The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Depression epic that won the Pulitzer Prize inspired—and sometimes infuriated—millions of readers.

Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, first published in 1939, recounts the tale of one Oklahoman farm family, the Joads, who were forced to leave their property and go west to the promised land of California during the Dust Bowl exodus of the 1930s. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. The book portrays the horrors of the Great Depression and delves into the very essence of equality and justice in America. It is a depiction of the struggle between the strong and the downtrodden, of one man's violent response to injustice, and of one woman's stoical resilience. The most American of all American classics is definitely Steinbeck's potent work, which is simultaneously a transcendental gospel, a road novel, a chronicle of captivity, and a realistic epic.