The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck · 1939
The Okies driven off their land, the Dust Bowl, the brutal failure of the American dream for those who cannot afford to dream it. Steinbeck's biblical cadence and intercalary chapters (stepping back from the Joad family) give the novel a scope beyond journalism. It won the Pulitzer in 1940 and remains the greatest American social-protest novel.
The case against
Alternating chapters halt the Joads so Steinbeck can deliver the sermon himself, in case the turtle crossing the highway was too subtle, which it was not. His people are nobility in denim, his villains scarcely have faces, and the famous final tableau in the barn mistakes shock for grace. You will be moved and herded at the same time.
Literary Fiction · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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