The Grapes of Wrath question 7

The author uses many techniques to engage his audience and make the story effective. By author I mean John Steinbeck, for those of you who don't know. As for techniques, I mean making the book mandatory reading. So instead I'll elaborate on the techniques that makes his audiences read the book, as opposed to going to spark notes and reading the summary. It takes an amazing author to pull that off, at least regarding young people. There is a lot of suspense revolving around The grapes of Wrath, or what I suspect to be suspense, due to me feeling like I was in suspense at certain points in the story, I will summarize, based on all my evidence, that there was suspense in this novel. Need more proof than that, too bad. Don't like it, well I have reached a compromise. I will give proof on the condition that there are no conditions, and the condition was met. As my first piece of evidence, I need only to look at the part in the story when the baby was being sort of born. You were subjected to the concept of suspense because while the birth was taking place there were several complications that went along with in that caused you to question whether the baby would live or not. Such as, but not limited to, the massive storm, the hose like object flooding, and the constant ramblings of Rose of Sharon stating her fear that the baby might not live. "But will it-hurt the baby?" (Steinbeck 142) Steinbeck built up all this suspense to deliver exactly what you were or were not expecting, a dead baby. Bet you did or possibly did not expect that to happen. It's hard to tell because Steinbeck is a master at sending mixed messages. Seriously, you were probably expecting the baby to survive all that murderous suspense, and become some kind of beacon of hope for the family to find reason to continue surviving with. Then Steinbeck declares that babies are no different than the elderly, dogs and preachers.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.