Intercalary Chapters In The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck

Alyssa Goldman

Grapes of Wrath Final

The Grapes of Wrath provides the reader with insight into the lives of the people apart of the calamitous time period of the 1930’s known as the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck, the author of The Grapes of Wrath clearly gives specific descriptions of gender roles, as we see the different ways women and men could be portrayed during that time period. Throughout the novel Steinbeck incorporates intercalary chapters withnin the larger context of novel that shape the novel, and create an imporved way for the reader to become apart of the text. By consructing the inter-chapters to be non-specific, it gives the reader an oppurtunity to put their own thoughts and “color” into the novel, instead of just reading a black and white text.

Within chapter 17, one of the intercalary chapters in the novel,

By Steinbeck utilizing non-specific scenarios, it gives the reader the opportunity to give the characters names of people that they could have personal relationships with. This could ultimately lead to the reader gaining a deeper connection to what Steinbeck is writing. Through out the inter-chapters, repetition of familiar phrases is used to reinforce the image of that scene in the novel when talking about “one dream”, “one loss”, “one family”, “the twenty were one”, and “they grew to be units”(194). The intercalary chapters also appear throughout The Grapes of Wrath in order to help the reader understand the greater idea of the time period. For example, Chapter 1 Steinbeck gives the setting of the novel by describing the Dust Bowl in detail. By using descriptive words, and personification to describe the land during that time period, it gives a more vivid picture of what the time period was truly like. For example, Steinbeck suggests things such as, “the sharp sun,” “red country,” and “the wind