Journal 2

Once upon a time there was a bear and a squirrel. They both lived in the same woods and knew of one another but they never saw each other or dealt with one another because the bear lived in a cave and the squirrel lived in a tree. This system worked for both of them and they never crossed paths until one day in the middle of summer.

The friendly bear was roaming around in the woods when he came across the tree that the squirrel lived in. Up in the branches there was a huge beehive full of honey and once the bear saw it he began to climb the tree in pursuit of the hive. Now the squirrel who lived in the tree had no interest in the beehive because he did not particularly like honey, and he had started to become annoyed by the constant buzzing that the bees in the beehive were always making. Still, though, the squirrel in question was a selfish squirrel and when he saw that the bear was in pursuit of the honey in his tree he began to get very angry. Soon he went to his secret stash of acorns and various nuts and began throwing them at the bear as he climbed the tree. The bear, of course, became very upset with the acorns being thrown at his head and ceased climbing the tree. Although he knew that the squirrel did not want the honey, he still went about his way searching for another beehive for his afternoon snack.

Not too long later, the tree that the squirrel lived in was cut down by men looking for lumber in the woods. Without anywhere to go, the squirrel went off in search of another place to stay because all the other trees were already occupied by squirrel. Normally the other squirrels would have welcomed him with open arms, but this squirrel had a reputation for not being too nice to the other squirrels, so none of them welcomed him very kindly.

Soon it was dusk and the squirrel still had no place to sleep for the night. Desperate for shelter, he stepped into a cave that he happened to come across through the last rays of light. When he walked in he saw that it was the home of the bear that he had so selfishly sent away when he wanted the honey from the squirrel's tree. The bear recognized the squirrel as well and was about to send him away, but he then realized that this was his opportunity to be the bigger woodland animal. So the bear graciously showed hospitality and allowed the squirrel to stay in his cave until he could find a new home. Because he was so moved by the hospitality of the bear, the squirrel was forever changed, and as he went out looking for a new home he spread the story of how kind the bear had been to him. And from that day forward the squirrel never again turned away someone that he was in any way capable of helping.

Journal 1

We actually learned about Native American culture in American History this morning. Apparently the first Native Americans came here around ten thousand years ago over a land bridge from Russia to Alaska. They started off as hunter-gatherers, and they hunted woolly mammoths for most of their food. Eventually though the mammoths died off and they were forced to start hunting other things such as fish in order to survive. Then they learned how to plant crops and created villages because of the agricultural revolution. Each new civilization brought something new that the civilization before them did not have. First they began forming small villages. After that, because their cities were growing so large they began developing systems of government. Some of them created giant buildings called pueblos that were immensely large because they were wealthy due to trade. Eventually though, they wore out the land and they experienced severe drought so they all disappeared and their giant pueblos were left deserted. Next, a people called the Mayans developed a calendar that we still use today. The civilizations also began fighting each other for territory and goods and there was a lot of war. Also, some groups would keep their prisoners and sacrifice them alive as gifts to their gods in order to appease their anger and keep them from destroying them. They believed in multiple gods and each one was usually a god of some sort of element of nature or some sort of emotional feeling that they were in charge of. Because of their massive amount of gods they had to do a lot of sacrificing. The Mayan calendar is also the calendar that supposedly predicted the end of the world to be in 2012 because it is the end of their calendar.

Eventually the Native Americans were driven further and further west by the white men who were colonizing the New World and they were forced to live in reservations. As a result their numbers dwindled until today there are not many pure blood Native Americans left at all.

Symbols in Summer Reading

There were a few symbols in the summer reading that particularly stood out to me.

In Grapes of Wrath there were many symbols. Specifically, the birth of the stillborn child at the end of the movie seemed to me to be a general symbol of all of the suffering and pain that the Joad family had to endure, and it also stood for all the other families who had their own suffering to deal with. There were many Godly symbols in the novel as well such as the ending scene in which Rose of Sharon symbolizes the Virgin Mary caring for the dead Jesus. Also, the flooding in the final chapter reminded me of the flood that occurred with Noah and the Ark in the Old Testament of the Bible.

In Cather in the Rye I observed just in general that the main character stood for the teenager's struggle to find his place in the world. His story contained many of the problems that kids of every shape and size face on a daily basis trying to figure out what their role in the world is supposed to be.

In Old Man and the Sea I did not at first see a lot of symbols. Obviously I saw the reeling in of the big fish as a symbol of perseverance in the face of hardship and never giving up no matter what. After discussing in class how the old man was meant to represent Jesus, everything really started clicking in my head. In the way the old man is constantly struggling with the huge weight of reeling in that large fish that constantly is fighting against him, I saw the way Jesus is constantly struggling to bring the people that he loves to him as they constantly try to push him away. Also in the way the sharks came and bit chunks out of the side of the fish he worked so hard to real in I saw how different things and distraction in the world takes away groups of the people he is trying to real in, or you could also read it as the fish being one individual soul he is trying to save and the sharks are the distractions that are constantly pulling parts of you into different directions.

Horror of Prison in Grapes of Wrath

It is a scary thought thinking about how crazy it would be to be locked up in a jail for years like Tom is discussing in chapter sixteen of Grapes of Wrath. Although they discussed earlier that it is hard getting out of prison because you are so used to being there and the regularity of all the amenities that are provided to you, that does not mean it is as nice as that description makes it seem.

Although eventually you get used to the life of being a prisoner and having every day mapped out for you the exact same way, it cannot be an easy road to get to that point where you don't care anymore. There would be a point on that road to not caring that would seem as though you would never make it through. Some of them even go crazy to some extent as displayed in the following passage:

"Maybe I'm kinda stir-nuts. I'll tell ya about it sometime maybe. Ya see, its just sompin you wanta know. Kinda interestin'. But I got a kind a funny ideas the bes' thing'd be if i forget about it fora while. Maybe in a little while it won't be that way. RIght now when I think about it my guts gets all droppy an' nasty feelin'. Look here, Al, I'll tell ya one thing - the jail house i jus' a kind a way a drivin' a guy slowly nuts. See? An' they go nuts, an' you see 'em an' hear 'em an' pretty soon you don' know if you're nuts or not. When they get to screamin' in the night sometimes you think it's you doin' the screamin' - and sometimes it is."

This would be the hardest part of being in prison I think. It would not be the demons of living with whatever you did to get in, it would be to deal with the demons of the prison itself and all the people around you dealing with their own personal demons.

Faith Restored in Grapes of Wrath

Chapter fifteen of Grapes of Wrath was incredibly touching, so much so that it once again restored a little piece of faith in the goodness of humanity in general.

At first as the story went on about Mae and how much she had and how much she turned up her nose at the poor people who came into her diner begging for some kind of mercy, I was incredibly disgusted by her attitude. She was so taken by those truck drivers and the way they acted even though the jokes they told were inappropriate. It was horrible to me how she could find those poor, respectful people who just happened to be in a bad way disgusting and disgraceful while these men who had plenty and could be rude she surveyed reverently as if they had ever done anything worthy of her respect.

Then some of the poor people entered and she put on a show for the truck drivers, not showing any mercy and being stubborn about doing them one small favor. The man was clearly an honest man who did his best to be humble and respectful, and he was not asking for anything for free but just simply to be allowed to buy some bread to feed his family. Finally she allowed tem to buy a fifteen cent loaf of bread for ten cents. Then, in a moment that could practically move a reader to tears, she surveyed his poor, bedraggled children eying the candy with a sort of reverence that something so wonderful could even exist. The father, seeing this pitiful display, aasked Mae if the candies were penny candies. She quietly replied that they were two for a penny, and he bought one. Not until they elft did the reader realize that the candies were not in fact two for a penny, they were five cents apiece. And as this one blessing that she bestowed on the stunningly grateful children set in, the reader's faith in the goodness of people was once again restored.

