The Grapes of Wrath

I found the viewing of the Grapes of the Wrath to be the most the useful in understanding the novel read before it, however in the lecture it was suggested that the story is written in a newspaper form but I disagree with this as it seems to me it is written in the poetic narrative of most novels. "To the red country and part of the grey country of Oklahoma the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth". I would argue that it is does state the stages of development and situations mixed with poetic descriptions giving the novel more of a diary feel, as the news is reported free of poetic description completely.

In addition I was shocked at the portrayal of the ranch work camps in the film as they closely resembled concentration camps, for example the barbed wire fences and the guards patrolling the fences at night. I am not positive why the camps were portrayed this way but I can only guess, I'm not sure whether it was meant to contribute to the aim of creating a distasteful image of the government to audiences, in order to further impress upon them the wrong doings of the government, which is already shown at the beginning of the film when the government takes the farmer's land which does the belong to them.

Also some of the images of poverty were disturbing but extremely effect at conveying the destitution of the people, which I feel strays from usual depictions and establishes new, bold and hard hitting images that have a greater impact on the audience, I am of course referring to a starving man being breast fed to cure him of his starvation. This depiction is so effective because it is so savage and shows the possible extremes those people endured in order to survive.