This study is a corpus-based analysis of animal images and symbolism in John Steinbeck’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. The previous studies indicate that the physical features and crawling process of land turtle and the Joad family present a strong corresponding relationship so that the land turtle bears rich symbolic connotations. The aim of this study is to put forward a more comprehensive animal image by using AntConc corpus analyzing tool. A turtle, rabbits, dogs, and a snake are prominent animal images in The Grapes of Wrath and they carry rich symbolic meanings. Using the method of combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, the researchers mainly apply the tools of the keyword list and concordance in AntConc to analyze the language features and plot development of the novel. The corpus analysis has brought a new perspective to the analysis of literary texts even though this study only explores such analysis at vocabulary, sentence and plot levels. According to the analysis of the corpus, the researchers have found that the description of animal imagery has made an important contribution to the plot development and the overall depiction of the characters. There is still a room for further corpus studies of literary texts.