Leituras do Cnon 3

Saldanha

Jonas Saldanha Professor Marcos Soares Leituras do Cnon 3 (FLM0587) July 2013

#6469060 FFLCH USP Final paper

DLM Department of English

[...] [A]nd 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 (pp. 477). (the underscoring is mine)

John Steinbeck, in The Grapes of Wrath (1939, edition read 1992), indignantly warns, against the consequences of the countryside peoples fury, those large farmers who egotistically and inconsequently squirt[ed] kerosene on the oranges, [b]urn[t] coffee for fuel in the ships, burn[t] corn to keep warm, [d]ump[ed] potatoes in the river and slaughter[ed] the pigs and bur[ied] them (Steinbeck pp. 476 477) in order not to lose profit on account of the excessive products that the crops had yielded. Steinbecks tone sounds like a yell of anger in defense of the pauper, miserable people from Oklahoma and the rest of the South. That shout echoes predictions in the Book of Jeremiah against enemy nations of the people of God:
25:15. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of the fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. 25:16. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. 25:17. Then took I the cup at the Lords hand, and made all the nations drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me. (King James translation 1611 pp. 460)

Steinbecks warn reverberates as well the prophecies of the Book of Revelation: 6:16. And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 6.17. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (pp.715). Further in the book, another verse carries on:
14.18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 14:19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 14.20. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (pp. 718)

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Those prophecies are a message to the adversaries of the people of God, the people of Israel, the chosen ones. There are two sides to this dispute, the side of the poor children of the Lord, struggling to survive despite the cruelty of the other side: the enemy nations, in the Old Testament, and, in The Grapes of Wrath, the economic system that inflicted oppression upon the helpless Southern citizens. Likewise the extract of the biblical text, Steinbeck in chapter twenty-five mentions (as I have underscored above) wrath, wrath of God, vintage, fury, wine, grape and ripe, terms that have traditionally conveyed the biblical concept that the Lord of the Christians someday will avenge his sons and destroy those who made them suffer; that should be the Apocalypse. In other words, what I am trying to do is to draw a comparison between Steinbecks warn and the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation: like the antagonists in the Bible, the Pharaoh and the sinful, wicked nations, the powerful men that tyrannized the poverty-stricken portrayed in Steinbecks novel would eventually face the Lords vengeance, the divine retributiona. The story surrounding the choosing of the title of The Grapes of Wrath might give clues to the reason why certain excerpts of this work and its title itself resemble in such a similar fashion the texts from the Bible above transcribed. Robert DeMott, in the introduction to the 1992 edition of The Grapes of Wrath, reveals that [i]n a brilliant broke, on September 2, Carol [Steinbecks wife] chose the novels title from [Julia Ward] Howes Battle Hymn of the Republic, perhaps inspired by her hearing of Pare Lorentzs radio drama, Ecce Homo!, which ends with a martial version of Howes song. (pp. xviii) Howes record, first released in 1862, was a phenomenally popular song among not only soldiers from the North who fought during Civil War, but also among civilians. Indeed, the song is still one of the most popular American patriotic tunes, being played in large political events, having received new version by famous artists and having been translated into other languages (even into Brazilian Portuguese). The song, also said to be inspired by
a

In fact, my view is that John Steinbeck was not talking about a punishment from supernatural powers but from, one might say, a communist (red as Steinbecks put it) revolution he might have thought was underway. It is reasonable to say that Steinbeck considered a communist revolution as a possible answer for the suffering of the poor Americans: An he says, They hol red meetins in them govment camps. All figgerin how to git on relief, he says. (pp. 455); [] I lost my land is changed [] We lost our land. [] This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning from I to we. [] If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into I, and cuts you off forever from the we. (pp. 206)

