Roberta Writes – A U.L.S. submission by Robbie Cheadle: The Grapes of Wrath #readingcommunity #bookcommentary

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Thank you to Professor Charles French for sharing my commentary and review of Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Charles has a wonderful selection of books so do have a look around while you are visiting his blog.

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Here is another entry into the U.L.S., the Underground Library Society by Robbie Cheadle, a long-time member of this unofficial group. I am honored that Robbie Cheadle has written another entry–this one on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

I knew about Grapes of Wrath and had read it was a masterpiece, but I only read it recently. My interest in this story was inspired by my younger son’s studies about the Great Depression in America. I also knew about the Great Depression and had read other books about it, but now was the time to do a deep dive into the horror story of that time. A deep dive that I had possibly been avoiding due to my belief that a lot of the detail in this book would still be relevant now, nearly 100 years later. Reading this book would be rubbing salt into mental wounds.

It was worth it; very worth it. The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most beautifully written and powerful books I’ve read, and I’ve read thousands of books.

Continue reading here: https://charlesfrenchonwordsreadingandwriting.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/a-u-l-s-submission-by-robbie-cheadle-the-grapes-of-wrath/

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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60 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – A U.L.S. submission by Robbie Cheadle: The Grapes of Wrath #readingcommunity #bookcommentary”

  6. John Steinbeck wrote some amazing books. The Grapes of Wrath had some references to life in Visalia, CA where I lived. The dances, and the camp homes. It was a horrible time. Much of the population of Tulare County, where I moved from are descendants of the Dust Bowl migrants. One of the first events that I participated in planning along with the Tulare County Library was a study of The Grapes of Wrath. One of the original migrant camp homes is in the Tulare County Agricultural Museum. Here is a picture of it. https://alwayswrite.blog/2022/04/11/woty-the-work-of-a-curator/ The walls were metal. The outside temps in the summer were over 100 degrees and there was no insulation. Kids crawled under the house in the dirt to get cool.

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    1. HI Marsha, thank you for sharing a little of your personal history and connection with this book. It was an incredibly powerful read for me and the terrible starvation impacted the most heavily on me. That and the lack of empathy, care, and interest from the more fortunate were truly heart breaking. A most interesting article about the museum.

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      1. All of that history was new to me, and kind of shocking, when we moved to the Central Valley of California in 1985. I have often thought about how I would feel and what I would do if a dozen or people drove up on my rural street and moved in. They were so poor, so needy, and had big families, and all their belongings piled on top of their cars. We find similar circumstances today with all the homeless with several differences. 1. Most of them are not families, 2. They are not trying to work, 3. They are often on drugs, 4. They are often mentally ill. These people were not any of those things. Most of them worked hard enough to get out of their helpless situation as soon as possible. One problem was that there wasn’t enough work in the fields or businesses for the influx of people. And there weren’t enough social services. Their children and grandchildren (the people I knew) grew up to be educated and productive members of the society. One of my teaching friends wrote a story, Beyond the Dustbowl, about his life. The local college used it in English and Social Studies courses. I had the privilege of writing the study guide to go along with it.

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        1. Hi Marsha, it is wonderful to know that this horrific and sad story had happy endings for many Is that book available on Amazon? I am always interested in learning more about history and how it unfolds I wish South Africa’s story was unfolding with equal success. A lot of our people are living on benefits (which is a plus in that they are available but a problem in that we have 29 million people on benefits but a tax base of only 5 million) but the education and healthcare is worse now than it was before 1994 due to mismanagement and corruption. It is awful to see people’s dreams of a better future collapsing and it causes social unrest. I try to help in my small way and donate a lot of our children’s books to the underprivileged. We also do a lot of baking for charity.

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          1. It is overwhelming, isn’t it? Those are terrible numbers, and I can see how it would be easy for them to get out of hand. Our national numbers are going in that direction, it seems, and California leads the way. Yet there are so many needs especially with the disasters we’ve had in recent years.

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          3. The really sad thing is that many of the homeless don’t have to be homeless. They choose it because they don’t like to be told what to do by someone, or can’t get along with someone. We had one die in our city garden in Woodlake. For some reason the relatives contacted me. We honored him displaying his picture in the garden because he often helped in the garden when we had a work day. But he was a strange cookie.

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          7. Speaking of lovely, I’ve been reading your book, Lion Screams every free minute I get. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a poetry book so much, and the concern and joy that comes through every page warms me. Yesterday, my SIL was over and she loves the Hallmark channel. It turned out that the heroine of the movie was a ranger working on her PhD at the reserve that had the white lions. It was fun to tell her about your book as we watched the movie.

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  10. Well done, Robbie a great review as always it has been a number of years since I read this book and saw the film but if we changed the names and the era we could draw a comparison….not much changes in some ways …

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  14. Hi Robbie, this is an outstanding review! I haven’t read this book but I’ve read a similar book about one of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era. It is a brilliantly written book – The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.

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