Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 19, Not the hope we were searching for~

In chapter 19 of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck utilizes the rhetorical strategies of pathos, sentence structure and evidence to establish the connection between California’s past and present. This chapter discusses how California originally belonged to Mexico. However, American squatters began to settle the land, feeling that they had the right to own and farm it. Now, with the migrants from the dustbowl moving west, these Californians are fearful that what they did to the Mexicans (take Mexico’s land as their own), will be what the migrant do to them.  

This chapter is littered with the accounts of migrant families whose children grew extremely hungry due to lack of food (stemming from their families lack of money).  Steinback evokes pathos in the reader as he vibrantly depicts how the families attempted (and often failed) to provide for their children. He illustrates this when he says: "They streamed the mountains, hungry and restless-restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do-to lift, to push, to pull, to pick to cut-anything, any burden to bear, for food" (chapter 19, pg 233). The migrants worked in whatever way they could, not for luxurious objects or the most recent model of a car, but for a basic human necessity: food. This chapter accounts how some of the migrant families would attempt to grow a small garden on the lands of the wealthy Californian farmers, but the greedy and suspicious land owners would hire surveillance to eliminate any families attempting to do such. This all evoked pathos in the reader as when the chapter concludes, the reader is left feeling sorry for the poor starving migrants, and angered at the greed of the Californian farmers.

Steinbeck also utilizes the rhetorical technique of small and quick sentences. The application of this form of sentence structures arouses a sense of desperation in the reader. Much like the migrant families are frantic to find food, Steinbeck composes this chapter in a such a way that makes the chapter read very quickly, almost as if in a rush.  This effective strategy assists the reader in feeling the sheer desperation felt by the migrants, which aids in the reader developing a sympathetic relationship with the families. Steinbeck engages and fascinates his audience through the utilization of a short-sentence structure.

Finally, chapter 19 presents the application of factual evidence as a rhetorical strategy. Steinbeck’s writing is unique in this book, as The Grapes of Wrath is a work of historical fiction. However, every other chapter (on the odd chapters), Steinbeck transitions out of the fictional life held by the Joad family, and reverts into describing the scene in the actuality of the time period. For example, in chapter 5, Steinbeck writes about ‘the monster that is the bank’, not through the perspective of the Joad’s, but rather through the perspective of the general population living at that time (in essence, these chapters are non-fiction).  Steinbeck accounts how the migrant families searched for work out of their desperate need for food. He describes how the Californian farmers would obliterate any attempt to harvest anything off of their lands. He depicts starving children and rapacious Californians. He describes the hope that the families obtained during their journey to California, and the crushing reality that they witnessed upon their arrival.