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Date:
Test

1. Steinbeck’s novel can be categorised as either a realist or a naturalist novel. Complete the
definition taken from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary terms using the following
terms:
naturalism, conventions, romance, determinist, lower-class, verisimilitude, social life
realism, a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or 'reflecting' faithfully an actual
way of life. The term refers, sometimes confusingly, both to a literary method based on detailed
accuracy of description (i.e. ____________________ ) and to a more general attitude that rejects
idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of ___________________ in favour of
recognizing soberly the actual problems of life. Modern criticism frequently insists that realism is
not a direct or simple reproduction of reality (a 'slice of life') but a system of
___________________ producing a life-like illusion of some 'real' world outside the text, by
processes of selection, exclusion, description, and manners of addressing the reader. As a dominant
literary trend it is associated chiefly with the 19th-century novel of middle- or
______________________ life, in which the problems of ordinary people in unremarkable
circumstances are rendered with close attention to the details of physical setting and to the
complexities of _____________________. In the work of some novelists, realism passes over into
the movement of ______________________, in which sociological investigation and
_____________________ views of human behaviour predominate.

2. There are many biblical references in TGoW. Just like the biblical Jews, the Joad family goes
West in the hope of reaching a land of happiness and prosperity, the promised land of California,
where employment could allegedly be found. The eleven members of the family set off in their car
accompanied by Jim Casy, a former local preacher. Together there are now twelve people
journeying west, again echoing the exodus of the twelve tribes of Israel crossing the desert from
Egypt to the Promised Land. The title, a reference to the Apocalypse, equates the Joads to the angel-
harvesters that gather and throw men into the winepress of God’s wrath at the end of time. Uncle
John’s choice of letting Rose of Sharon’s still-born baby float down the raging river instead of
burying it again parallels the Biblical narrative through its similarity to Moses. Why do you think
Steinbeck chose to draw parallels between the Bible and his novel? Do these parallels achieve
a realist, naturalist or a romantic effect?