Grapes of Wrath the purpose of the interchapters

The Grapes of Wrath: The Purpose of the Interchapters - Sara Stark Initially, I found the interchapters to be annoying, interruptions to the story. It was only when I realized the point in having the interchapters that I understood that not only did they not interrupt the story, but they added to it tremendously. The interchapters provide indirect comments or general situations which suggest something about the personal tragedies of the main characters. These comments …

…cut. The interchapters describe general situations and the chapters after them explain how that particular situation affects or will affect the Joads. The reader can learn many details about the hardships that the Joads went through by reading about the hardships of the migrant workers as a whole. By certain metaphors, like the turtle, that Steinback used in the interchapters we can learn about the nature and the struggle of the Joads throughout the novel.