Question

Which sentence best explains the significance of the novel's title, The Grapes of Wrath?

A. Steinbeck compares the migrants' anger to growing fruit.
B. The farmers drink the wine made from sour grapes and get angry.
C. Steinbeck lived on a winery of the same name in California.
D. In the last chapter, the personified grapes show their fury for not being picked.

Answer 1

It's a metaphor.

Part of the story tells of how food is purposely destroyed to maintain skyrocketing prices. The people are hungry, so the lack of money and food evokes this tide of growing wrath throughout. This growing wrath then results in a horrible harvest, if you will.

Grapes have nothing to do with the story except that this fruit starts as one thing and as a result of its method of growth and treatment, results in another - - Are they nourished? Are they neglected? What possible predators could hinder, prevent or destroy their growth? What are their growth conditions? - - It doesn't necessarily have to be grapes, could have been any fruit, really, but people have been metaphorically referred to as grapes since Biblical times.

Now, do you really believe any of that?