Grapes of Wrath- Question 6

The questions I will be answering are "Why do we still read this book? What is so timeless about its message and characters? What can we learn from reading this novel?" from the book Grapes of Wrath. A book with such prominent historical background will always keep people reading it. The story line itself has a way of capturing your heart because of how personal it is. Many readers want a book that allows them to get lost into the story and put themselves in that position. A time of hardship is easy for many to relate to because everyone has had a hard times. It may not be the hardship the Joad went through but its easy to get so lost into the detail and story that you can feel as if it did. This to me makes it such a timeless book. The message that the book gives is that family and close friends are more important than any amount of money. It shows how Tom was willing to sacrifice a normal future for his family and close friends. Although he could have made a living for himself he made many sacrifices, such as killing the sheriff who murdered his friend Jim Casey. He felt that that was the only way to get justice for his friend. We can learn many things from the novel because of how self sacrificing the characters are. This can help us to be more caring to others over ourselves. That is one of the biggest problems we have in the world today, we are so self centered. Many people choose to think of what is going to get them more rich, more powerful, and/or more popular. People don't think of who else they might be affecting when they do what they do. That is how it was in the book when the bankers just took peoples home and money. They were only thinking of themselves and not all the people they were hurting.