What are the syntax strategies used in Chapter 29 of The Grapes of Wrath?

Chapter 29 of The Grapes of Wrath is
an "inner" chapter and, therefore, short and lyrical in
style.  It is also a Biblical-styled chapter, as it depicts
the Great Flood that is used as counterpoint to the Dust Bowl chapters earlier.
 Steinbeck makes use of pathetic fallacy (weather to depict
emotional tone) as the apocalyptic weather is a kind of purgation--an excessive baptism
that brings death across the land.

The chapter begins with
much personification:

readability="13">

"...the gray clouds marched in from the
ocean."

"...the wind...roared in the
forests."

"the dry earth sucked the moisture
down..."

"the steady rain whipped the shining
water."

"the earth whispered under the beat of
rain..."

Steinbeck's syntax
is very much like that of Moses at the beginning of Genesis as he describes the Great
Flood:

"I am
going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every
creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will
perish."

Steinbeck's
style is plain, tough, and his
tone is male and prophetic.
 Sentences are a mix of simple and compound, and his
word choice is simple: he uses high frequency (everyday)
words.  He works in cause-effect mode, showing how nature
affects humans.  The torrential rain brings sickness and death.  He names no one, only
using "they," "people," "women," and "men."  He uses dialogue but without quotation
marks, which gives the chapter an eerie quality.

All in
all, Steinbeck is setting us up for the climax,
forshadowing the Joads fighing for survival during the
flood.  Also, his imagery foreshadows Rose 'a Sharon's
breast-feeding the old man in chapter 30, as he focuses on "at last the mountains were
full," "the dry earth sucked," "for two days the earth drank the rain."  The second to
the last sentence mentions "wrath," (title) but it does not give a source (either God or
nature).  Who is responsible for the wrath?  Finally, the chapter ends with a gleam of
hopeful symbolism:

readability="7">

Tiny points of grass came through the earth, and
in a few days the hills were pale green with the beginning
year.

Steinbeck shows how the
extreme vegetative cycle is complete: from famine to flood,
from death to life.