We Instead of I in Grapes of Wrath

The author has figured out the way to fix the problem of the great depression in chapter fourteen of Grapes of Wrath. I know that sounds ridiculous and extreme because of course no one man could have perfectly found a way to solve something that great minds must have been working overtime to puzzle out themselves. No, I am not saying he had a quick fix to eliminate all the turmoil and trouble of that time. what I am saying is that he took a good hard look at all sides of the people during that time and realized the idea that would save them all. And that iea is that allof the people need to start thinking as more of a 'we' than an 'I'. This means that those people who have a lot can give of the plenty that they have to those who do not have what they need. I know this sounds like a ridiculous concept to those whohave much because that would just be ch arity and why should they give of what they have? Well, that answer is more shielded than the other. That answer is that those who have much need those who do not to keep their land alive. They need the heart and soul of the tenant farmers to keep the world from turning into an impersonal place where machines do what a man used to do with a sense of pride and dedication. Those with plenty will realize that if they can stop suspecting their fellow people and extend a hand of friendship and teamwork towards them. As the following quote states, the key is to make things more of a team effort.

"..For two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first 'we' there grows a still more dangerous thing. 'I have a little food' plus 'I have none.' If rom this problem the sum is 'We have a little food,' the thing is on its way, the movement has direction.

Hope in Struggle in Grapes of Wrath

Chapter fourteen of Grapes of Wrath particularly struck me in its truth. The very beginning paragraph is talking about how the western states are growing nervous with all the pressure of the millions of people migrating there to seek refuge and fulfillment. It seems to be a huge burden as the population multiplies and the land fills with people desperate for help. But still, the chapter discusses how it is in these things that we place our hope. For as long as there are people out there striving to do what needs to be done to advance the world, everything will be okay as the following passage indicates:

"For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his accomplishments. This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never a full step back. This you may say and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling forward ache were not alive, the boms would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Dread the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live - for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died."

And although not many people think of war and all the unspeakable things that are detailed above as good things, the author makes a good poitn when he talks about how all of these horrible things are necessary evils in that they mean that men are striving to take steps forward. And that is incredibly important.

Religion in Grapes of Wrath

Although they may at times seem sacrilegious, I think there is something beautiful in the blatantly honest "prayers" that Jim Casy tells when asked to do so. He does not try to cover up his true thoughts with pretty words that mean nothing to him. He just says what is on his heart with brutal honesty and forgets everything else. That is the beautiful things about him no l onger just trying to please people and God with nice words; he says what is really going on in his mind.

Most people try to talk people's lives up at their funeral so that they look like better people. I find Jim Casy's funeral speech a lot more refreshing:

"Casy said solemnly, 'This here ol' man jus' lived a life an' jus' died out of it. I don' k now whether he was good ro bad, but that don't matter much. He was alive, an' that's what matters. An' now he's dead, an' that don't matter. Heard a fella tell a poem one time, an' he says "All that lives is holy." Got to thinkin', an' purty soon it means more than the words says. An' I wouldn' pray for a ol' fella that's dead. He's awright. He got a job to do, but it's all laid out for 'im an' theres on'y one way to do it. But us, we got a job to do, an' they's a thousan' ways, an' we don' know which one to take. An' if I was to pray, it'd be for the folks that don' know which way to turn. Grampa here, he got the easy straight. An' now cover 'im up and let 'im get to his work.

Being a Christian myself I am under the impression that God much prefers when you talk to him in a streamline of thoughts like that anyway. He would rather know you and what is on your mind then hear you drone on about things that mean nothing to you with words that are simply memorized or used for show. So without even realizing, Jim Casy has stumbled across something very important, and that is being in a more personal relationship with his savior.

Ma and Granma's Strength in Grapes of Wrath

Granma put on a very brave face and just kept pushing on when Grampa died in chapter thirteen of Grapes of Wrath. though she had just lost the companion she had had by her side for decades and raised a family with, she was the picture of grace and dignity as she walked out of the tent that he died in, and she held her headhigh as she knelt to be surrounded by her family. Through her the lesson can be learned about showing a brave face in the midst of tragedy.

Ma, too, was extremely brave. She had to go lay out her own father for burial. She had to accept the fact that this man who had raised her and been strong and wise for as ldong as she could remember was gone, and that was all on top of all the stress and hardship that was already going on in her life as it was. This display of strength and courage in spite of everything is very admirable and awe-inspiring. When the woman who was helping her prepare her father for burial commented on how well her mother was holding up she replied:

"'Why, she's so old,' said Ma, 'maybe she don't even rightly know what happened. Maybe she won't really know for quite a while. Bvesides, us folks takes a prid eholdin' in. My pa used to say, "anybody can break down. It takes a man not to." We always try to hold in.'

Through this chapter you can really see how Ma and Granma come from the same stock. They are both incredibly brave in the face of tragedy, if not in denial. They continue to push forward even after they lose their father and husband who, although he fell out of the seat of power and moved on to simply giving advice at times and just mainly voicing random opinions about things at other times, he was still the head patriarch of the family and they all still lived on the example of strength and power that he represented, as you can see from the above quote. Losing Grampa was a devastating blow to the Joads who only wanted to keep their family together, yet they showed amazing gifts as they pushed forward despite it all.

Morals in Grapes of Wrath

The Joads prove time and time again in Grapes of Wrath that being kind to others will set off a chan reaction and make them treat you kindly as well.

In the hard times of the depression nobody felt that they could trust anybody else because everybody was paranoid and down on their luck and other people posed too much of a threat. So many people laid down their morals and just did whatever they wanted to do instead of what they had been raised to know was right that nobody really seemed to be trustworthy anymore. The Joads, though, always held onto their ho nor code and never gave up on being the upstanding people they were raised to be, and when people they met along the way realized this they were so refreshed that they immediately responded in kind.

When the Joads met the down on his luck man at the service station he was not very friendly to them at alll. Immediately Joad got defensive and angry and lashed out at the man. However, he soon corrected himself and treated the man with kindness and understanding beccause he knew they ewre in the same situation. Immediately the man started treating them nicer, and when their dog got run over by a car he offered to give it a proper burial for them. Their extension of kindness paid off for them in a great way.

Next they stoopped on the road for the night and found another family already there. The fmaily surveyed them warily and did not seem to be friendly. Then the Joads wer ekind enough to ask then permission to park next to theme ven though they did not own the land. Stunned at this display of consideration, the family welcomed them in and took care of them. When grampa was sick they took him in and did all they could. The Joads received all of this just because they stuck by their code of respect for other human beings in the face desperation.

Lack of Action in Grapes of Wrath

Joad makes a very good point in chapter thirteen of Grapes of Wrath when he meets the old, wrinkly man who runs the service station that the family stops at for gas.

First the old man starts moaning and complaining about how nobody with any money or anything stops at his service station to get gas. He tells them how everybody either wants to beg for some gas for charity or they want to trade some of the only items they have for gas. He goes on and on for a very long tiem and seems so full of complaining that he cannot possibly be happy. He asks again adn again what the world is coming to. that is all he wants to know is what the world is coming to. The following passage is his discussion with Casy and Joad:

"Casy said, 'I been walking aroun in the country. Ever'body's askin' that. What we comin' to? Seems to me we don't never come to nothin'. Always on the way. Always goin' and goin'. Why don't folks thinka bout that? They's movement now. People moving. We know why, an' we know how. Movin' 'cause they want sompin better'n what they got. An' thats the on'y way they'll ever get it. It's bein' hurt thatm akes folks mad to fightin'. I been walkin aroun' the country, an' hearin' foks talk like you.'
The fat man pumped gasoline and the neeedle turned in the pump dial, recording the amount. 'Yeah, but what's it comin' to? That's what I want ta know.'
Tom broke in irritably, 'Well you ain't never gonna know. Casy tries to tell ya an' you jest ast the same thing over. I seen fellas like you before. You ain't askin' no thin'; you're jus' singin' a kinda song - "what we comin to?"'

And that is a very true statement. Everybody always wants to fill the void by saying something like "what we comin' to?" but hardly anybody ever really wants to know the answer. They simply want to act as though they care and shake their heads and not doing anything about it.

Living Step by Step in Grapes of Wrath

The author puts a couple references in the Grapes of Wrath to just having to take life as it ocmes. Whenever there is a problem to be faced or a mountain to be climbed, it is best not to measture the distance you have to go but to take everything one step at a time. If you do it in this way it keeps you from getting discouraged too easily with the great length that lays before you.

