What are elements of personification and simile in chapters 1 and 2?The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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mwestwood | College Teacher | (Level 3) Distinguished Educator

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In creating the setting of a once rich, fertile earth now deprived of life-giving nourishment, John Steinbeck introduces the first of the harships of the Joads, Oklahoma farmers who become the victims of the Dust Bowl.  To describe this phenomenon, Steinbeck employs literary devices such as personification which gives the elements life as though they are powers.  This life comes from his use of certain verbs.


The barren, dusty earth has been rendered by the

plows [that] crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks [and] the last rains [that] lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads...



The wind grew stronger, whisked under stones, carried up straws and old leaves, and even little clods, marking its course as it sailed across the fields.


There are stated comparisons, between two unlike things which use the words like or as, or similes, as well:



In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk...



Certainly, these figures of speech serve to create a vivid tableau of the red country and the gray country of Oklahoma that is the initial setting of Steinbeck's novel.

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