Dialogic Structure and Levels of Discourse In Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

TL;DR: The Grapes of Wrath as discussed by the authors is a novel that alternates between the story of the Joads and the stories of the Dust Bowl exodus as a whole, alternating between the two kinds of narratives.

Abstract: UCH attention has been paid to the most basic level of narrative structure in The Grapes of Wrath, to the alternation of the story of the Joads with the story of the Dust Bowl exodus as a whole. Critics have discussed Steinbeck's rationale for such a structure and have closely examined devices the author uses to weld the two kinds of chapters into a unified novel.1 In spite of long interest in the immediate dialectic of the alternating chapters, however, almost no attention has been devoted to the still more complex dialogic structure and levels of discourse in The Grapes ofWrath. In attempting to write the story of a human tragedy on a national scale, Steinbeck was faced with a dilemma. The documentary, a form with which he was thoroughly familiar, tended to give the big picture, tended to focus on the suffering multitudes, with the effect of educating the viewer or reader but at the same time distancing him from the intimate suffering and pain of those caught up in disaster. \"It means very little to know that a million Chinese are starving unless you know