One example of taking life step by step is in Joad's description of the life he led when he was in prison. When you are faced with a sentence of multiple years youc annot possibly look at the sentence as a while without losing heart. It will seem to be an impossible length of time to endure wihtout being in civilization among other people. However, if you take the sentence one day at a time and tell yoursel fif you can only justmake it through that one day then you will be fine, it is a lot more to bear. Anybody can take something for a day at a time.

The author used the previously discussed example as a reason for taking things one day ata time, but most people cannot sympathize with the actual feeling of being imprisoned so there is also another example. This example is more universal and is from the advice of Ma Joad. As they are on the road she too takes everything one day ata t ime. She tells Joad how impossible it is for her to take on the whole idea of what they are trying to do at one time, as shown in the following passage:

"'ain't you thinkin what's it gonna be like when we get there? Ain't you scared it won't be nice like we thought?'
'No,' she said quickly. 'No, I ain't. You can't do that. I can't do that. It's too much- livin too many lives. Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes, it'll on'y be oen. If I go ahead on all of 'em, it's too much. You got to vile ahead 'cause you're soy oung, but - it's just the road goin' by for me.'"

Courage and Faith in Grapes of Wrath

Two lessons that can be thoroughly taught by the tenant farmers in Grapes of Wrath are courage and faith. During the beginnign of the novel the reader is under the impression that all of their faith is foolishness. Time and time again th epeople who were in the position to help them out or do them a kind turn instead insisted on doing the opposite and using their compromised position for their own gain. For a while the reader remained hopeless and slowly lost faith in the goodness of human kind.

But when all hope is lost, the author insterts a small seed of hope in the darkness. The story is told that there was one poor family who did not have the money to buy a car to drive them all the way to California. Instead, they took all that they had and crafted a makshift trailer and placed it on the side of the raod on route 66, hoping and praying that some kind soul would come along adn help them out. Sure enough, as unlikely as it is, a sedan cam ealong and picked up taht family and hitched their trailer to their own car and pulled that entire family of ten all the way to California. Not only did they pull them, but they fed them on the journey as well. They truly were a miracle for that faithful family. It almost seems to be a game of luck whether or not these desperate families will make it to California against all odds. As a quote from the book said, "the people in flight from the terror behind-strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever."

But whether or not any of these people received such an amazing blessign as the one above, these people all exhibited amazing courage leaving behind the only land that they knew to begin the rough journey to finding a new life.

Cars in Grapes of Wrath

The author of Grapes of Wrath does an excellent job pulling the reader into the story and making them feel the desperation and hopelessness that those families attempting to make it to California for a better life must have been feeling. Since most of them did not know much about cars, their complete and total dependence on them to carry them to their destinations was an extremely stressful thing. The passage below is an excerpt of the text for illustration:

"In the day ancient leaky radiators sent up columns of steam, loose connecting robs hammered and pounded. And the men driving the trucks listened apprehensively. how far between towns? It is a terror between towns. if something breaks - well, if something breaks we camp right here while Jim walks to town and gets a part and walks back and - how much food we got?
Listen to the motor. Listen to the wheels. Listen with your ears and with your hands on the steering wheel; listen with the palm of your hand on the gearshift lever; listen with your feet on the floor boards. Listen to the pounding old jalopy with all your senses; for a change of tone, a variation if rhythm may mean - a week here? - But that thudding as the car moves along -can't hear that- just kind of feel it. Maybe oil isn't gettin someplace. Maybe a bearing's startin to go. Jesus, if it's a bearing what'll we do? Money's goin fast."

In that time period there were not many places that a tenant farmer would have to go so they did not have any reason, to own a vehicles, and many of them were too poor to have one even if they did have some kind of reason. So, when it was time for them to travel out west they had no idea bout how to run cars and keep their maintenance going at a cost that would not break them. In the case of the Joads the only two with any sort of experience with cars were Al and Tom, and Tom only had experience because he drove cars while he was in McAlester prison. As a result, the family was wholly dependent on those two boys to make their beat-up car take them all the way to California.

True Value in Grapes of Wrath

A valuable lesson can be learned from the unnamed tenant farmer who is speaking with the man trying to buy up all his property for a small fraction of what it is worth in chapter nine of the Grapes of Wrath. Through his very detialed description of what all of the items he is selling mean to him and through his foretelling of what exactly the future will hold when machines take over and the tenant farmers are no more, the unnamed tenant farmer teaches the lessosn tsshat things have more value than just what you can sell them for and that someday people will not be happy in a world dominated by machines and wish that the tenant farmers were still around.

The farmer tells the man about all of the things that the mares mean to his family. He talks about how they are some of the hardest working, most in sync horses he has ever worked with and ould practically be twins based upon the way they work in tandem. He also talks about how much his little girl loved them and loved to braid their mans and tie them off with her hair ribbons. All of this he tells the man in order to make him understand just exactly what he is telling him is worth pennies, because the tenant farmer knows that these mares are not all just about their set market value. They are about the job and happiness they can bring to a family, because they become family.

The farmer warns the man that the hard-working, loving tenant farmers are the glue that holds the country together. Everything they do they do with honor and diligence and they believe in working hard and putting human touch into every row of crop they plant or harvest. He warns the man that soem day theyw ill need those men to put life back into the mindless machinery world they are creating, but those farmers will be destroyed and unable to save them.

Helping People in Grapes of Wrath

It is a sad point abvout human nature that the author of Grapes of Wrath makes in chapter nine. Long ago when the earth was much younger we have reason to believe that people considered helping others out ad lending ahand to be the social norm and the only acceptable way to treat people. When they were down it went without saying that you were to pick them up, not knock them down further. Unfortunately during the great depression, which happens to be the time setting for the Grapes of Wrath, this practice seemed to be only practiced by those who were nto in a position to help anyone and rather needed the help for themselves. These people were the tenant farmers such as the Joads. However, this practice was not practiced by the men who were in a position ofpower who were shamelessly buying the property being sold by the tenant farmers for minute fractions of what the items were worth while the poor tenant farmers helplessly conceded that it was out of their hands.

As these men bled the tenant farmers dry and took all that they had for just a few dollars, they proved the point that men are inherently selfish. If given any sort of opportunity, they will capitalize on it in order to make for themselves what they can, even if it means practically stealing from those who are down and out and just need a litle bit of help form someone who is in a p osition to do so. As sad as it seems, the way these people are treated in the novel makes it seems as though people are naturally prone to being evil rather than good. Though this seems to be a rather pessimistic view of human anture, even optimists have to agree that the happenings in this novel are outrageous and leave one wondering just exactly how much good is going to be left in the world if all the honest people are so hastily stamped out adn all we are left with are those who will cheat others to get what they want.

Starting Over in Grapes of Wrath

The author makes a very sad but very true point in chapter nine when he is talking about the ability to start over in a new land and leave all of the pain and sadness behind. The tenant farmers talks about how they can get a brand new start in California, but it will never really be a start because once you are grown there is no starting over, only moving on. This quote from the chapter sums it all up:

"But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me-why, we're all that'd been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again the bitterness we sold to the junk man- he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that's us; and when the tractor hit the house, that's us until we're dead. To California or any place-every one a drum jaor leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day- the armies of bitterness will all be going the esame way. And they'll all walk together, adn there'll be a dead terror from it."

Through this passage the author paints a vivid picture of just how hurt and broken these people are, and he also paints a picture of what is to become of all of this anguish and anger building in so many people until it all explodes. No, this is not going to go away so easily. One day these people's hurts and disappointments will burn together into a really big problem, because they are never truly going to be able to let go of it all and move on. As the character stated above, these memories are them. They are as much them as their own flesh and blood.

This message that the author is sending is very powerful and almost comes across a threat to threat to those who have it coming to them for causing this.

Noah Joad in Grapes of Wrath

Noah Joad is a very fascinating sort of character in the Grapes of Wrath. One can never really figure him out exactly. In a way it is as though he is the person person because he is not boastful and he never angers, but he also never shows any sort of pleasant emotions either such as happiness or love or excitement. Although the novel tells you he feels them, he never comes out and shows it to anyone. He simply wanders along through his life as though his mind is not in the world of the others at all, but some place else.