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sections of the Bible that I transcribed earlier in this paper though the sources I found might perhaps not be scientifically reliable, prophetically presages that the day of the Lord would in due course come and He would take vengeance for his chosen ones. The awaited for punishment, none the less, would take some time to take place if ever it would at all. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. (Truman Capote 1966, edition read 2000 pp. 151) Those are the verses that Truman Capotes reader listens Perry Edward Smith and Richard Hickock sing along a highway, having come back to the good ol USA (pp. 151) after an attempt at escaping to Mexico. Readers, surprisingly enough, are told by the narrator that the song, which came to be the criminals marching music, was one of Perrys favorites, and that Dick had learnt it from the first verse to the last. Also surprisingly enough, the song verses with which I begin this paragraph are the very first stanza of Battle

Hymn of the Republic. However, here it is remarkable that the same

prophetic words against the wicked, evil, sinful are now being sung by those who are, supposedly, the wicked, evil, sinful ones. But since, in defense of the poor, Steinbeck meant his novel to reach the rich, by reading Capotes account of Perry and Dick, one gets confused. Now it is difficult to tell who are the wicked and who are the children of the Lord; who are the ones to be punished and the ones to be avenged. Steinbeck concludes chapter twenty-five saying that the grapes of wrath are the accumulation of hatred and indignation of the poor, the exploited American white trash by the oppressors. The promise was that, ultimately, the lives of those suffering would be restored. Yet my reading is that Capote wanted to show that that promise had never been fulfilled, as though the Lord were treading as the Bible puts it, the winepress was trodden - heavily on the sorrow and rage of his people so as to crush, injure, and ignore them. Perry and Dick are part of the generation that grew amidst the chaos and harsh circumstances of the Great Depression. Their parents, in their turn, were the generation depicted by John Steinbeck that saw the overabundant harvest being burnt, buried, and thrown away. Now, in Capotes novel, they Perry and Dick are grown-ups, but never did the expected restoration come true to them. As a matter of fact, never did it come true to so many. The repairing the

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Bible, the Battle Hymn of the Republic and The Grapes of Wrath had
anticipated, in fact, had not, up to that point, been achieved. For the reason that that socioeconomic and political system cannot let every individual into the group that receives the benefits it provides, the majority of the population is put aside. Through this process, Vardamans have to replace the toy train they want to buy for bananas; Anses chew food for years of their lives without a single teeth in their mouths; Winfields and Ruthies have no other choice but to have fried dough for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days instead of real food; Perries and Dicks go insane when they manage whether by legal methods or not to spend a holiday in Miami and buy or steal guitars, junks and money to get food. Along with the harsh circumstances in which the Bundrens lived, the theme of the chosen people appears in very episodes in As I Lay Dying (1930, edition read 1990). To mention some, but a few, in Coras discourse: [r]iches is nothing in the face of the Lord, for He can see into the heart. (pp. 7), and Anses: [s]ometimes I wonder why we keep at it [working as farm owners]. Its because there is a reward for us above [in heaven], where they cant take their autos and such, and he goes on to say: [e]very man will be equal there and it will be taken from them that have and give to them that have not by the Lord.; [] I am the chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth. But he, right after expressing willingness to bear the burden the Lord put on his shoulder, protests: Its a long wait [till I get compensated] and [b]ut I be durn if He dont take some curious way to show it, seems like. Anse was expecting that one day the grapes of the ire of the children of the Lord got too heavy and would be trampled out as Howe puts it in her hymn; he was awaiting for the day on which he would witness the God of the preferred people take revenge, slaughtering the evil. However, before that could happen, he was in fact more interested in buying dentures; further in the chapter, he reveals with relief: But now I can get them teeth. That will be a comfort. It will. (pp. 111) By now he meant the moment subsequent to his wifes, Addie Bundren, death. Now he would have the opportunity to buy what he needed. In the case of Perry and Dick, the now to them, that is to say, the opportunity that they, as consumers, had to satisfy their desire for material goods, was when they plotted to burglar the Clutters house.

