Social Commentary in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that imitates life and also offers social commentary. It offers many windows into real life in Midwestern America in the 1930s. But it also offers powerful social commentary, directly in the intervening chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of many, the Joads are driven off the land by distant shores and embark on a journey to California to find a better life. However, the trip breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes fade. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns into sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation have turned to anger. Steinbeck exposes this catastrophe for public scrutiny. The novel is starkly realistic. With the Joads as they travel, we encounter the dark side of capitalism with its unchecked poverty, inhuman greed and human costs, and sense a fractured trust between government and people. The lower part continues...