I think Noah is used in the novel to represent regret and punishment for past sins. He is a nearly constant reminder to Pa Joad of that fateful night that Noah was born. Instead of remaining calm and keeping his cool in the face of an emergency such as his firstborn son being born, instead he panicked and dealt with the situation poorly and foolishly. As a result, he is constantly reminded of this in the way that Noah is different from everyone else. It is unclear whether or nto Noah is actually brain damaged because I do not think those things were diagnosed back then, but the idea is suggested.

I think that this even in Pa Joad's life was probably a major even in molding and deciding what kind of man Pa would become. When Noah was born Pa Joad was probably a young man, newly married, and beginning to take over beginning the man in place of Grampa Joad. This even of Noah's birth probably helped him to realize that he did not know everything as many youngmen think they do, and it probably taught him some humility and gentleness that would greatly benefit him later in life. It probably made him a more careful and caring man in all that he did.

Grampa and Granma Joad in Grapes of Wrath

I believe the author uses granma and grzmpa as a sort of comic relief in the story. Despite the horrible but true fact that the entire novel thusfar has been filled with mainly terrible pain and bitter sadness, the stories about grampa's antics have always lightened the mood a bit with his strong opinions and spitfire ways. Nowin keeping with that that the reader has finally been introduced to the pair, one finds them incredibly refreshing because they enable him or her to be able to laugh aloud at something in what has been up until this point a consistent, exceedingly dismal book with more than its fiar share of hardship.

Grampa Joad is truly an incredibly fascinating character. He reminds one of a person who has been in a war or something of that natrue and is constantly being overcome by something and shooting at tit. He is very rowdy and full of extremely strong opinions that he has no qualms about voicing for the world to hear. He also tends to find himself jumping back and forth from one train of thought to the other and his opinions shift in keeping with that. Whther it is the middle of the night or midday, he alwasys seems to think that the world revolves around what he wants to do. He gets great delight and fancy out of any sort of mischief that is going adn gets so lost in the craziness that he has been known to throw out a hip or two.

Granma is also extremely interesting in her own right. SHe never seems to give one hoot about whatever herhusband is talking about at the time, but she also finds him very funny. She is always going on and on about somethign that has nothing to do with anything grampa is saying, even if he happens to be in the middle of talking. They are such a classic old married couple where they annoy each other to no end but enjoy each other all the samet hat it makes the reader immensely enjoy himself or herself.

How Suffering Changes A Person in Grapes of Wrath

The author displays two different examples in chapter eight of how hard times and ujust treatment can drive people to do things they never would dream they were evencapapble of. Hard times and mistreatment cause people to temporarily lose their senses or even permanently in extreme cases.

One example in the text of somethingl like this is when Ma tells the story about the boy who made on smalll infraction and was sent to prison. The people there tortured him and ruined him through unspeakable things until he went mildly crazy. Then he was let out and committed a slightly mor elevated crime to get rid of all that pent-up agression, adn the authorities sent him back to prison. There he was tortured more and eventually he went completely mad and committed heinous crimes, all because he was sent to prison and abused. It was unjust how he got a bad name and reputation although he was not the one who brought it upon himself, save for one minor infraction.

Another instance of this happening is when Ma confidentially hints to Joad that she has been entertaining the idea of gathering people together to lead a revolution against those who took everything from them. She is smart enough to realize that the many angry people who have been wronged byt eh businesses far outnumber those cowardly individuals who are in charge of everything. She drops a hint that if they were to fight back with all of their angrer and motivation then they would probably be successful. Joad aseems shocked by this suggestion coming from his mother and she tells him that so much suffering changes a person.

The harsh reality of both of these different stories is that when a person is p ut in a difficult situation, most of the time it breaks them. It pushes them beyond their normal boundaries and opens up a whole new realm of possibilities that their consciences would never have allowed were they not driven to their breaking point.

First Impression of Ma Joad

I really enjoyed my first impression of Ma Joad in chapter eight of the novel Grapes of Wrath. The way the author talks about her and describes her leads the reader to believe tha tperhaps his own mtoher was the most important person in his own life when he was growing up. She is described as the epitome of good character and the femal species in general. Indeed he writes as thoug he knows the mother, rather than the father, is the most important foundation for the household. WHile th emother may not bring in the money or the food, on her lies the responsibility of caring for everybody's hopes and fears and happiness and sadness. IF she were ever to crumble then the entire family would fall in on intself. She seems to be the kind of woman who accepts that enormous load readily and graciously and bears it without any form of resentment.

The author describes the mother as the children's source of every emotion they could possibly entertain. The way she handles things dictates the way the entire rest of the family handles it. If it is not too much for her and she does not give up faith thene everybody else figures they can probably do it too. She truly is the part that keeps all other parts in motion.

Based upon the way she graciously handled the situation as it was thrust upon her, Ma seems to be a wonderful woman as a first impression. She readily accepted who she thought to be complete strangers in from the road to eat the food she worked hard to cook even though she probably had not been planning on having any guests. Some women may have scoleded their husbands, but one could tell she had no such intentions. Her kids also seem to adore her basedupon the way the reader gets to glimpse her through Joad's eyes. She truly seems to be a remarkable woman at first glance.

Final Piece of Hope in Grapes of Wrath

As the final sentences close on Grapes of Wrath, there is one last last ray of hope shining for the Joads and for the world as a whole. Through the touching scene before you, the reader can see that maybe the future will not turn out so bad. 47

Rose of Sharon was a selfish, self-absorbed girl throughout most of the book who was only concerned with herself and her unborn child and how that made her special and deserving of special treatment. She felt as though she were so mature and deserving simply because she was carrying a child. I almost believe that the baby was born stillborn not only as a testament of the suffering and anguish of those migrant farmers who lived in that time, but I also believe it was taken from her because she was not yet ready or deserving of such a great responsibility. 101

However, as the curtain falls on this sad novel, I believe Rose of Sharon finally gets to a point where she is ready to be a mother and an adult. As she sits there suckling the dying man and giving of her own life to him to keep him alive, a maternal instinct finally takes over inside of her. She has nothing to gain from helping the man, and his life will not be from her or because of her like it would have been with the baby. She simply takes care of him because a motherly instinct inside of her takes over and she realizes it is the right and unselfish thing for her to do. As this happens, one can almost imagine a sort of light appearing in the dark and gloomy barn as a single ray of hope piercing the darkness, and if one looks hard enough they can almost picture Tom out there somewhere working to make the world a better place and Jim Casy looking down and smiling from where he now lives in heaven with the God he spent his life so desperately seeking. 192

Ending of Grapes of Wrath

As the final chapters of Grapes of Wrath conclude, Tom Joad realizes that Jim Casy was on to something when he said that each person's soul is just a part of one great, collective soul. He decides that he is meant to spend the rest of his life living out what Jim Casy would have wanted, and that is to organize the people into a more unified front that will turn the world into a more peaceful, put-together place. Unfortunately for the Joads, this means they have one less hard worker to support them and they are left at their most desolate yet.

After a false lead that there is a small cotton farm to live pick on, they return, dejected, to live in the small box car that they share with another family. Soon a powerful storm erupts and there is a flood that threatens to sweep the tiny structure of a home away. They try to construct a dam to keep the water at bay but that too is destroyed. In teh midst of all of this turmoil, Rose of Sharon goes into labor and gives birth to a stillborn baby. Poor Uncle John is left with the task of floating the baby down the river in a makeshift casket as a testimony to the world of the suffering that they have endured.

When the storm gets so unbearable that they seek higher ground for safety, what is left of the Joads find a barn and enter it for refuge. Inside the barn they find a small boy and his dying father who was dying of malnutrition due to sacrificing all of his food to keep his child fed. His health has failed so much that he is no longer able to consume any nutrients besides milk or soup, and immediately Rose of sharon realizes what she must do. While the others leave, Rose of sharon uses the gift that her body still possesses due to her stillborn baby to save a man's life.

