Chapter 25

Chapter twenty five is filled with very descriptive imagery of the nature of California. It talks of the seasons and the orchards and the produce. "The spring is beautiful in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes, swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks." Then the seasons change and it is summer in California. "And all the time the fruit swell and the flowers break out in long clusters on the vines. And in the growing year the warmth grows and the leaves turn dark green. The prunes lengthen like little green bird's eggs, and the limbs sag down against the crutches under the weight. And the hard little pears take shape, and the beginning of the fuzz comes out on the peaches. Grape blossoms shed their tiny petals and the hard little beads become green buttons, and the buttons grow heavy." The imagery in the beginning part of this chapter helps to show why the migrant people were so hopeful to move to California. It is a beautiful state with much fruit and vegetables and wonderful land. The people could have had great prospect out in California. But then the Great Depression hit, and the ending part of the chapter turns dark and has a tone of death.

"And on the ground the seeds drop and dry with black shreds hanging from them. The purple prunes soften and sweeten. My God, we can't pick them and dry and sulphur them. We can't pay wages, no matter what wages. And the purple prunes carpet the ground. Then the grapes--we can't make good wine. People can't buy good wine. Rip the grapes from the vines, good grapes, rotten grapes, wasp-stung grapes. Press stems, press dirt and rot. But there's mildew and formic acid in the vats. Add sulphur and tannic acid. The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals." This symbolizes the small farmers and tenant farmers that could do nothing as the larger farms and machinery took over. They were left to stand and watch as their produce and crop went bad. Then they were kicked out to find a new life. And as they became migrants and joined other migrants traveling to a new hope, a new beginning, they found that it was not as they thought. There was not much more they could take. John Steinbeck makes reference to this point through grapes. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."