The Okies driven off their land, the Dust Bowl, the brutal failure of the American dream for those who cannot afford to dream it. Steinbeck's biblical cadence and intercalary chapters (stepping back from the Joad family) give the novel a scope beyond journalism. It won the Pulitzer in 1940 and remains the greatest American social-protest novel.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.