Religious Symbolism in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck In his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck describes the movement of a family of migrant workers, the Joads, from Oklahoma in California during the Great Depression. Steinbeck's novel, although surprisingly free of surface-level symbolism, was "conceived [on] simultaneous levels of existence, ranging from socioeconomic determinism to transcendent spirituality" (DeMott, xiii). One of the many levels on which this novel can be read is as a parallel to the stories of Christ and the Exodus (Louis Owens, John Steinbeck's Re-Vision of America, quoted in DeMott, xiii). Steinbeck weaves allegories based on these two stories throughout his novel. Through these intertwined religious plots and the misery and depression that make up the majority of the novel, Steinbeck conveys the message of the impending "death of religion" while establishing his novel as a kind of new gospel for the people. On the surface, one can read Steinbeck's novel in two ways: by reading the longer, even-numbered chapters, one gains an in-depth understanding of the life of this particular family. But by reading the shorter, odd, "intercalated" chapters, which could almost constitute a short novel in and of themselves, one begins to understand the "epic turning point" of the exodus of multitudes of workers towards California, the apparent land promise. . Steinbeck intended to separate these two stories in the reader's mind, as we see in the diary he kept while writing the book, later published as Working Days: I find that I am not very satisfied with the numbering of these chapters. It may be that they will simply be numbered with large numbers... in the center of the paper... the monkeys highlight the differences between the times in which the two stories were written and the flaws of the culture in which Steinbeck wrote. The approach of considering this epic in relation to the Christian tradition sheds new light on it and further shows that Steinbeck truly intended this work to be remembered forever. Works Cited DeMott, Robert. "Introduction". The grapes of wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992: vii-xliv.Levant, Howard. “Fully Ripe Art: The Grapes of Wrath.” The Novels of John Steinbeck: A Critical Survey. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1983. New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. New York: American Bible Society, 1989. Steinbeck, John. The grapes of wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Steinbeck, John. Workdays: The Grapes of Wrath Journals. Ed. Robert DeMott. New York: Viking, 1989.