Cinematography For Thematic Reinforcement In The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck's works, noteworthy for abounding in rich filmic elements, have been successfully adapted into plays and movies. Hollywood has capitalized on most of his works and adapted them for the screen. The Grapes of Wrath is such a typical example, involving a great quantity of motion pictures, unique filmic techniques and so on. Based on the theory of cinematography, particularly with the reference to the adaptation movie with the same title, this thesis aims at expounding their function of reinforcing the theme of the novel by exploring the filmic elements in the novel The Grapes of Wrath.Movie has its own extraordinary attraction and artistic appeal. The Grapes of Wrath has more outstanding fascination with the harmonious blend of novel and this newborn art form. This kind of novelistic innovation with the filmic techniques makes the novel fresher feeling in the form and distillation in the theme, and more extensive space in the connotation. By reviewing this classical novel from the filmic angle of visuals, auditions and editing, and by analyzing the thematic reinforcement through the application of these filmic techniques, readers could discover a fresh mode of thinking to appreciate and interpret this novel. Moreover, this thesis would better intensify the realization of the interaction between novel and film, to elucidate profoundly in the artistic charm of Steinbeck's "play-novelette".The introduction of this thesis offers a brief survey of various criticisms and evaluations of John Steinbeck's works and presents his innovation in writing his new form—"play-novelette". Hence, the research object of the thesis is brought in: Steinbeck's employment of filmic techniques in reinforcing the theme of the novel.Chapter 1 explores the auditory elements in this novel, especially the filmic dialogue. This novel is made up of dialogues in the main, apart form the inter-chapters. Steinbeck applies the dialogue to present the theme of the story and to depict the characters' personality. He also uses monologue to express the character's thought and feeling. Chapter 2 analyzes this novel from the visual effect. From the different kinds of shot and angle, color and lighting, and the camera movement, readers could apparently feel that Steinbeck portrays the surroundings and reinforces the theme with a "camera eye". The readers go through the entire novel, as if following a specially designated film camera. Chapter 3 discusses the thematic continuity from the filmic editing in this novel. In editing, montage is the most typical technique distinguishing film from the other art forms. By adopting the combination of narrative and parenthetical writing structure rather than the former mono-structure, Steinbeck endows an entirely new narrative mode to his novel. It is a successful attempt for Steinbeck to write the novel by adopting so many filmic techniques. By taking advantage of these filmic techniques, Steinbeck makes his novel more concise, and the theme richer, clearer and more reinforced. The Grapes of Wrath is one of Steinbeck's remarkable works, and it achieves realistic and artistic richness of theme and structure that ranks it among the best of his works.