Grapes of Wrath- 7

The two authors of Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck and Robert DeMott, use a lot of different techniques to engage the audience.

I think the main thing that engages the audience is truth. Audiences love something based off of a true story. Anything that claims it is based off a true story is automatically ten times more interesting. Just knowing that the story happened to some one some where makes everything suddenly more interesting.

Another thing the authors use is the narrator. Since the narrator is third person, you get to see the facts and not just someone's opinion on the whole plot. You do not have to listen to one person's opinion on everything going on in the story. You get to see what is actually happening and make your own opinion from the facts. There are still some feelings that you do not usually get in third person, but those are good, too. This way you can get the facts, but you can still see how the facts effect the characters in the story. It is magnificently written.

Mystery also helps the story be effective. In the beginning of the novel there was a lot of mystery. It kind of hooked your attention for the whole book. Suspense is also used by making the reader wonder if the Joad family will survive. You wonder what will happen next on their journey. It is a very eventful trip and you are just hooked waiting for the author to tell you what horrible tragedy will happen. You do not know if one of the sick family members will die or if they will find a wonderful place to live on the way and have a unpainful, happy ending. The suspense makes it so you have to finish the novel because there are so many things that could happen. You could not just read and stop in the middle of the journey because you are rooting for them to make it.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006.