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The Grapes of Wrath | The Character of Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath

In this essay, R. Moore examines the character of Tom Joad and explores the ways in which his experience reflects on and parallels the major social themes explored by Steinbeck; draws on scholarly criticism of this theme.

On the surface, The Grapes of Wrath chronicles the westward travels of an Oklahoma family turned off of their land. Beneath that surface, Steinbeck has captured all of the teeming, seething turmoil that spelled the life of the poor tenant farmer in the 1930’s, and he has brought it into a correlative position to the larger forces which govern our lives. It is the story of a family uprooted, who is forced to adapt to new standards and a new way of life while grasping tenuously onto their personal dignity. In turn we have a parable of the demise of the single for...

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