几乎所有的作家，许多世纪以来，已经获得了他们自己独特的写作风格，这种风格是作者需要解决的题材和主题的叙事的方法，因此，它增加了权力的一部分文学。把这个力量的一个可能的方法是使用修辞；它不仅得到讯息也娱乐读者。其他类型的叙事技巧包括：的叙事，文辞，色调，象征和意象结构。有许多伟大的小说的例子，使用这些技术来传达它的信息，同时他们是相当愉快和令人信服的阅读。这些技术是通过在他的小说<<愤怒的葡萄>>约翰·斯坦贝克用，以佃农的一个贫穷的家庭，他们远离家乡奥克拉荷马干旱，经济困难，并改变农业产业。斯坦贝克通过他有效地使用隐喻，大胆的意象，和日记像历史条目，增加了小说的主题的力量。
Almost all writers, for many centuries, have acquired their very own unique style of writing literature; this style is the approach an author takes to address the subject matter and the theme of a narrative; as a result, it adds power to a piece of literature. One possible way to add this power is to use figures of speech; it not only gets the message across but it also entertains the readers. Other types of narrative technique include the following: structure of the narrative, diction, tone, symbolism, and imagery. There are many great examples of fiction that use these techniques to convey its message, and at the same time they are quite enjoyable and compelling to read. Some of these techniques are used by John Steinbeck in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, which focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, who are driven away from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry. Steinbeck adds power to the theme of the novel by his effective use of metaphors, bold imagery, and journal-like historical entries.
In chapter three, Steinbeck describes a turtle trying to cross a highway and he provides a rather vast amount of detail. The turtle makes his way gradually "turning aside for nothing;" it stubbornly climbs the embankment of the highway which shows the amount of arduousness and the marvellous effort put in by the turtle as described by Steinbeck. While crossing the highway, the turtle crushes an ant; likewise, it almost gets crushed by a car itself. The following passage enlightens the turtle's desolation as well as Steinbeck's style:
And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back to its course along the right side. Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over. Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright. The wild oat head fell out and three of the spearhead seeds stuck in the ground. And as the turtle crawled on down the embankment, its shell dragged dirt over the seeds. (17)
It is extremely evident that Steinbeck used a great amount of detail in this description. A truck is going down the highway and its front wheel struck the turtle which sends it spinning off the highway "like a coin" and it lands on its back. Undeterred, the turtle tries to get back on its feet and resumes its slow journey again. As the turtle moves, clump of oats fall out of its shell and the turtle inadvertently buries it because its large shell drags soil over the oats. This turtle is similar to the migrants in many ways.
The description of the turtle in this chapter is a metaphor that foreshadows the hardships endured by the migrants. Very similar to the migrants from Oklahoma, the turtle faces the hostile world but it is persistent and learns to overcome all of its hardships and finally completes its journey. Later on in the novel we learn that the migrants face many challenges as well ranging from economic hardships to family despair and they too will learn to overcome these challenges. Steinbeck uses a few more animal references as metaphors towards the middle of the novel and it really gets the readers' attention to this aspect of the novel.
Later on in the novel Tom Joad, who is the protagonist of the novel, sees a cat. This cat used to hang around the Joad family's home. Similar to the migrants, it has also been tossed out of its home. The cat now lives in a hostile world around it and it must learn to survive in the same way that the migrants must learn to survive. The cat used to be a house pet; and now, it has turned into a wild animal and this really shows how much attention Steinbeck wants us to pay on how the Oklahoma residents or "Okies" transform into migrants.
Steinbeck also wants the reader to notice the manner in which the Joads' dog dies. Although, the Joads didn't really have a habitual relationship with this dog, and they didn't really have a unique name of this dog; nonetheless, he was the family dog:
A big swift car whisked near, tires squealed. The dog dodged helplessly, and with a shriek, cut off in the middle, went under the wheels. The big car slowed for a moment and faces looked back, and then it gathered greater speed and disappeared. And the dog, a blot of blood and tangled, burst intestines, kicked slowly in the road.
(135)
This dog is run over by a speeding car; as a result, his body is distorted to a point that his guts lie tangled. From reading this passage we get the feeling that some horrific circumstances lie ahead for the Joads since we learn that some characters die in a horrific manner as well. This indicates that the times are hard, and many people are very angry and desperate; thus, they will not even hesitate to take the life of a poor creature.
We watch humans take the life of animals without a second thought, and we also witness many similarities between the ways humans and animals behave during these distressful times. Steinbeck's clever uses of metaphors are quite evident in this regard and they add power to the factual ideas of this historical phenomenon which occurs during the 1930s economic depression.
Apart from the metaphors, Steinbeck also uses a quite a lot of imagery throughout the novel and it really adds power and depth to many of the ideas that he is trying to get across. One thing that becomes apparent in this novel is that it is based on true historical events. Due to this reason, Steinbeck does his best to make the novel come to life by his use of imagery which in turn gets the message across much more powerfully. One example of this is the image of the "bank."