The Grapes of Wrath

Things are beginning to heat up between all of the migrants and the landowners in the novel. There has always been a power struggle between the people, but they are growing uneasy and itching for a time of revolt. They are ready to finally throw off the oppressive yoke of working so hard and getting nothing in return for their endless toils while others sit around on top of all of their riches and swat them down as they try to climb the social ladder to a place where they can possess a respectful home and build a family by earning a respectable wage at a decent job. At this point during some time while reading the whole novel the reader has probably been speculating in his or her mind as to what the title means. One might have formed some kind of idea based upon the fact that surely these people are feeling lots of wrath based upon the unjust way they are being treated despite how hard they work, but one has to wonder where the part about the grapes will play in. Well, it is from this time of revolt and suffering that the title of the novel is born. The quote is as follows:

"In the souls of the people, the grapes of wrath are growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." In other words, the people's wrath and resentment is building and growing, heavier and heavier all the time, to the point where it is almost ready to bust open with the violence that has been building beneath the surface. Pretty soon they will forget all of their worries about what will happen and they will simply have to revolt because they cannot take it anymore. Unfortunately, times like these and the price of freedom are paid with the cost of people's lives such as Jim Casy which is illustrated by his senseless murder by policemen just itching to pick a fight. All that is left for them is to hope that all they are fighting and sacrificing their lives for will eventually pay off and they will finally be able to lead happy lives once more.

More Desperation in Grapes of Wrath

Hope again turns sour for the Joads as they are forced to leave behind the government camp due to a lack of supplies and the inability to find much work. As they are pulled off to the side of the road to repair the truck they happen across a man who tells them of employment they can find picking fruit on a farm. They decide this sounds like a good job so they agree and go to the farm. Unfortunately when they get there they find out that they will only be paid five cents for every box of peaches that they fill. With the whole family working their hardest all day long they are only able to scrape together a dollar between all of them to feed them for the night, and even with that money they are all still hungry.

Hungry and depressed, Tom decides to go exploring and find the cause of a riot the Joads witnessed upon arrival at the fruit farm earlier on that day. He sneaks around and happens to stumble upon Jim Casy who is working for the farm by organizing workers. Jim informs him that the reason for the riot is because wages per box for peach picking was split in half to two and a half cents per box instead of five. The people revolted and new workers were brought in in an effort to stop the revolt. Two men then interrogate the boys and Casy makes a comment that angers them and they hit him in the head with a pick ax and kill him. Retaliating in anger for his fallen friend, Tom kills one of the policemen suffers injuries and then runs off to hide in order to avoid being charged and sent back to Oklahoma due to his parole.

The rest of the Joads find work on a cotton farm and go to work while Tom hides in a cave in case his suspiscious injuries would cause him to be interrogated. The family brings him food and take care of him while he hides out. Once again the future is looking pretty bleak for the perseverant Joads.

New Hope in Grapes of Wrath

Finally the Joads catch a break when they find the Weedpatch government camp. It is a clean, well-run facility that bases on cleanliness and is sponsored by the government as a safe place for immigrants to go and does not allow police fraternization, so there can be no corrupt police to come in and cause trouble for the immigrants. Soon Tom meets some men who help him to find a job with a man who tells him all about a plot to break the peace of the camp. Allegedly, on the night of the camp dance some men are hired to cause a riot. When the riot ensues, the police will be allowed to enter the camp in order to "break it up." However, the men know about it beforehand and therefore are prepared and ready when it happens.

Another wonderful thing happens in the camp, and that is that the camp manager talks to Ma Joad so kindly and respectfully that they make her feel human again. Before when she was confronted by the police and treated like a bunch of dirt just because she was poor and looking for a better life and from Oklahoma where all the poor immigrants were coming in from, she felt as though she was worthless. But then, as the camp owner treats her much better, all the sudden she feels more hope coming alive as this quote shows: "That police. He done sompin to me, made me feel mean.. ashamed. An' now I ain't ashamed...why, I feel like people again."

On the night of the dance the men keep watch on any troublemakers and when a man attempts to start a riot they successfully break it up and get him to confess what he was trying to do. By the end of the chapter it looks like things are maybe going to really turn around for the Joads finally.

Rich v. Poor Power Struggle in Grape of Wrath

The history and present condition of California in Grapes of Wrath seems to be a power struggle between the poor and rich people in the state. The rich people always seem to have the more power because of their money, but the poor people always have them outnumbered in manpower and in desire. The poor people are driven by their desire to simply keep their families alive, and they are willing to work or revolt or do whatever they have to do it. The rich people are simply driven by their fear of losing their wealth to these poor people.

Way back in the day California was owned by the Mexicans, but it was farmed by American squatters. Because they farmed the land and were the ones who kept it, they felt as though they deserved to be the owners rather than the Mexicans. Therefore they took control of the land and passed it down to generations of their descendancts. The descendants that the land was passed to are the landowners who now own huge, exorbitant amounts of land that they do not need and pay workers incredibly low wages in order to keep their wealth alive. Now they have become the people who own the land but do not work on it themselves and are surrounded by people who do work the land and think that because of this is it their right to own the land instead. In a sense the country has come full circle because history is repeating itself, only this time the descendants of the poor farmers are now the rich tycoons who are not doing any of the work and gleaning all of the profit. And so the power struggle goes on between the hard-working, honest poor and the powerful, greedy rich who could stop all of the struggle and poverty if they were simply selfless enough to actually pay decent and fair wages to the people and stop throwing the weight of their money around as though they are better than the poor just because they were born into wealthy families and increased their wealth by being dishonest.

Ma Joad's Strength in Grapes of Wrath

To me, Ma Joad proves to be the most inspirational and amazing Joad in chapter eighteen when she bravely shows her spirit on many different occasions. 26

By the eighteenth chapter Ma Joad's worst fears are being realized. Her family is falling apart. Grampa has died, Granma is in poor spirits and health, and Noah has decided that his family does not deeply and truly love him and therefore everybody will be better off if he stays behind on the river and lives there from then on. No matter how hard Tom works to assure him that his family does indeed love him very deeply, nothing will change his mind. Ma always believed that as long as the family remained a unit and stayed together nothing could break them apart. However, as this plan seems to be bursting at the seams, it would be understandable for her to finally lose her faith and break apart. But Ma Joad is made of much stronger stock then that as she proves in the chapter. 145

When she is faced with the hostile deputy who kicked her out of the camp and insulted her for being of Oklahoma origin, she chased him around with a cast-iron skillet. But even more bravely, she quietly endures the knowledge that her home has died on her own while she lays beside her all night as the family crosses the desert. There is a man who tries to perform an agricultural inspection on them but Ma gets the family out of it because she informs the authorities that her mother is deathly ill and needs immediate medical assistance, despite the fact that she has been dead since before the inspection. 110

Eventually, though, no matter how strong of heart and spirit a person is, they reach a point where they think they will finally break apart forever. When Tom tries to comfort his mother she shoos him away for fear that if he attempts to comfort her she will completely lose control, and she is far too brave to allow that to happen. She pushes him away as a sacrifice to keep her self-control and ability to move on, and she continues with amazing perseverance towards getting what is left of her family to the life they dream of. 97

First Impression of Pa

My first impression of Pa Joad in the Grapes of Wrath fit well with the way that Joad had been talking about him earlier in the story. I thought right away that I would probably like him and so far I definitely do, and I respect him too.

Pa Joad fits the stereotype of a lot of fathers back in the time period that this novel was written. They were strong, proud types who were familiar with suffering and worked hard every single day of their lives and knew how to fix anything. He also fits the stereotype though finding it somewhat difficult to show his emotions. He also doe snot have a lot of tolerance for things that he doesnot understand such as writing and reading, because things that he did not understand have only hurt him in the past. He has a tough outer sk in that keeps him from being able to always share his opinions or emotions about certain things. I think most of this comes from the fact that he has a lot of pride and thinks that it is the man's job to be tough and strong and it is the woman's job to get emotional and show affection. However, you also get the feeling that his children still know he loves them and is proud of them despite his inability to show it all the time.

He also seems to be a very generous soul and bound to show great excitement and emotion for special occasions. He welcomed Jim Casy willingly and told him that he was always welcome, even though they wer elivin gin cramped quarters as it was and probably did not have th eroom to spare. Even so he was generous with all that he had to give which shows great character. You could also tell he was extremely excited and emotional about his son coming home and thrilled to share the excitement with the rest of the family. He also seems at first impression to be very much in love with and attached to his wife.

