In creating the setting of a once rich, fertile earth now
deprived of life-giving nourishment, John Steinbeck introduces the first of the harships
of the Joads, Oklahoma farmers who become the victims of the Dust Bowl. To describe
this phenomenon, Steinbeck employs literary devices such as personification which gives
the elements life as though they are powers. This life comes from his use of certain
verbs.
Personification
The
barren, dusty earth has been rendered by the
plows [that] crossed and recrossed the rivulet
marks [and] the last rains [that] lifted the corn quickly
and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the
roads...
The weeds grew darker green to
protect themselves, and they did not spread any
more.
The rainheads dropped a
little spattering and hurried on to some other
country.
The wind grew stronger, whisked
under stones, carried up straws and old
leaves, and even little clods, marking its course as it
sailed across the fields.
In the middle of that night the
wind passed on and left the
land quiet. The dust-filled air muffled sound more
completely than fog
does.
There are stated
comparisons, between two unlike things which use the words like or
as, or similes, as
well:
Similes
...a walking man lifted a thin layer
as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust
as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud
behind it.
In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red
circle that gave a little light, like
dusk...
...but the dust came in so thinly
that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like
pollen on the chairs and tables, on the
dishes
In the morning the dust hung like
fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new
blood.
Certainly,
these figures of speech serve to create a vivid tableau of the red country and the gray
country of Oklahoma that is the initial setting of Steinbeck's
novel.
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