The Grapes Of Wrath (2)

Moving right along to The Grapes Of Wrath for my number two. I thought I had seen this in high school...turns out I was confusing it for Of Mice And Men. So once I realized I was remembering the wrong characters and plot, this movie made much more sense.

The Grapes Of Wrath is one of those movies that makes you truly feel the tragedy that the characters are feeling. No doubt, that is why it makes the top 100. While the actors were great, I think the main focus was to make the audience really understand the devastation of having your home and all of your worldly goods taken away from you. Then when you think things couldn't get worse and could only start getting better, you sink lower.

Instead of connecting with the main character, Tom, I found that I actually connected with his mother. She was the one who really lost the most. Being a wife/mother during that time, she was a home-maker. She worked to provide a home out of their house and to keep it up. Imagine how she must have felt when she learned that the one thing in her responsibility, her one symbol of who she was and what her life was about, was going to be destroyed and there was nothing she could do about it. Then to lose her parents (whether her in-laws or actual parents, I couldn't tell, but still) and then in the very end, to loose her son. Not to mention all the turmoil she goes through in between all of that. Yet she still stayed strong for her family. While she may not be the obvious hero of the story, I elect her to be my hero from the story.