Greed in Grapes of Wrath

Chapter seven of Grapes of Wrath follows the infamous greediness and cheating of a used car salesman's day. The writing the author uses is perfect for the section because it consists of little tidbits that practically run together and give the illusion that the dialogue is moving along very quickly and impatiently. I really enjoyed the way the chapter was presented. The author was also very affective in his desired point which was to makek you realize even more how unfortunate these poor people are who are weasled out of their possessions and money every way they turn. The people who are in a position of power abuse it to no end and use the people's desperation as a tool to make themselves richer and more powerful. They also abuse the people's good natures by guilt-tripping them into buying cars because they spent so much of the dealer's time. These weasels blatantly lie to the people's faces even as they can see how destitute and desperate they really are, and they do not even care. They simply keep plugging away and use their system and the people's desperation to gain more and more for themselves. I believe these kind of people who existed back when most average people were still good and decent and honorable were the ones who eventually corrupted even the most ocmmon people until it got to teh point that it is at today where nobody can just take anybody's word at face value wihtout it blowing up in their face. These are the kind of people who robbed our generation of its ability to function on the honor system and with trust towards others. Had these people never given into their greed and temptation we might still live in a world where a man's word meant something rather than being just another reason to be wary and careful. Today if someone gives you their word it means nothing. Words are meaningless, only contracts and laws to protect are truly reliable.

Benefits of Knowledge in Grapes of Wrath

There seems to be a couple points in the Grapes of Wrath so far by chapter six where the author is trying to point out that being knowledgable and having everything all figured out is not the best way to be. The author seems to be trying to convey to the reasder that sometimes it is just better for you to believe what you believe or know what you know and not question the rest because it will doing nothing but confuse you further or mess up everything you think that you know about life.

One example of this lies in the life of the preacher Jim Casy. For a very long time it seems, he was perfectly happy being apreacher and doing his best to instill the holy spirit and the fear of God in people young and old who he thought needed it. However, he talks about how once he got to thinking about things and questioning just why everything about God and religion was the way it was he got himself into trouble. He started doubting everything that he knew. He started wondering why the holy spirit did not feel the same way inside him that it used to, and all of the sudden he just could not be a preacher anymore.

Another example of this is the man in McAlester prison who had a lifelong sentence and spent a lot of time reading. Joad knew him during his stay in prison and he says that the man told him reading about the past of prisons does not do him any good in trying to figure out why they are the way they are. He says that he is more confused now then when he began reading. It seemed like the more information he read the less he truly knew about how things work.

I think the author is trying to tell his readers that being blissfully ignorant of some matters is the best way to be a lot of the time. The more you know the more you have to know to be able to handle that information, so the best way to be is to know what you need to know to get by and be done with it.

Use of Monologue in Grapes of Wrath

The author really brings out his feelings about the whole sorry situation of the farmers being driven out of their homes through Muley Graves and his speeches. Although he may not be the smartes man who ever lived, he feels things just as deeply as anybody else including attachment, loneliness, pride, and pain.

The author uses a very touching monologue by Muley to really help the reader picture and feel all of the emotions that these poor people are going through. Muley goes through events that have spanned his entire life and left profound impacts on him, and it is these things that he simply cannot bear to leave behind. It is human nature to want to hold onto a place that holds a lot of memories for you for fear that if you left it you would lose all of those things too.

For Muley there are a lot of important memories in that area that mean a lot to him and he cannot bear to leave behind. For example, there is a bush in a gully that is the sight for his first time with a girl. There is a house where someone he knew was born in one of the rooms and he was present to see that boy take his very first breaths in that very spot. There is also a spot where he has to witness his father being gored by a bull and dying in his arms as he looked on.

The author uses this emotional display to zero in on the point, and that is that when the businessmen took away those people's property, that was not all they took. They also stole their mmemories and their childhoods and everything else those people held dear, and that was an incredible crime. To them it might have just been good business, but to these people it was an entire legacy left to them by their ancestors, and it was the place that held everything in the world that had ever been important to them all.

Frustration with Banks in Grapes of Wrath

The author helps illustrate just how hopeless and frustrating it is for the destitute families in the classic novel the Grapes of Wrath to get revenge on the greedy, corporate people who are ruining their lives by showing all the ways these money-driven monsters are deceiving the people and wearing them down. The greedy companies and and people who are driving everybody off the land are incredibly crafty and smart in the way they go about doing it. In order to avoid harm coming to themselves they simply blame it on the companies themselves and say that no single person or group of people is responsible, the company has simply become an entity in itself adn there is just no stopping it. By doing this they make it impossible for the wronged people to seek justice in the way that they traditionally seek it, which is to kill whoever is killing them and taking away everything they have. Instead of telling the people who is responsible, the spokespoeople show the people how there is a long trail to follow in which every step receives their orders from an even more untouchable source than the last, all the way up the chain until the people can no longer take it. In this way the people grow tired of being angry and trying to figure out a place t o direct that angry and instead a grim sort of acceptance settles in. The greedy corporations use the people's morals against them and their unwillingness go wrongfully punish somebody for the wrongs committed to them if that person is not wholly responsible. The spokespeople make it seems as though they themselves are also victimes in this nightmare by saying that they cannot help what is happening either because they simply have to take their orders from the higher authorities who tell them what they have to do, and they say if they do not do what the authorities say they will be eliminated as well. This is all part of the game they are playing though because they try to hide behind the corporations and say it is the corporation talking, not people, but a corporation is obviously run by people it does not run itself and somebody out there has to be giving the orders that make the corporation's decisions.

Pride in Grapes of Wrath

In the time period that the Grapes of Wrath is set a man's pride is still a huge part of him and all of the men are full of pride. No matter what happens to them they are going to hold onto that pride no matter what, even if it means they are setting themselves up for failure they will stubbornly hold onto that silly pride until the bitter end.

Muley Graves, the old friend young Tom Joad came across in chapter six, is oen such example of a man so full of his idea of pride and honor that no matter what happens he will hold onto it. Although this seems foolish, at least he is standing up for what he believes in regardless of whether or not he is going to win. It is more honorable to die fighting for a cause that really means something to you then live a long happy life always following orders and doing whatever it is you were told to do by someone whose selfish interests are only about themselves and their money and what is good for them and has nothing to do with what is good for you.

Muley Graves informs Tom Joad that he will stay on his land to the bitter end no matter what happens to him as a result. He talks about how he is willing to shoot people or do whatever he needs to in order to insure that he gets to stay there. He says even if they get angry with his defiance and want to shoot him, he does not care. He will just make sure he takes some of them down with him. Also he talks about how if the people had not told him he had to leave he would be in California by now living a good life. The only reason he is not is because they told him he has to leave and his pride tells him never to follow orders from anybody. All because of his silly pride he will probably end up dying when he could be living a long, perfectly happy life elsewhere. Still, there is a certain amount of admiration to be found in so single-mindedly working to protect what his ancestors worked for generations to amass.

Right and Wrong in Grapes of Wrath

Situations like those that arise in Grapes of Wrath bring up all kinds of gray edges when it comes to right and wrong. When neighbor start turning against neighbor and the whole entire philosophy of the town becomes survival of the fittest, right and wrong can no longer fit into black and white categories. There are too many factors and variables to consider for one person to even attempt to be able to decide fully what can be considered right and wrong. What may be one person's right because it is in the best interest of their own family might be somebody else's wrong because in doing that thing the other person is somehow making getting by in life very difficult for them and their family. These situations put bystanders in difficult positions when they are forced to take sides or something to that affect.

For example, to those men standing by watching a fellow townsperson bulldoze and destroy everything they and their family have worked to earn and accumulate for generations, it may seem just and right for them to pull a gun and likewise destroy everything that that person holds dear or at least everything that the man with the gun has access to destroying. But, as you can well imagine, things look considerabloy different to the man sititn gin the driver's seat of the bulldozer. To that man he is simply doing what he has to do to get by adn putting a bullet in him would be a huge aim not to be tolerated. And if there happens to be a townsperson who knows a both people that will put him in a difficult position to decide just exactly what is just and what is not because he can see both sides.

In times like these, when nobody can be entirely impartial, it would have been very difficult for somebody to turn something black and white and decide just what was and waht was not right.

