Grapes of Wrath Critical Essay

In the essay I read, Walter Fuller Taylor’s purpose is to show the difference in the experience that the readers come away with between those who read the book during the time it took place and those who read it twenty years later. From the essay though, instead of comparing the two perceptions, I find it more criticizing of the content that Steinbeck creates in the Grapes of Wrath. The way Taylor judges the novel must represent the thoughts of those who read the novel when the social issues were fresh in their minds. He very briefly touches on the deep meaning that the book serves to show and saying how it was overlooked back then in the first portion of his essay. Some ideas Taylor used to back up his thesis were sexual promiscuity, secular religion although referring to many religious aspects, animalism in a free and natural sex behavior, Tobacco-Road way of life, vulgarity, ridicule of the middle-class and many more. Taylor definitely seems to be biased in the fact that he seems to view it through the eyes of the readers back in the day. He finds the negativity and social injustices in the book rather than pulling away a meaningful message. I didn’t like the essay very much because I enjoyed the novel and Taylor finds a way to pull out unfavorable ideas that make Steinbeck look bad. The essay stated a lot about casual sex indulgence and other things that definitely didn’t phase me when I was reading. For example, the idea of denigration of the middle-class surprised me because I really don’t see how the novel connects to that in any way. I guess that goes to show the different viewpoints that people these days have compared to those in the time that this book was published.