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July 14, 2011 'Grapes Of Wrath' And The Politics of Book Burning
Sept. 29 marks the beginning of the American Library
Association's annual "Banned Books Week," a commemoration of all
the books that have ever been removed from library shelves and
classrooms. Politics, religion, sex, witchcraft — people give a
lot of reasons for wanting to ban books, says Judith Krug of the
ALA, but most often the bannings are about fear. "They're not
afraid of the book; they're afraid of the ideas," says Krug.
"The materials that are challenged and banned say something
about the human condition." John Steinbeck's 1939 classic, The
Grapes Of Wrath, which chronicles an Oklahoma family's hapless
migration westward, is a perfect example. The book was an
immediate best-seller around the country, but it was also banned
and burned in a number of places, including Kern County, Calif.
— the endpoint of the Joad family's migration. Though fictional,
Steinbeck's novel was f