Perseverance in Grapes of Wrath

I am now in chapter six and the turtle keeps making reappearances ever since it first showed up in chapter three. First it showed up and a short chapter was dedicated to following its progress over a short period of time. Next Joad picked it up as he passed it on the road. Now most recently it is trying to make its escape while the men are surveying the house.

Although it's just an animal and therefore has ingrown animal characteristics that govern what it does, I think it can be used as a great example for everybody.

For one thing, that turtle knows exactly where it's trying to get to. Slowly but surely it plods along and continues in the same direction that it wants to go. It always seems to be going southwest. Nobody knows why it is going in that direction or what seems to be so appealing in that direction that is attracting it, but for whatever reason the turtle is dead set on continuing in that direction. And I happen to find that admirable. Not a lot of people know where they are going in life or have any sort of idea how to get there or where to even begin, but that turtle knows exactly which way it wants to go, no matter how long it takes, and that is something special in my opinion.

Another reason the turtle is such a good example is because of its perseverance. Everybody has heard the story of the turtle and the hare, and the same concept applies here. Despite the fact that turtles are incredibly slow animals and cannot cover very uch ground very fast at all, the turtle continues to persevere and press on towards where it wishes to end up. Also the turtle encounters many obstacles on the way makes its journey difficult. Its shell was invaded by an ant, it was almost hit by one car and then actually hit by another, it was captured by Joad, and it tried and failed multiple times to escape from him before he finally let it go. But regardless of where it was on its journey, it never wavered in its course and continued to strive towards its goal. This unwavering dedication teaches a lesson many people today would do well to learn.

Writing Style in Grapes of Wrath

Every other chapter, the odd numbered chapters, in the novel Grapes of Wrath seems to be about something entirely random when you read it at first glance. However, when one reads the following chapter he or she always realizes that it was in some way relevant to the preceding chapter. I think this is an interesting technique and helps keep the reader's attention engaged by mixing up the novel into different parts rather than just telling the story straight through. As one is reading the chapter about something not pertaining to the storyline itself, it can become an interesting mind game for one to perhaps guess what will be in the following chapter that ties it to this one. Also, as one is reading the even numbered chapter that follows it, it is always interesting to realize how they are related.

Sometimes the odd numbered chapter gives a background or history that supplies the information one will need to gain perspective about the goings-on in the even numbered chapter. One example of this is when chapter one talks about all the dust that comes and ruins the crops, which gives you perspective as to why all the farms are failing in the area. Other times the odd numbered chapter just talks about a small factor in the following chapter, such as the turtle in chapter three which makes a small appearance in chapte rfour when it is snagged by Joad to take home to his brother.

I find this technique and writing style to be very effective in keeping my own attention. The book is interesting but can become tiresome at times as its individual chapters extend for great lengths of time. Slowly the words can start to run together without a break. However, when the other chapter comes a gives a bit of a break form the monotony, it makes it easier to start fresh when the new chapter of the storyline comes along.

Betrayal in Grapes of Wrath

Sadly enough, there are many issues of bitter betrayal and desperation in the novel Grapes of Wrath, and one such heated dispute is raised between separate members of the town in chapter five. Through the novel the author exposes the many complex problems lying in Oklahoma during the first years that it was settled. Times were difficult, the land was unforgiving, men had to find some kind of way to provide for their families, and at times this required him to turn his back on his fellow townspeople just for survival. Chapter five is an example of one such instance of betrayal in order to survive.

In those days the land was unkind to those persisten farmers attempting to farm it, and this posed a lot of problems for the men. Most of them had a wife and children to provide for, and when the land did not yield the crops that the men needed for survival, they were sortfo stuck in a very tough position. Most of them ahd to go to the banks and draw out a loan. A lot of the time this meant that the ownership of the land was transferred over to the bank as collateral so that the farmers would be held accountable to make their payments. When the payments were consistently not met on time because of some accident of the weather that destroyed their c rops, the bank would in a sense foreclose on the farm and take it over for their own purposes.

When the banks took over, they had to have someone to plow and plant the land for them so that it could be sown and they could bring in profits. Unfortunately, the people they chose to hire were often men from the town who had nowher eelse to turn and were grateful for a steady paycheck coming from wherever they could get it. So, in a sense the bank hired boys who had been in the town for years to go destroy the lives of fellow town members of whom the boys might have even been close friends. This caused many problems as those friends felt betrayed for a steady paycheck.

Debate About Justice in Grapes of Wrath

A very sad debate comes up in chapter five of Grapes of Wrath. This debate is the difficult question as to whether or not a certain piece of land rightfully belongs to the people who actually own it or to the men and women and families who toil and give their blood, sweat, and tears to the land.

Of course, living in the money-driven society that consumes our current generation, our minds have been trained to tell us that of course the land belongs to whoever rightfully owns it due to paying a sum of money and making it legally theirs. However, if we take a closer look at the sad situation, those of us with kinder hearts tend to question with our souls and our consciences whether or not this is truly right. Yes, the bank does indeed rightfully own the land by all matters of the law, but the cold, cruel bank is only interested in money and making more of it. None of the members of the bank probably ever even set foot on the land or spent a drop of sweat being invovled in what goes on on the land. They are simply and unseeing shadow who governs the land because those who love it will do anything to protecet it, including borrow from the bank that they consider monstrous. Those bankers and those affiliated with them simply want to suck the land dry of its nutrients maliciously and then sell it to unsuspecting families dying to move to areas that people selfishly lie and tell them will be a good new life for them.
Those same men who protect their land are the ones who spend their very lifeblood toiling and laboring over that unyielding land every day of their lives, and it is all they have. So by the system of law, the land belongs to the bank, but by the system of principle and justice, it should truly fall to that of the farmer.

Characterization in Grapes of Wrath

The author of Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, uses an immense number of descriptive words throughout the novel to give life to his characters. Simply by the detailed phrasing and descriptive language he uses he expertly brings them to life. As he describes the way their hands look, what they are dressed in, their facial expressions and/or characteristics, or even the way their hair falls, he paints a picture of their past as well as the way they are in the present. Not only does he make them seem real, but he almost makes it possible for the reader to kind of become the character by taking on his or her own feelings and characteristics and troubles.

Wording is very important when making a character feel real to a reader. A true character that the reader can connect and relate to can not ever be established through dialogue. There are simply not enough words in dialogue to be used that can give the reader a three dimensional look into the character him or herself. By tapping into all of the senses and getting the reader to engage them in their imagination, the author can figure out a way to make the character feel as real as a person sitting next to them in the same room, if not more so.

The special thing about characterization is that not only do the readers typically understand the character's phsycial characterisitics and past, but one also gets a glimpse into the mind of the character. This rounds the character off and allows the reader to give into the story and connect and relate to it on a more emotional level. When they can feel, see, touch, smell, and practically taste every aspect of the character, there is nothing stopping the reader from immersing him or herself fully into the novel and absorbing all the lessons each individual character is designed by the author to teach.

Human Need for Miracles in Grapes of Wrath

The reason the preacher Jim Casy lost the fire that he once had for God made a lot of sense to me as I came across it in chapter four of Grapes of Wrath. Not only did this sort of thing happen to the people back then but it happens to our own culture now too.

The problem is that too many people in those days and now need everything to be entirely way too theatrical. In order for something to amake a huge impact on their lives people think it needs to be some kind of miracle raining down from the sky. Even people in church today think that in order to totally turn their lives around and follow Jesus and God from that day forward it needs to be because of some huge sign froma bove that spells it out for them. The problem is that the world can't just constantly be experiencing all these miracles, otherwise they wouldn't be miracles they'd just be everyday occurences. And that is where faith comes in. You have to have faith that something is real and true and worthy of your time even if it is not spelled out for you in the sky. If it were it would not be called faith, it would be as simple as opening your eyes.

The issue is that some preachers are the type who think they were called by some huge miraculous sign, or they think they are supposed to be supplying these occurences to people. Unfortunately this cannot happen and it makes sense why this causes people to burn out and lose their faith. They know that everything they are doing and saying is phony and just to gibe the people what they want. So even while they are saving other people their own souls are being driven further and further away from God through hypocrisy and deceit. They know it is not real and that slowly eats them away inside. Eventually they crack and realize that they can deceive people no longer.