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Alvin Dewey arrives at the conclusion that [] the radio, a grey portable made by Zenith [] was gone (Capote pp. 99). However, he could not accept the fact that the family had been slaughtered for paltry profit a few dollars and a radio. It was difficult for the detectives to understand that the murderers had killed the family for no reason other than the desire to possess something, a groundless crime. Still the massacre took place for a reason, one might say, they were not motiveless. There are a number of declarations throughout the novel about Perrys severe and cruel raising and childhood. It is also implied in the text that there might be a connection between Perrys evil nature and the harshness of his past. The implied theory is that when one comes to life and has no choice but to live a miserable, pauper existence, one turns out to have a bad character. Such is the untruthful story that Dick tells Nancy while Perry is busy downstairs during the robbery: [] said hed been raised as orphan in an orphanage, and how nobody had ever loved him, and his only relative was a sister who lived with men without marrying them. (pp. 236) As a matter of fact, the life Dick claimed he had lived was actually more similar to that of Perry. The account of the two grey stray tomcats right at the end of the section The Answer is a representation of the lives of the criminals. Capotes intention was to symbolize the two prisoners through the life of the cats. The cats, similarly to the criminals, lived poor miserable lives and were not well treated domestic pets; the cats, like the Perry and Dick, had to yield and accept the fact that they did not have food to eat, so they had to pull out dead prey from under cars, which brought birds from the highways they had been on; the cats, like Perry and Dick, were left to face the harsh circumstances they were caught in: the cats, the snowstorm; Perry and Dick, the police officers and a forthcoming death penalty they would face. By no means during their unhappy lives did the strays ever have warm rooms nor warm suppers waiting for them like those who gathered at that square on that day; they never had comfort. And neither did Perry. Vardaman, Anse, Cash, Perry and Dicks desire to be part of a group of Americans that had money to buy goods indeed led them to what they were. Commercial goods were the fuel they had in order to carry on with their lives, as it is possible to perceive by Dicks words: Then Florida, here we come. How about it, honey? Didnt I promise you wed spend Christmas in Miami? Just like all the millionaires? (pp. 189) This

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is precisely, thus, what these characters longed for: comfort, leisure, food, teeth, tools to work, basic merchandises, [j]ust like the millionaires. In fact, anywhere that seemed promising for the criminal duo would be enough for them to dream about, might it be Mexico or Brazil: Brazil! Thats where theyre building a whole new capital city. Right from scratch. Imagine getting in on ground floor of something like that!; and Dick adds: [a]ny fool could make a fortune. And fortune was all that they wanted. The result of not having the basics while others had much more, and even too much, was evident in the behavior of the characters of Perry and Dickb. In an episode when Dicks character is described, Perry tells the reader [e]nvy was constantly with him; the Enemy was anyone who was someone he wanted to be or who had anything he wanted to have. (pp. 193 194) Dick was someone who regarded himself as inferior to people, and it was a trait in his nature that many times led him to be cruel towards others. In a similar vein, Perry was a traumatized individual, having been through many painful and strict phased in his life. Who had ever given a damn about him? (pp. 43), he asked himself. Like Dick, Perry had an inclination to think he was inferior to good decent people inasmuch as he had always been treated as undeserving by his family, mainly his mother and other women he encountered all through his life. Alvin Dewey synthesis Perrys path: for Smiths life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress towards one mirage and then another. (pp. 239) All those events had made him, one might claim, what he was: a man who was always most ready to harm, if he had the chance, those conventionalist, religious, puritan and decent people that might cross his way. That is exactly what he reveals in certain episodes such as the one when he swears to take revenge on his sister for not helping him as he wanted she to: [o]ne fine day hed pay her back, have a little fun talk to her, advertise his abilities, spell out in detail the things he was capable of doing to people like her,, and this is a remarkably essential part to understand Perrys nature: respectable people, safe and smug people exactly like Bobo. Yes, let her know just how dangerous he could be, and watch her eyes. (pp. 187 188) Additionally, when Perry is told by the police officers that his sister did not wish her address be revealed to him, he thinks to himself I wish shed been in
b

Needless to say, not all poor individuals in the novels ended up as criminals. The fact that one is in need does not explain totally delinquency.