There is a point in the novel where landowners start to kick many helpless tenant farmers off of the land, the landowner tell them that the bank is hungry and the bank is a "monster" that cannot be sated. This is conveyed quite remarkably by Steinbeck as the narrator describes: "We can't depend on it. The bank-the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait" (34). This is one of the most outstanding image in the novel as it quite accurately describes the bank. The bank is a monster; it has no sympathy for the poor sharecroppers. This image also adds power to this novel because had Steinbeck just wrote that the banks is working against the people, then it might not have been a powerful message to the reader but due to this image the reader really feels what the sharecropper are going through.
The tractors that are supposed to clear up the land are also part of this dilemma. These tractor are "snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards, in and out of gullies in straight lines" (37). When these tractors arrive to clear the land, the tenant farmers start to wonder who really is in charge and they look for someone who can file their complaints. Of course the tractor drivers simply say, "Fellow was telling me the bank gets orders from the East. The orders were, 'Make the land show profit or we'll close you up" (49). We come to the conclusion that there is no specific person to blame or even a single person held responsible for these actions. We simply know that the banks in the East want more profit out of the drought affected land and they will do anything to achieve this objective. Since we never actually come in contact with any bankers and landowners, we only know that they exist somewhere in the country, and that they are throwing poor sharecropper families out of their homes. Hence the remarkable line, "The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it" (36).
To address the backbone of the novel, Steinbeck has introduced another fine imagery. The main reasons the sharecroppers are heading to California is because of the work opportunities there and for a better life overall. For decades, California had been an icon of prosperity and this gives the reader the image of California that it is the best place for the sharecroppers to head to. It turns out that this was not the case: the image of California was false.
Steinbeck has completely changed the image of California once the sharecroppers reached there. It was completely opposite of what we thought it would be. California is a place of wretchedness and harassment for the migrants. We feel as though the migrant are in a worst place than before; they have very little money, food, and are living in filthy camps. From then on, a new image of California emerges: it is nothing but a place of misery for the migrants.
Steinbeck has saved one of the most intriguing imagery for the last chapter. Rose of Sharon, who was pregnant, goes into labour and soon gives birth to a stillborn child, "a blue shrivelled little mummy;" (464) so it becomes apparent to us that she can breast feed. Oddly enough, the last scene of the novel is of Rose of Sharon nourishing a starving man:
For a minute Rose of Sharon sat still in the whispering barn. Then she hoisted her tired body up and drew the comfort about her. She moved slowly to the corner and stood looking down at the wasted face, into the wide, frightened eyes. Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. "You got to," she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. "There!" she said. "There." Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.
(476)
This is the most disturbing image in the novel and since it is the last, readers will remember this for eternity. To elaborate, Rose of Sharon feeds the man with the breast milk meant for her dead child because the man is too weak to digest solid food. Having witnessed the birth of her stillborn child, she nourishes an old man back to life, who would have died had it not been for Rose of Sharon's extraordinary efforts. This is just an extremely overpowering use of imagery by Steinbeck. This image really shows how hopeful people are and gives a sense of relief that there is a chance that things will get better for the Joad family and all the other migrants as well.
This image also sheds light on Rose of Sharon's character; she is a very loving and tender hearted person. The reason she feeds this man may have been because Ma had asked her to do so but she could have easily said no but she did not say no; she did the unimaginable. This shows her courage and love towards humanity.
Another very different approach that Steinbeck took to add power to this novel was to write these journal-like historical entries. These are scattered throughout the novel. Since this novel is based on historical events, these journal-like historical entries give general background information about the events that took place. These events will usually occur in the following chapters as well and they usually involve the Joad family.
In chapter seven Steinbeck describes the event where all the migrant families are buying cars for their journey to California. We understand that the car salesmen are trying to cheat the migrants into buying junk vehicles:
Watch the woman's face. If the woman likes it we can screw the old man. Start 'em on that Cad'. Then you can work 'em down to that '26 Buick. 'F you start on the Buick, they'll go for a Ford. Roll up your sleeves an' get to work. This ain't gonna last forever. Show 'em that Nash while I get the slow leak pumped up on that '25 Dodge. I'll give you a Hymie when I'm ready.
(64)
We see in this chapter that the used-car salesman are trying to sell the worst used cars because they start out by showing the Cadillac and work their way down to a Dodge. They also have devised many ways of cheating the families who are purchasing a car for the long journey to California. The car dealerships do things such as fill the car engines with sawdust to quiet down the noisy transmissions as the narrator says, "Sounds like bustin' bottles. Squirt in a couple quarts of sawdust. Put some in the gears, too" (65). They also replace good batteries with bad ones right before the customer gets the car.
