Abstract
The central contention of this essay is that it is helpful to think of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) in terms of a large category of myths, legends and stories in which individuals undertake a journey or quest. This literature was studied by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973). The title of Campbell's study reflects the fact that hundreds of stories from all over the world and from all periods of history follow a single underlying pattern which he called the "monomyth." The common paradigm is so striking that the various individual stories seem to reflect different "faces" of the one hero.
Recommended Citation
L'Heureux, Conrad E.
(1995)
"Life's Journey and The Grapes of Wrath ,"
University of Dayton Review: Vol. 23:
No.
3, Article 11.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udr/vol23/iss3/11
