Grapes Guide.pdf - Minnesota Opera

In understanding Casy’s philosophy, it is important to have a working knowledge of the Transcendentalist view
of the Oversoul. Ralph Waldo Emerson stated that there is a universal soul (an “Oversoul”) of which all
individual souls are a part: “… within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to
which every part and particle is equally related” and “Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a
moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole. Each particle is a microcosm,
and faithfully renders the likeness of the world.”
In the novel, Tom says to Ma that Casy “went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’ he jus’ got
a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ‘cause his little piece of soul wasn’t no good ‘less
it was with the rest, an’ was whole.”
What relationship can you now make between the themes Casy represented and the images through which Korie
manifested these themes: the naked tree, the references to jails and fences, and the idea of “things turn around”?
(4) Other themes which Steinbeck and Korie explore are:
• Humans’ inhumanity to each other
• Selfishness v. altruism
• Love of the earth
• Human dignity
• Dignity of wrath (personal anger becoming righteous indignation)
• Rebirth
• Life force (instinctive and persistent)
Find evidence of these themes in the opera. How are they supported by the action and the lyrics as well as by the
music?
(5) Now let’s go back to the title of the novel and the opera, The Grapes of Wrath. What were the first references we
found to grapes (pp. 27, 28, 31, 32)? What did the grapes represent at the beginning of the opera? How did we
relate this ironically to Tom hiding in a vineyard in Act Three?
In the novel, Steinbeck says, both metaphorically and in reference to the actual grapes which the small farmers
can’t afford to have picked because the large growers are keeping the prices up by destroying their “surplus”
crops: “… and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing
wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the
vintage.”
The title, of course, comes from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” which, in turn, references Biblical books
such as Deuteronomy (“grapes of gall”) and Revelation (“the winepress of the wrath of God”).
Keeping in mind all the themes and images we have looked at, what is Steinbeck’s message to his readers? What
does he see as the problem? What is the solution? (NOTE: The educator might want to have the students hypothesize why
Korie changed the dominant fruits of the novel – oranges, peaches – to plums in the case of the Endicott family. There might
be no symbolic reason, but for this writer, who lives a good deal of the time in Metaphorland, a plum looks like a big grape
and so carries the image of the grapes even further. Besides, making the Endicotts raise grapes would be a little too blatant.
Just a thought.)
(6) Immediately after its publication in 1938, The Grapes of Wrath was banned in Kern County, where much of the
action takes place, as well as in other counties in California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Who do you think
was upset? Look up “Grapes of Wrath Banned in Kern County”: http://home.pacific.net.au/~
greg.hub/banned.html. Are you surprised by any of the information in this article? Why do you think it has been
one of the most banned books in American literature? What has all the excitement been about? How do you
think this story speaks to us today? How do you think the opera will be received?
opera box lesson plans
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