Квартал Тортилья-Флэт. Гроздья гнева. Жемчужина

John Steinbeck is a significant phenomenon in the literature of the 20th century. The biography and creative path of Steinbeck were complex: the artist knew both great creative successes and periods of professional decline; he was characterized by both violent democratism and political errors, which he defended with equal tenacity. Coming from a low-income family in the small center of rural California, Steinbeck struggled to get an education as a young farmhand, construction worker, forest ranger, and reporter. Knowledge of the life of farmers, agricultural workers, deep sympathy for working people filled with great emotional content, gave special authenticity to a number of his works; the most important of them were written in the 1930s. - a period of economic crisis - and reflected the rise of the labor movement in the United States.
THE GRAPES OF ANGER (1939) is a novel based on a dramatic page in US history. The work was created in the wake of events and under the direct impression of them. In 1937, drought and crop shortages in the central states, which exacerbated the general socio-political crisis in the country, ruined thousands of farmers and agricultural workers, forcing them to leave their homes and embark on a long journey to the "promised land" that California envisioned.
Large masses of immigrants moved across America from east to west, driven by the hope of finding a new home, job and a sure piece of bread in California. The book is distinguished by its versatility and socio-philosophical depth in the interpretation of the material. The chapters depicting the forced "odyssey" of the family of semi-literate Joad farmers, who overcome incredible difficulties on their way, lose relatives one by one and in the end face the threat of starvation, alternate with interlude chapters written on behalf of the author and representing a direct social analysis and Steinbeck's commentary on the phenomenon he is talking about.