Later in the next chapter the novel's main characters go through the same process of buying a car for their journey. They are obviously cheated as well but Tom's younger brother Al, who knows a bit about cars, helped him pick out a car. These chapters with background information are really important because it helps to understand the situation the migrants are in, which in turn, adds power to the theme because ultimately the reader will likely remember that forever after they finish reading the novel. As opposed to, if it was mentioned normally the reader would not really think that these events are important and it just would not have the same kind of intensity.
Another great example of this can be seen in chapter twenty-three. In this chapter the migrants are looking jobs but aside from that they partake in various leisure activities. Some of these activities include: telling jokes, stories, going to the cinema, and drinking to name a few. In the evenings, some migrants will play musical instruments; as the music goes on, some migrants dance to the music.
In the following chapter, chapter twenty-four, Steinbeck describes how the Joad family partake in these activities:
Near the dance floor he [Al] saw a pretty blond girl sitting in front of a tent. He sidled near and threw open his coat to show his shirt.
"Gonna dance tonight?" he asked.
The girl looked away and did not answer.
"Can't a fella pass a word with you? How 'bout you an' me dancin'?" And he said nonchalantly, "I can waltz."
The girl raised her eyes shyly, and she said, "That ain't nothin'-anybody can waltz."
"Not like me," said Al. The music surged, and he tapped one foot in time. "Come on," he said.
A very fat woman poked her head out of the tent and scowled at him. "You git along," she said fiercely. "This here girl's spoke for. She's a-gonna be married, an' her man's a-comin' for her."
(350)
Al, Tom's younger brother, wants to dance with a girl but it turns out that this girl is going to be married soon. Although this is a humoristic scene, it still shows how the Joad family partake in leisure activities and this was mentioned in the previous chapter; but, this time it was from the Joad family's prospective. The main purpose of these journal-like historical entries is give the reader an overview of that general background information and then reflect that information from the main character's prospective, in this case the Joad family. The use of this technique really sets this novel apart from the rest because Stinebeck was able to really emphasize the historical facts using this technique, and again it adds power to the theme of this narrative.
After considering many of the narrative techniques used throughout the novel, it is easy to conclude that Steinbeck has a very unique writing style in this novel. This is a very poignant and heartbreaking novel and Steinbeck adds power to this by his consistent use of metaphors, bold imagery, and journal-like historical entries. This allows the reader to really feel what the characters are going though. He obviously has taken a lot of time to describe everything in a great amount of detail, which really get the reader's attention and gets the reader to really focus in on the action. His historical entries are just magnificent because they make the novel very realistic. It's no wonder Steinbeck won a Nobel Prize for realistic and imaginative writings.
这的另一个伟大的例子可以在第二十三章中看到。在这一章中的移民正在找工作，但除了他们参与各种休闲活动。其中的一些活动包括：讲笑话，讲故事，去电影院，喝几个名字。在晚上，一些移民会演奏乐器，随着音乐的进行，一些流动的移民随着音乐起舞。
在接下来的一章，二十四章，斯坦贝克描述了乔德家族参与这些活动：
在靠近跳舞的地上，他看见一个漂亮的金发姑娘坐在帐篷前。他侧身靠近，打开他的外套给他的衬衫。
“今晚要跳舞吗？”他问。
女孩看了看，没有回答。
“不能有人与你传个话吗？你怎么样“我跳舞吗？”他满不在乎地说，“我能跳华尔兹。”
姑娘抬起眼睛，害羞，她说，“没什么人能跳华尔兹。”
“不喜欢我，”Al说。音乐高涨了，他一只脚敲了一下。”来吧，“他说。
一个很胖的女人把头探出帐篷，怒视着他。”你的蠢货，”她恶狠狠地说。”这里的女孩的发言。她会结婚，一个男人要下来了。”
（350）
铝，汤姆的弟弟，想要和一个女孩跳舞，但事实证明，这个女孩要结婚了。虽然这是一个滑稽的场面，还展示了乔德家族参与休闲活动，这是在上一章所提到的；但是，这一次是从乔德家族的未来。这些杂志喜欢历史作品的主要目的是给读者，一般背景资料概述进而反映，从主要人物的前瞻性信息，在这种情况下，乔德的家人。这种技术的使用真正使这部小说与众不同是因为Stinebeck能够真正强调的历史事实，利用这一技术，又增加了权力这一叙事主题。
考虑到许多小说中使用的叙事技巧，很容易得出结论，斯坦贝克在这部小说中有一个非常独特的写作风格。这是一个很凄美的令人心碎的小说，斯坦贝克为这他一贯使用的隐喻意象，大胆，和杂志一样的历史记录。这让读者真正感受到了人物正在进行的。他显然已经采取了大量的时间来描述一切，在大量的细节，这真的得到读者的关注，并让读者真正专注于行动。他的历史作品是壮丽的，因为他们使小说非常现实。这也难怪斯坦贝克获得了诺贝尔现实主义和想象力的作品奖。