The Grapes of Wrath was an interesting one, certainly different. It focuses on the Great Depression in America and it’s impact on the farmers who have lost their land, migrating west. The story itself places particular focus on the troubles and human spirit of the Joad family, as they get further away from home, fall into deeper poverty and the depression slowly causes the family to drift apart, though is broken up with shorter chapters with a deeper social message exploring the impact of the depression on the Everyman. The most notably unique part of the book was Steinbeck’s choice to employ the Oklahoma accent in the speech of the characters, of which made it a bit more of a complicated read, certainly a stand-out style choice but one I would argue wasn’t necessarily needed. Though the main theme of the book is capitalism and social class, the growing “Grapes of Wrath” within the migrants suggesting the potential for a mimic of the recent Russian Revolution (at the time of writing) within the working class of America, I primarily approached it with an eco-critical lens as I will have to focus an essay on this in a few weeks. The themes of the book were all of interest in their own right, although I feel this also could’ve been accomplished in a couple hundred less pages, Rose of Sharon was insufferable. The ending was one of the most ambiguous I’ve ever read. I can’t see the final image leaving me for a long while.