The intercalary chapters in Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath serve as a literary device designed to show the general social and economic elements of America at the time. Due to the economic crisis plaguing the nation, the plight of the American farmer became increasingly difficult. The contrast between the regular chapters and the intercalary chapters serves as an illustration of the part to whole relationship between the Joad family and the American farmer.
             Steinbeck uses this to aid his belief that the story is not limited to the tale of the Joads only, but an entire mass of migrants. The interchapters foretell events and sometimes explain the events of that specific time period, and then the following chapter describes the previously mentioned concept in specific relation to the Joad family. These interchapters provide specific evidence to support the experience of the Joads, thus strengthening the novel as a whole. These chapters also provide the reader with historical background which explain much of the social standards of the time period, giving the reader a better understanding. The realistic depiction of the times presented in the intercalary chapters allows the reader to identify with the Joads as well as feel for them as people. The Joads are never specifically named or mentioned in the interchapters, nor is it inferred that the people in these chapters are the Joads. This allows the reader to see the metaphorical whole through an unbiased view. Since the reader is already emotionally connected to the Joads, it is another way to understand the overall suffering of the people who directly depended upon the agricultural sector of the American economy for their livelihood. Steinbeck successfully uses the interchapters to link the other chapters and create a cohesive, bifocal view of the issues of the novel. The interchapters usually provide some kind of deeper meaning, or metaphor which makes the order of events in the novel...