Grapes of WraithIntercalary Chapters
Intercalary Chapters – Generalizing Life The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck tells the tale of a family, the Joads, traveling across vast plains and rugged terrains during the dust bowl in an effort to attain stable and safe jobs. To provide background information for the various themes in the novel and to clarify the main purpose of the following chapters, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters. ... These intercalary chapters effectively foreshadow upcoming events in the novel, such as the Joad’s unrivaled willingness to trudge on through the barren land, their eviction from their home and land, and other hardships and troubles. Intercalary chapters also set the tone of the novel in the readers mind, making it easier to pass on the intended message. ... Steinbeck’s use of intercalary chapters serves to alert the reader of the conditions during the dust bowl. ... The intercalary chapters show the trouble of all people, by using such words as “women” and “men” and “squatters” to generalize the array of people affected by such hardships as the banks, the police, or the crooked salesmen. ... The dust bowl was a time of grief and hardship, cruel men and unseen monsters wildly roamed the world of the unemployed, and the intercalary chapters effectively narrate this.