The Grapes of Wrath

When Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, our country was just starting to recover from The Great Depression.  The novel he wrote, though fiction, was not an uncommon tale in many lives.  When this book was first published, the majority of those reading it understood where it was coming from-they had lived it.  But now very few people understand the horrors of what went on in that time.  The style in which Steinbeck chose to write The Grapes of Wrath helps get across the book's message. 
Early in the 1930's Steinbeck wrote, "The trees and the muscled mountains are the world-but not the world apart from man-the world and man-the one inseparable unit man and his environment. Why they should ever have been understood as being separate I do not know."  Steinbeck strove to reconnect them, and it shows in his writing.  Intermixed with the plot are corollary chapters.  The purpose of the corollary chapters is to put the events of the story in perspective to the circumstances of the country, so everyone would be able to understand the context of the book.  The corollary chapters tell little pieces of the "common story", the story held in common. They don't give specifics-they give generalities.  The first chapter gives the background to all of the following events. Every-other chapter gives more background to the story.  Whether a massive draught causes this migration of people from the Midwest, or all the families get told to get off of the land, or all the migrants are starving; the chapters tell how all of this happened.

Not only does Steinbeck tell his story and put it in perspective, he also gives social commentary.  One might expect this social commentary to be expressed either symbolically or directly.  Steinbeck does both.  Steinbeck stated, "The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement." He strove to fulfill this commission with a passion.

Steinbeck indicates his social concerns directly in his corollary chapters, where he explains how these events are history repeating itself. And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away.  And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need.  And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.  The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on. (Steinbeck 262)

Steinbeck describes how whenever there is a mass migration of people, there will be pity and fear from those where the migration is to towards those that migrate in.  The more migrants there are, the more fear there will be, and the more fear there is, the more drastic the measures taken will be. "The local people whipped themselves into a mold of cruelty.  Then they formed units, squads, and armed them-armed them with clubs, with gas, with guns.  We own the country.  We can't let these Okies get out of hand." (Steinbeck 312) The Grapes of Wrath furthermore explains what happens anytime the ruling class has more than they could ever want, while the lower class(es) have little to nothing. 
Three hundred thousand, hungry and miserable; if they ever know themselves, the land will be theirs and all the gas, all the rifles in the world won't stop them.  And the great owners . used every means that in the long run would destroy them.  Every little means, every violence, every raid on a Hooverville, every deputy swaggering through a ragged camp put off the day a little and cemented the inevitability of the day. (Steinbeck 263)

The lower class will rise up, one day, and equalize the distribution, and the more violently they have been kept down, the more sure that day is to come.  Steinbeck also uses the plot as social commentary by personalizing these plights with characters, as opposed to blank masses. 
Repetition is used very effectively in The Grapes of Wrath.  The way Steinbeck had Rosasharn (Rose of Sharon) smile in reference to her baby, husband, and then at the end when she gives her breastmilk to the weak man, was very powerful.  It represented many things, and forced the reader to contemplate.  She "smiled mysteriously" both at the idea of carrying a new life, as well as saving an older life-when aspects of her maternity give life.
The various writing techniques that Steinbeck used in the Grapes of Wrath brought out the message he wanted to get across.  The corollary chapters put the story in perspective, helping the reader understand the context of the events. The two types of social commentary gave each of them added weight.  And finally, the use of repetition gave the whole book a sense of continuity.