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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Breaking Parole:
When Tom hitchhikes back to his hometown of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, after a four-year stint in prison, he encounters former preacher Jim Casy, who asks him about his time in prison. In his response, Tom tells a brief story saturated with situational irony:
“They was a guy paroled,’’ he said. “ ’Bout a month he’s back for breakin’ parole. A guy ast him why he bust his parole. ‘Well, hell,’ he says. ‘They got no conveniences at my old man’s place. Got no ’lectric lights, got no shower baths. There ain’t no books, an’ the food’s lousy.’ Says he come back where they got a few conveniences an’ he eats regular. He says it makes him feel lonesome out there in the open havin’ to think what to do next. So he stole a car an’ come back.’’
While in prison, Tom claims, he met a man who was “paroled” but then returned to prison a month later “for breakin’ parole.” When asked why he violated the terms of his parole agreement, the man suggests that he was, ironically, unsatisfied with life outside of prison, as there were no “conveniences” at his “old man’s place,” including “'lectric lights” and “shower baths.” Further, he had no access to books outside of prison and regarded the food as “lousy.” In contrast, he “eats regular” in prison and finds life altogether more comfortable and less “lonesome.” Hoping to return to prison, he “stole a car” just to “come back.” This anecdote is notably ironic, as the man prefers the conditions of imprisonment, which are intended to be unpleasant and punitive, to freedom. Through this ironic anecdote, Steinbeck underscores the difficult nature of life for many during the Great Depression.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Monsters:
In one of several scenes in the novel that do not focus on the Joad family, Steinbeck presents a symbolic conversation between two unnamed male figures. One of these figures represents the tenant farmers in Oklahoma, and the other, a tractor-driver, defends the banks that have evicted the tenants. Justifying the evictions, the tractor-driver uses an extended metaphor that imagines the banks as monstrous living creatures:
But—you see, a bank or a company can’t do that, because those creatures don’t breathe air, don’t eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don’t get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so [...] The bank—the monster has to have profits all the time. It can’t wait. It’ll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can’t stay one size.
The banks, he claims, cannot show any mercy to the tenant farmers because “they breathe profits” and “eat the interest on money.” The banks must prioritize profit above all else because “if they don’t get it, they die the way you die without air.” He further develops this metaphor, noting that the banks must constantly find new sources of profit or they will die, and as a result, they must continually grow in order to stay alive. In this scene, the tractor-driver metaphorically imagines the banks as living things in order to justify the cruel exploitation of the tenants in the name of survival. There is a clear sense of irony in his speech, however, as the needs of banks are prioritized over those of living people who actually require food to survive.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—The Limits of Knowledge :
While talking to Casy about his experiences in prison, Tom recounts an anecdote that ironically suggests that learning about the legal system only leads to greater confusion. Describing a man in McAlester prison who is very intelligent and spends most of his time reading, Tom states that:
He’s sec’etary of the warden—writes the warden’s letters an’ stuff like that. Well, he’s one hell of a bright guy an’ reads law an’ all stuff like that. Well, I talked to him one time about her, ’cause he reads so much stuff. An’ he says it don’t do no good to read books. Says he’s read ever’thing about prisons now, an’ in the old times; an’ he says she makes less sense to him now than she did before he starts readin’ [...] He says for God’s sake don’t read about her because he says for one thing you’ll jus’ get messed up worse [...]
The warden’s secretary is, Tom notes, “one hell of a bright guy,” and he spends his time reading about the law. When Tom talks to the man, however, he is surprised to hear the man insist that “it don’t do no good to read books.” Ironically, the man claims that the law “makes less sense to him now” than it did before he began to learn about it. He warns Tom not to read about the law, because it will leave him “messed up worse” than he was before. Tom’s anecdote about the warden’s secretary suggests that the legal system is so complicated and convoluted that learning about it only raises more questions and leads to greater confusion.
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Head of the Family:
When Al Joad, Tom’s younger brother, returns to Uncle John’s house with the new family car, Steinbeck uses ironic metaphors drawn from the language of monarchy to describe Grampa Joad:
Grampa was still the titular head, but he no longer ruled. His position was honorary and a matter of custom. But he did have the right of first comment, no matter how silly his old mind might be. And the squatting men and the standing women waited for him. “You’re all right, Al,’’ Grampa said. “I was a squirt jus’ like you, a-fartin’ aroun’ like a dog-wolf. But when they was a job, I done it. You’ve growed up good.’’ He finished in the tone of a benediction, and Al reddened a little with pleasure.
Here, he metaphorically describes Grampa Joad as a “titular head” who “no longer ruled” his kingdom. He is, then, a king who occupies the throne symbolically but holds little actual political power. Like a king, he has “the right of first comment,” and the others wait for him to speak before praising Al. His highly informal and vulgar speech, however, casts these royal metaphors in an ironic light. Grampa Joad is, after all, no monarch ruling over a court, but the elderly and ill-mannered patriarch of an impoverished American family. Steinbeck describes his words, with further irony, as being spoken in “the tone of a benediction,” as if he is a clergyman pronouncing a blessing.
Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Spring in California:
Steinbeck employs lush imagery when describing the fertile lands of California during the Joad family’s first spring in the state:
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. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants.
Steinbeck describes the spring in California in great visual detail, noting the “first tendrils of the grape, swelling from the old gnarled vines” and the “mile-long rows of pale green lettuce” and other crops. He invokes the sense of smell, noting the “fragrant pink” fruit blossoms, and the sense of touch in his description of the “full green hills” that are “round and soft as breasts.” Here, Steinbeck’s imagery emphasizes the fecundity of California, which seems ripe for agriculture. There is, however, also a sense of irony in Steinbeck’s lush imagery. Despite the natural fertility of the region, many workers such as the Joads experience frequent hunger due to human laws that divide the fertile land into private property.
Chapter 30
Explanation and Analysis—You Can Talk:
Heavily pregnant, Rose of Sharon’s contractions begin during a dangerous rainstorm that threatens to flood the boxcar where the Joads have lived during their time picking cotton. She gives birth but the baby is stillborn. Mrs. Wainwright, who assisted in the delivery, asks Uncle John to dispose of the body of the stillborn baby, which has been placed in an apple box. Uncle John decides to send the stillborn baby, cradled in the apple box, down the current formed by the rainfall. Speaking to the stillborn baby, Uncle John uses an ironic metaphor in which he imagines the baby speaking as it is carried downstream by the water:
[H]e edged through the brush until he came to the edge of the swift stream. For a time he stood watching it swirl by, leaving its yellow foam among the willow stems. He held the apple box against his chest. And then he leaned over and set the box in the stream and steadied it with his hand. He said fiercely, “Go down an’ tell ’em. Go down in the street an’ rot an’ tell ’em that way. That’s the way you can talk. Don’ even know if you was a boy or a girl. Ain’t gonna find out.”
Bitter and anguished, Uncle John speaks to the stillborn baby, commanding it to “Go down an’ tell ’em” as he pushes the apple box along the flowing water. The stillborn baby, he knows, cannot speak, but his metaphorical language here suggests that it can communicate simply by attesting, through its death, to the inhumane conditions in which the migrant laborers have been forced to live. “That’s the way you can talk,” he insists. Ironically, he feels that the stillborn baby’s silence can itself send a powerful message to those who encounter it.
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