Involvement And Detachment: Artistic Techniques In John Steinbeck's The Gbapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck, a writer with an excessively large readership, is one of the American novelists awarded the Nobel Prize and a master of American literature. His artistic maturation is The Grapes of Wrath, which deals with universal topic by presenting the historical instant of the Great Depression and the specific experience of the Joad family. This thesis will conduct a comprehensive study on Steinbeck's major artistic techniques, all of which exhibit Steinbeck's intentional pursuit of"involvement"and"detachment", endowing the novel with universal significance. These techniques include its juxtaposed structure, narrative technique as well as characterization.Chapter One closely examines the juxtaposition of two structures: the panoramic structure and the dramatic structure. While the narrative part serves to engage readers into the specific historical instant of the Great Depression and involve them in the miserable experiences of the migrant families, the interchapters divert readers'attention from the individual to the overall social background, the existing social system and the author's philosophical thinking. By the alternation of the two structures, Steinbeck's aesthetic intention of revealing universal truth via individual experience is accomplished.Chapter Two has a close look at the narrative art of the novel. Basing on the structural juxtaposition, narrative art in the narrative part and in the interchapters are respectively viewed. In the narrative part, the omniscient external narrator reveals characters'personality and development as well as the plot mostly by direct speech. This maintains the objectivity and authority of the narration, successfully dispels sentimentalism and sketches out the contour of the society. Interchapters contain shifts from external focalization to internal focalization and profuse free direct speech. These convey to readers the true feelings of migrants and get them involved in philosophical explorations concerning universal topics. Necessary background knowledge is also provided in this part, maintaining proper distance while vividly represents characters'feelings. Through the variation of narrative methods, effect of"detached involvement"is achieved.Chapter Three devotes on analyzing the functional and prophetic figure Jim Casy. His special status as an ex-preacher provides him a perfect stance to observe and record the migration: being personally involved in the real migration while psychologically detached from the general migrants. This"involvement"and"detachment"fits to the overall structure of the novel and Steinbeck's effort to universalize the topic.Through the above studies, Steinbeck's workmanship in universalizing and eternalizing the novel and his intentional pursuit of both"involvement"and"detachment"are at full display.