Grapes of Wrath

Chapter 25 Essay

Introduction Look at the prompt – make sure you answer

the question. How does Steinbeck use rhetorical

elements to convey the attitudes and mindsets of the farmers and migrant workers?

Reflect the Question in your Introduction

To start, you can mention something about the Grapes of Wrath, add a quote, insight from the great depression, etc.

At the end of your introduction , you will want to reflect the question ……THIS IS YOUR THESIS … your main argument.

In chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck condemns the land owners for allowing people to starve in the name of capitalism; his use of effective diction, syntax, and tone blasts the greedy landowners for banking money at the expense of the lives and health of the poor starving migrant workers and their children.

How should you organize your

essay? Two options ……. One: You can summarize and go paragraph by

paragraph using specific examples to explain and make your points. Make sure you bring in rhetorical devices as you do so. (diction, syntax, tone, etc.)

Two: You can decide to focus on the the rhetorical devices in each support paragraph. This is easier way to go, and essays organized this way are acceptable; they tend to be repetitive and can be less interesting. Write a paragraph that highlights examples of effective diction and one that discusses syntax.

Topic Sentence support paragraph

one Steinbeck begins the passage with effective

word choice as he describes the “decay” and “sorrow” that infests the land when farmers destroy their harvests to keep prices high so they can make money. He uses bitter, harsh words to graphically portray the situation. The line …….. (add a quote) uses bitter, angry words ……

Find a few specific examples from the

passage to highlight in your support

paragraphs.

Diction – specific word choice show Steinbeck’s

bitter outrage … Decay, great sorrow, saddest, bitterest thing of all ....

Smell of rot, putrescence Crime beyond denunciation Sorrow that weeping cannot symbolize Children dying of pellagra must dies because a profit

cannot be taken from an orange. Food must rot, must be forced to rot Screaming pigs being killed and covered with quicklime

…. Mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze, there is a failure …. Growing wrath ……

Syntax – arrangement of

words in a sentence The best example ….. And coroners must fill

in the certificates – died of malnutrition -- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot

The dashes make the words “died of malnutrition” stand out …. Forcing the reader to understand that people are starving and dying because of the food is destroyed. Steinbeck is outraged and accuses the farmers of killing children …. Major pathos going on!

Tone The examples help Steinbeck convey his

outrage over the situation. Tone words that would describe this

passage and Steinbeck’s attitude include: Bitter, angry, condemnatory, critical,

furious, outraged, wrathful

What does a good paragraph look like? Steinbeck condemns the farmers for allowing children to

go hungry and possibly die from malnutrition. He refers to it as “crime that goes beyond denunciation and a failure that topples all our success.” These words suggest Steinbeck believes there can be no success if children are dying of starvation. He goes on to write, “children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange.” The mere idea that oranges and the money they bring in are more important than the life of a child is absurd and Steinbeck makes sure his readers understand that. He even uses syntax in his use of the dash to set apart the words “died of malnutrition” to hammer home his point. The reader has to pause and read those words to understand the pain the migrants felt at the hands of the farmers. Steinbeck is truly outraged at the situation.