The Biblical Elements In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck (1902-1968), the winner of the 1940 Puliter Prize and the 1962 Nobel Prize, is well-known for his masterpiece ?The Grapes of Wrath. Written roughly one-third of the way through his career, the novel is undoubtedly his best-known volume of fiction as well as, for most readers, his finest achievement as an author. Heavily depends upon and profoundly influenced by the Bible, the author succeeds in making the novel one of the masterpieces of American literature by skillfully use of the Biblical symbolism, the allusive images, the Biblical structure and the Biblical prose style. In writing the novel, with the Bible very much in mind, what the author wants to convey to us is the Sun-belt and the animating myth that of the Garden and man's struggle to get back to it.Quite a number of John Steinbeck's critics have pointed out that there are numerous Biblical symbolism and Biblical allusive images in the novel. In addition, the structure of the novel as well as the prose style the author uses are all heavily indebted to the Bible. Therefore, what I want to demonstrate in this thesis is to do my utmost to explore the functions that these Biblical symbolism, Biblical allusions, Biblical structure and Biblical style serve to make the novel one of the masterpieces of the American, and particularly the world literature.