Abstract:

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is largely influenced by The Bible in many aspects such as character, narrative structure and some other biblical imageries. Jim Casy is regarded as Jesus Christ in reality; Tom Joad is indeed a Christian, fighting for the poor; Ma Joad is a perfect woman and also Virgin Mary to all the people. This novel also partly borrows the structure from Exodus. In addition, grapes carry the connation of promise; rain, water and flood symbolize the creation; Rose of Sharon’s dead baby is their dead Moses. This paper aims to find out how these biblical imageries function in the novel to make this novel a classic work in America.

Key words: The Grapes of Wrath; biblical imageries

摘要：

斯坦贝克的小说《愤怒的葡萄》在很多方面上受到了《圣经》的影响。在小说中，杰米•凯西被认为是现实中的耶稣基督；乔德是一个真正意义上的基督徒，他为了穷苦人民而奋斗；乔德妈妈是个完美的女性角色，她是所有人心目中的圣母玛利亚。小说的叙事结构很大一部分借鉴了《出埃及记》。而小说中的葡萄则蕴含着希望之意，雨水、水、洪水则是寓意着上帝的创造，死去的婴儿象征着死去的“摩西”。本文旨在对小说中的圣经意象展开分析，从而了解这些意象是如何使得该小说成为美国的一部不朽经典之作。

关键词：《愤怒的葡萄》；圣经意象

1.    Introduction
1.1 Introduction to John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was the most famous writer in America in the 20th century. He was widely known for the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Grapes of Wrath and he also won the Nobel Prize in 1962. He lived in a middle-class family. He spent most of his childhood in towns, countries and farmlands and he enjoyed the natural scene of the county yard since very young. His literature career was so deeply influenced by his mother that he got to know the Europe classic literature at an early age. His novels were rooted in the stories of King Arthur in The Bible. During his early time, he has read many world classic masterpieces and he also wrote articles to the local newspapers. What’s more, he still spent most of his time outdoor, like working in the farms or travelling in the valleys in California. These places all became the settings of his novels later. John Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919 and attended Stanford University in Palo Alto. At the same time he worked in factories and road teams for he is not sure about his career. As a result, he leaved Stanford University in 1925 without a degree. In order to fulfill his dream of being a writer, young Steinbeck went to New York where he has done various jobs including journalist in New York Daily. Nevertheless he felt boring and frustration of this career. Due to this, he went back to California and devoted to his career again.