GRAPES OF WRATH
PROFILE PROJECT
For this project you are to select a character from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of
Wrath (GOW) to profile in a variety of ways.
PART I: PHOTO
The first is to include a photograph of this character. Use any of Dorothea Lange’s
images from The Depression period but be sure to cite accordingly.
OR
Include your own photograph of a character. Stage the photograph and pay attention to its
composition and lighting. It should be analogous to the time period (this means no cell
phones pictured or any anachronistic features).
PART II: ECPHRASTIC POEM (with OPTIC paragraph)
First write an OPTIC paragraph about your selected paragraph.
Then write an ecphrasis poem about the photograph above. It should express the
emotional responses and ideas presented by the photograph. Give your poem a
meaningful title.
Use the OPTIC hand out and the Ecphrastic Poem hand out to help you with this.
Both items must be typed. Your poem should be a minimum of 20 lines and your OPTIC
paragraph must include word count. Be sure to utlize your vocabulary words and
sentence patterns .
PART III: FOUND POEM of GOW chapter
Select an intercalary chapter from The Grapes of Wrath and use its text to deliver a theme
from the novel in the form of a found poem. Be sure to select a chapter that best
represents a theme your character faces (ie: Tom Joad (character) struggles with the
clashes of the classes; Chapter 19)
Below are a list of the intercalary chapters and a brief synopsis
Chapter 1: Drought and dust storm
Chapter 3: Turtle struggling to cross the highway
Chapter 5: People evicted from property by
owners
Chapter 7: Used car salesman discussing
customers and cars
Chapter 9: Property is sold and disposed;
possessions must be left behind
Chapter 11 : abandoned houses
Chapter 12: Highway 66
Chapter 14: changing views: from “I” to “We”
Chapter 15: Al and Mae at roadside café
Chapter 17: communities forged along the road
Chapter 19: history lesson
Chapter 21: the locals and the migrants
Chapter 23: the social life of the migrants
Chapter 25: the land’s abundance
Chapter 27: picking cotton
Chapter 29: the rains