"I have the power to fuse grapevines with my body. And while they're not too strong and don't have much range, I can simply fuse other plants with them. That way, I can use all plant matter around me as if it were my own body." |
The Grapes of Wrath (怒りの葡萄, Ikari no Budō?) is the ability of John Steinbeck.[2]
Contents
Description
The Grapes of Wrath allows Steinbeck to grow grapevines from any part of his body by planting a seed onto such part. By grafting the vines attached to his body to other plants, the flora in the entire vicinity can also become an extension of his body, allowing him to sense his targets nearby such extensions. His own branches and those from the flora can also be used as a means for capturing and holding a target with tremendous strength and to shield himself from enemy attacks. The grapevines can tightly restrain targets in place, such as people, objects,[1][3] and even manifestations of abilities. As such, Steinbeck's grapevines are considered as a countermeasure against Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne, which has been successfully restrained even in her own dimension.[4]
Steinbeck eavesdrops on Fitzgerald and Louisa using his ability.
The ability can also be used for monitoring and stealth purposes. For instance, Steinbeck was able to listen to the conversation between Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and Louisa May Alcott by touching a tree he was perched on, whose roots were implied to be connected to some plants near Fitzgerald's and Louisa's location.[5] Furthermore, Steinbeck can also apparently use his grapevines as a cast for his injured limb.[6]
Steinbeck can also combine his ability with Kyūsaku Yumeno's cursing ability, which is a tactic that the Guild primarily utilized in their emergency plan. Because Q's ability is to curse people who hurt them, Steinbeck used his grapevines to connect the plants directly into Q's body, affecting their sense of touch. Thus, when a person harms a plant in any way, it directly hurt Q, which caused the person to get cursed. Given that Steinbeck connected his grapevine roots to all the trees throughout Yokohama that received all sorts of painful treatment, such as being stepped on or being cut down, an estimated one-fifth of the population was cursed with Q's ability.[7]
As a drawback of the ability, when anyone attacks Steinbeck's grapevines while his ability is activated on himself, he is also affected and pained in the process.[1] Moreover, like all other abilities, Osamu Dazai can easily nullify Steinbeck's ability with a single touch.[8]
Appearances
The Guild Arc
- Chapter 23 - The Grapes of Wrath Ripen in His Eyes, Part 1
- Chapter 24 - The Grapes of Wrath Ripen in His Eyes, Part 2
- Chapter 28 - The Emergency Plan
- Chapter 30 - The Silent Tower and the Raven's Feast
- Chapter 37 - Closing the Party
The Guild Aftermath Arc
- Chapter 44 - Fitzgerald Rising
The Guild Arc
- Episode 19 - Will of Tycoon
- Episode 20 - Though the Mind May Be Wrong
- Episode 21 - Double Black
- Episode 24 - If I May Shed Away My Burden Now
Derivation
The ability is a reference to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck in 1939. It is a realist novel set during the Great Depression about the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven out of Oklahoma because of drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures, forcing the family out of work.[9]
Gallery
.png "The Grapes of Wrath (manga).png (1.57 MB)")
Animated GIFs
Trivia
- The scene depicting Steinbeck using his grapevines to listen to the conversation between Fitzgerald and Louisa after the Guild war[5] is omitted in the anime.
- The ability's reference work, The Grapes of Wrath, is considered by various academics as a notable work representing the Great American Novel. Though the list of candidates for the merit is dynamic and relative, other candidates on the list include works of the real-life counterparts of the in-series Steinbeck's former co-members from the Guild, namely The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.[10]
- Interestingly, these works are the exact names or references of the abilities of their corresponding users in the series.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 23.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga and Anime: Chapter 23 and Episode 19.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 24.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 33.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 44.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 37.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 28.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 30.
- ↑ The Grapes of Wrath. Wikipedia.
- ↑ Great American Novel. Wikipedia.
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