

[Churl]

You're right … without ruining anything, the ending is rather shocking, even today. Considering the social climate at the time, I can only imagine readers' reactions when it was first published!

[Elanor]

In my opinion Grapes's controversial nature is the main (perhaps the only) reason it's so popular among English classes. They never have you read The Lord of the Rings (unless you are lucky enough to have a very intelligent teacher), although it's full of symbolic and historically relevant (although as Tolkien says, not based on current history) material, as well as many thoughtful insights on life and religion. My AP English teacher in HS said it's not considered "of literary merit", I can only guess because it's not all that controversial. It astonishes and amazes people but doesn't really make them mad by deliberately challenging and offending their beliefs like Grapes does.

[Churl]

Well, I do think there's a lot to The Grapes of Wrath, but at the same time, I have absolutely no patience with people (teachers especially) who casually dismiss The Lord of the Rings or other great works of genre fiction.

Admittedly, there are a lot of bad fantasy novels. But there are also a lot of bad "realistic" novels as well. Just because Jackie Collins wrote 20th century mainstream American fiction, does that mean that Faulkner, Welty, Steinbeck, Buck, Ellison, Fitzgerald, Hurston, Cather, or Hemingway are equally irrelevant? Of course not. And it's equally ludicrous to lump Tolkien together with the pulp fantasy hacks.

Often such dismissals of Tolkien are made by people who A) have never read Tolkien, or B) are, for some reason, biased against fantasy — no matter how good it is. It's too bad that such narrow-minded people find their way into teaching.

A better argument against reading Rings in high school is because it's just too long of a book to cover in a typical lit class setting. I'll buy that argument; at least it doesn't attach flawed value judgments to an unquestionably worthy book.

[Finmandos12]

The reason the liberal education establishment doesn't like LOTR is because of its themes. It is about sacrifice, heroism, friendship, etc. The books they like are never uplifting, but instead focus on the worst in human nature.

[fireworks19]

I never read the book, but we had to watch the movie for some reason at school. It was bad....just bad.