Grapes of Wrath (1940)

• Information at Internet Movie Database
• Themes
  • Clean/Unclean
    • Gasoline Attendant: You and me got sense. Them Okies got no sense and no feeling. They ain't human. Human being wouldn't live the way they do. Human being couldn't stand to be so miserable.
  • Despair, Institutional Evil
    • Tom Joad: If there was a law, they was workin' with maybe we could take it, but it ain't the law. They're workin' away our spirits, tryin' to make us cringe and crawl, takin' away our decency.
  • Determination, Endurance
    • "We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out. They can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people."
  • Disillusionment
    • Arrival in California does not result in prosperity, but rather in more disillusionment.
  • Interconnectedness
    • Tom: Maybe it's like Casey says. A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody, then -
      Ma: Then what, Tom?
      Tom: Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be everywhere, wherever you can look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready and where people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build. I'll be there, too.
  • Journey
    • The journey from Oklahoma to California does not result in arrival at the expected paradise, but rather in more struggle and hardship.
  • Justice/Judgment
    • A movie which we used in our EFM group a few years ago was, "The Grapes of Wrath."    It explores how a piece of land even if its a dust bowl is worth fighting for.  It is the place where your people were born, lived and died.  To be taken from it is tearing the fabric of home, of belonging.  It is a story of a people no one wanted on their land, and how that begets violence in a good man.  A man who realizes he has no home and must leave his community to fight the injustice and pain living in a world that steals the identity of humankind.  He leaves a marked man.  Henry Fonda's scene with his mother is one of the most powerful moments in a film I have seen. This movie was a great TR.  We used it starting from Culture.  We came away with a new way of seeing people who are disenfranchised by the world and thrown into homelessness.  We were able to look at the people today and how this is still happening.  Also in our own lives, have we been disenfranchised?  Have we ever played the role of doing this to others?  Of course when it comes to our tradition it is filled with stories of a people being pushed out. Now some people do not like old movies, but this movie still stands up to the new movies I think. (submitted by Sydne Archambault, Lander)

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