“Everyone wants a little piece of lan'. I've read a lot of books here. No one ever gets to heaven and no one gets earth. It's only in their head. They talk about it all the time, but it's only in their head. (Steinbeck) The Grapes of Wrath is often classified as an American realist novel. It was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. As a result of this novel, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and prominently cited the novel when he won the Nobel Prize just over twenty years after the publication of text. This text follows the Joad family through the Great Depression. It begins in Oklahoma, watching as a family is forced to abandon their home due to drought and economic changes. In the introduction to the novel the living conditions are described: “Every moving thing raised dust into the air: the walking man raised a thin layer to the height of his waist, and a cart raised the dust to the height of the fence and a the car boiled a cloud behind it. (Grapes, 1) This novel is and will remain one of the most significant novels of the Great Depression. Despite its controversial nature, it is timeless. In fact, the ending of this text is one of the most controversial pieces of literature written in that period and was never precisely inserted into the film. The ending of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is the most significant part of the novel due to its historical accuracy and its message about the American spirit. The ending of The Grapes of Wrath maintains its historical accuracy by reinforcing the idea that women are the force that holds the family together. From the beginning of this text we can see that Ma Joad is an incredibly strong character...... middle of paper...... states: “. . .and in the eyes of the people there is failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing anger. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath fill up and become heavy, they become heavy for the harvest." (Grapes, 385) This is an incredibly accurate summary of everything this timeless novel was written to represent and will forever continue to represent. Works Cited Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables: Cosette. Charlottesville: U of Virginia Library, 1996. Print.Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage. New York: HarperPerennial, 2000. Print.Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. Address. White House Conference on Children in a Democracy. Washington, DC January 19, 1940. Radio.Steinbeck, John. Of mice and men. John Steinbeck Centenary ed. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.Wyatt, David. New essays on the grapes of wrath. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.