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that house [Clutters] that night [the night of the crime]. What a sweet scene! (pp. 251) Those instances prove how severely traumatized his mind was. Eventually, someone was in his way and in Dicks, people who fitted into the profile they most hated, that is to say, decent, happy, puritan and religious, people who belonged somewhere and were accepted into a group, the Clutters: Maybe its just that the Clutters were the one who had to pay for it (pp. 282), Perry explained to the detectives. But the fact is that there was really no one, a person, a physical entity to blame for what Perry missed in life for the system he was trapped in would let no one to be caught as responsible, like a farmer realizes in chapter six of The Grapes of Wrath: Maybe theres nobody to shoot. Maybe the thing isnt men at all. (Steinbeck pp. 52) A feeling of belonging. Rarely did Perry experience it in his life. Whereas the members provid[ed] [with] a living in a perfect be included in that of the small Holcomb in Garden city were [] sense of roots and contentment (Capote pp. 32) while American Christian town. However, not everyone could community. The socioeconomic and political system

itself takes such a shape that does not allow a perfect community such as Holcomb to embrace people like Perry and Dick; the two, unavoidably, must be left aside. On the other hand, for the Joads, belonging was a very familiar feeling. Further, they would accept other into the fambly, all right: Connie, Casy, the starving children around Ma as she prepared the meal. Im a-praying. You got to keep clear, Tom. The famblys breakin up. You got to keep clear. (Steinbeck pp. 381) Such is the way in which Ma Joads tells her son she is seeing the familiar nucleus come apart as the go along their journey to the promised land of California. Ma Joads supports each family member, even those who had been recently admitted to the circle. She is the one who fights in order to keep the family together. Steinbeck makes evident in his novel a need for not only the family, people who are tied by blood, but also the community to come together and battle against injustice, share whatever they had, even if it was but little. In the other end of the scale, I might say, is Capote. To him, such community though existent cannot let everyone in. The system prevents it from so doing. Perries and Dicks have to be left to fan for themselves. And it is by trying to fan for themselves that some Perries and some Dicks sooner or later disrupt the peace of that community that once shut them out but not for too long. Steinbecks design here is thus thwarted.

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A deeper moral reflection upon the crimes committed by Perry and Dick in In Cold Blood is not exactly what matters here, but a discussion on the outcomes of a socioeconomic, cultural and political structure that makes room for the birth of people capable of deeds such as those narrated by Truman Capote. In the end, it seems that those who received the divine or not so divine, but communist promise that theirs would be the earth and the wealth eventually resolved to take back what was theirs in retaliation. The murder of the Clutters could not be logically explained if, at all, could a murder be explained. Alvin concludes in awe the confessions[] failed to satisfy his sense of meaningful design. The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning. (Capote pp. 239). Retaliation was echoed by a tough, strutty little man who told reporters in front of the police facilities while waiting for the arrival of the recently arrested prisoners: Its like in the Bible, an eye for an eye. And even so were two pairs short! (pp. 241) Yet the question that remains without answer is how many pairs of eyes would be enough to get both sides even; how many of those shut out from the decent, honorable and Christian American family had starved to death and waited for the day of the harvest, of the vintage, and of the vengeance. Some Perries and some Dicks seemed to have decided to play the Lords role and trample out as Howes lyrics read the grapes of the ire of men. Uncristianly, they decided to wait no more for the Lords coming.

REFERENCES: The King James Version of the Holy Bible, 2004. CAPOTE, Truman. In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences. Penguin Books, Modern Classics, 2000. FAULKNER, William. As I Lay Dying. Vintage International, New York, 1990. STEINBECK, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books, 1992.

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