, Columnist
Republican Playbook? 'The Grapes of Wrath.'
Steinbeck's depiction of hardship in the 1930s, and the Joad family's resilience in the face of privation, offers the most charitable interpretation of the philosophy behind today's Republican Party.
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There's a point in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" when Tom Joad, whose family has been evicted from its Oklahoma farm and is heading to California, destitute and hungry, lays into a one-eyed mechanic for whining about the way his boss treats him.
"Ya dirty, ya stink," Joad says. "Ya jus' askin' for it. Ya like it. Lets ya feel sorry for yaself." He tells the mechanic about a one-legged prostitute he knew who got paid extra for the novelty and a humpback who made his living charging people to rub his hump. "Jesus Christ," Joad finishes, "an' all you got is one eye gone."