High School Required Reading and Why your Opinion is Wrong – A Review
As someone with a degree in English, I (presumably) get asked my opinion on books more than the average person. Generally, the conversation starts with, "what should I read?" Or "I never understood all that metaphor stuff; don’t you think teachers just make that up sometimes?" And the thing is, most of the time, people don't actually want you to give them an honest answer. They want you to say one or two things so then they can move on and talk about how much they hate __________.
The books that people tell me they hate often baffle me, but I never stay baffled, because I'm sure in Highschool I had a similarly wrong opinion.
The most commonly hated book? The Great Gatsby. Why? I'm not sure. But with enough weasling, 9/10 Gatsby haters come out to say "I only read SparkNotes."
Now here's where I might surprise you. To an extent, I can understand why some people dislike Gatsby. But. Buuuut!!!! Only to an extent. And most people haven't given Fitzgerald the fair shake he deserves, because boy, could he write. The layers and subtleties built within Gatsby compound into a crescendo of literary excellence, and that's why it's a shared experience of 10th-11th graders. But sometimes, that style is daunting! And that's the only "critique" I have for one of America's greatest novels.
Maybe I'm just overthinking this and some people just like to be contrarians. Which, is helpful...sometimes...I guess. But in that case, you'd have to at least expect them to read the book, right?
The reason I bring this up is because there is one book that gets "hate" in a similar vein to Gatsby, and it actually makes me sad when people badmouth it. And that's John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.
Is Grapes perfect? No. Is it still one of the best books of all time? Yes.
Grapes has a message and doesn't shove it down your throat or hide it, the first time I read Grapes was the first time I experienced that. Every time you read it, you find a new message and it's more complex than the last.
The work is transformative on all sides of the word, and I love it.
In the latter half of the book, Tom Joad, the book's “main” character, finds himself moving deeper and deeper to a philosophical breakthrough. And at the end? He discovers the existence of a universal soul, and it brings him to his final actions before the enigmatic ending of the narrative. When you finish the book for a second time, you notice how much the characters in the book come to change. Joad was being mentored by Jim Casy, and by the end of the book, he takes Casy’s message to a completely different level, one that seems more fanatical than anything, but Joad is our hero! So, he has to be right, right?
Well. The book manages to capture life a little too perfectly. It shows the evil and the good in humanity and how they coexist and blur each other’s boundaries for personal gain. This idea proves to be Steinbeck’s master craft, as he uses it in other books to similarly great effect. This might seem like Steinbeck is waffling, when in reality he is simply presenting an argument in full while simultaneously ending the story with his own opinion on the matter.
See, my interpretation of Grapes is essentially fundamental to how I view the world. My own ideals are wrapped so tightly within this narrative, that I struggle to separate my love for this book from my critical reading, and that’s fine, because I’m being upfront with you. I admit that the book has flaws, it’s very long, the pacing is erratic, and sometimes the characters are stereotypes, but despite these flaws, I still think it’s a masterpiece.
So. What is my interpretation of Grapes? Well. There is evil in the world. That much is made clear by the men who pour concrete on completely edible oranges in front of starving workers. It’s also made clear by the amount of violence in the book, especially toward nature and the innocent.
There is also the awfulness in reality that cannot be controlled. A stillborn baby, for example.
To me, Steinbeck suggests that these moments of evil (both controlled and not) are where goodness can truly shine. Tom Joad sacrifices his personal life because he wants to dedicate himself to bettering society. Rose of Sharron loses what she wanted most, but in turn that allows her to save someone else’s life.
It’s not unheard of to suggest that adversity allows for the true light in humanity to shine. But, the real message here is essentially that the “darkness” doesn’t disprove the light, but rather makes it much more valuable and necessary. Steinbeck uses Grapes to argue that life is inherently good. That man can be evil, but mankind? Mankind is prone to positivity.
Ultimately, what Grapes says about humanity is extremely important today. We are experiencing a global shift in politics, economics, entertainment, and religion. This shift is making people uneasy, it’s forcing lives to change overnight. Much like the settlers who had to uproot their entire homes in the American Midwest to move someplace safe during the Dust Bowl. The problems aren’t the same, but they are united in the sense that they are problems. The way we react to those problems mirrors the reactions found within the pages of Grapes of Wrath. I’m not an optimist, not even a little bit. But I do believe that humanity is good and that this storm will pass.
Thanks for reading! Have a great week.
Other books from High School people say they hate:
Slaughterhouse 5
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Catcher in the Rye
The Scarlet Letter
Great Expectations
Jane Eyre
Beowulf
Tale of Two Cities
Shakespeare in General
-I can honestly say, there is only one book on here that I’m not a fan of. How about you?
Which book to people say they loved the most from High School?
1984
Of Mice and Men
Animal Farm
My favorites?
Slaughterhouse, Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, and Hamlet