Hardship of Prison Life in Grapes of Wrath

The author of Grapes of Wrath raises an interesting point in chapter four when his character Joad is talking about his time in prison.

He talks about how when a man gets out of prison it can be difficult for him. This makes sense because he would have to tell a lot of people that he used to be in prison and that could raise a lot of concern. He might find it difficult to get a respectable job making any kind of decent money if he has the reputation of having been in prison. Also the people in any town that he goes to live after he gets out might be afraid and wary of him and fear for their own safety and the safety of their children. Because of this they might decide to just run him out of town before he causes any kind of trouble.

Another reason this could be a very difficult transition for them is that they are losing the stability and regularity that they were used to in prison life. When they were housed in the prison they neve rhad to worry about putting a roof over their heads. A stable roof was always provided for them. Also they never had to worry about what they would eat that day or if they'd even have enough money to eat because their meals were always hot and ready and prepared just for them like clockwork. They also had other amenities provided to them such as showers and baths, and they also had electricity goin gfor them that they never had to spend a dime on. They also develop relationships with their cellmates that have to be difficult to give up when they leave.

Lastly, they're used to the structure that the prison affords them. By the time they've been a prison resident for awhile they're used to their life being run by a bell that tells them when to go places and when to do things. When they get out and have to figure that out for themselves it can't be easy. Overall I think the author is trying to make the reader realize that it can't be easy getting out of prison, despite what people who have never experienced it may think.

Lesson in Chain Reactions from Grapes of Wrath

I think that in the third chapter of Grapes of Wrath, the author is trying to show, through the journey of the turtle, how every single thing that happens starts a kind of chain reaction or leads to something else. Every step we take could be an important or horrible step in somebody else's journey of life.

For example, the ant running into the shell of the turtle caused a reaction. One reaction was that the turtle clamped all of his body inside his shell for protection. This clamping caused a head of wild oats to get caught up inside the turtle's shell. There it stayed as the turtle continued on his tedious joruney across the ground. Had the turtle not closed its shell so quickly, the oats might not have gotten caught in its shell. Another example was when the turtle attempted to cross a road slowly but surely. Soon a middle aged lady came across the turtle while driving down the road and mercifully swered in order to avoid it. The car went up on its wheels and could have crashed but luckily it recovered. Perhaps this encounter taught the woman to drive more cautiously in order to avoid similiar situations in the future.

In a similar situation, the encounter with the lady in the sedan made the turtle stayin his shell for a little while. Unfortunately, soon after it emerged, a mean driver in a truck appeared on the road and purposefully attempted to hit the turtle. Fortunately the truck just got the side of the shell and sent the turtle flying to the edge of the road. Had the turtle not been nearly hit by the woman and remained in one place for so long, he might have gotten across the road before the truck got there.

When the turtle finally got the nerve to open up again, the oats fell to the ground. There the turtle trampled them with dirt adn in a sense sowed them. If that tiny ant had not gotten in the turtle's shell, those oats m,ight never have been sown.

First Impression about Joad in Grapes of Wrath

Tom Joad Jr., simply referred to as Joad in chapter two of the Grapes of Wrath, is a very mysterious character from the beginning. He is walking along the highway alone, and this proves that maybe he is down on his luck or looking for something. He is dressed in clothing that is quite clearly new, but the clothes are ill-fitting which makes the reader wonder how he came across them. He is described to have callouses on his hands as though he is accustomed to hard work.

When the truck driver comes outside, Joad quickly proves himself a smooth talker as he traps the man into giving him a ride to where he needs to go despite the truck's "No Riders" sign. As they drive along, he vaguely answers the truck driver's questions, proving that maybe he has some kind of shady past to hide. He does however reveal his name and his father's name to the man and the fact that though his father used to be a cropper, he has not heard from him or corresponded with him in a significant amount of time. However, he seems to be on his way to visit him based upon what he tells the driver. These facts just add to the mystery of the man and leave the reader wondering where he has been and whether or not he will actually find his father when he gets there.

Based upon his irritation with the truck driver trying to catch a glimpse into his past, the reader can deduce that Joad is used to this kind of treatment and does not take to it very kindly. He tells the driver rather coldly that he will gladly tell him anything he wants to know if he will just ask him the question directly rather than trying to trick him into telling him what he wants to know. This proves that Joad is not trying to be secretive and that he does in fact have a dark past but is wishing to move on into the future and be treated the same as everyone else, rather than with fear and wariness.

At the end of the drive Joad admits that he spent time in prison for homicide. He seems to be trying to intimidate the truck driver and make him afraid. Overall, by the end of the chapter, the reader is not sure what sort of opinion to form of Joad, and instead of trying is simply eager to read more about him.

Character of Truck Driver in Grapes of Wrath

The truck driver in chapter two of the Grapes of Wrath is a very interesting character at first glance. When the reader first comes across him he is talking to the waitress in the diner. One is incline to think that he is just a down on his luck driver who does not have much of a brain in his head, but that he simply likes to make pointless conversation and go about his merry way without bothering anyone else in any way.

Then, as he agrees to pick up the hitchhiker on the way out of town, the reader can draw more conclusions about him. The first is that he has a lot of pride. This is obvious in the way that he takes on the hitchhiker in order to show that he is not in any way obligated to obey the rules of the company who hired him and told him not to pick up any riders. The second is that he is at least somewhat bright because he figures out that the hitchhiker is trying to trick him into giving him a ride by challenging his pride. The last conclusion is that he is ultimately a very curious, good man who went against his better judgment in order to find out more about this stranger and to do a kind turn for him.

As the ride goes on the reader recognizes his attempts to find out more about this stranger while not putting him out of his comfort zone. These plans do not work, however, as the stranger immediately figures out what the driver is trying to do and makes him feel guilty for not simply asking what he wanted to know. The driver shows he is just a simple man trying to find his place in the world as he tries to smooth over the situation and move on. Overall, I found the truck driver to be a pretty good character.

Symbolism of Dust in Grapes of Wrath

I think the thick, overpowering dust in the first chapter of Grapes of Wrath is meant to kind of represent the idea of different hardships in the world as a whole. When bad things happen in times of absolute lack of blessings, it seems like everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong at the exact same time. The pain and suffering just kind of settles over everythign all at once until the person involved does not have much in the way of good left in his or her life at all. In the way way the horribly red, dry dust came in and coated every single good thing that they had such as their crops and their houses and all their possessions in their houses. Their bodies too were covered in this thick dust. In a sense, the dust covered over everything good that they had and left the people only to deal with the good that they had left.

Times were so bad that there was barely any green left visible in their crops at all, and the stalks were all shriveled and dying fast because the dust was robbing them of the moisture they needed. It was also difficult for the people to simply go outside because the thick dust stung their eyes.

Not only does the dust represent hardships in my mind and, I believe, in the mind of the author, but it also represents tests and struggles. In everyone's life, at least once, there will come a time where everything seems to be headed downhill. It is the truly strong of character who will be able to move past the unluckiness of it all and make the most of their circumstances. This is exactly what the dust that settles over the land forces the farmers to do. They have to rise to the occasion and make the most of what they have, even when times seem to be at their most hopeless.

Differences in Clarisse and Her Family in Fahrenheit 451

It is easy to see why people like Clarisse make people who are trying to run the world in the novel Fahrenheit 451 uneasy. The whole foundation and basis of their power is in making the common people believe everything that they tell them and to keep them as busy as possible so they never have time to actually stop and think about things. Everybody is wrapped up in their own lives and doing what the government says is acceptable and right to do, and they want to keep it that way.

People like Clarisse, who still hold onto the ideas of appreciating small things in life and paying attention to other people's emotions and personalities, are messing that up by paying too close attention. The people running the government do not want people thinking to think up new ideas and independent thoughts. They want them to just go along with whatever they want them to go along with and not ask questions about it.

Clarisse and her family are the types who believe that things used to be different. They believe books used to be good things and that firemen used to put out fires instead of starting them. They believe in a life when people used to have independent thoughts and share them with others and it enabled the world to grow together as a whole. They find it sad that everybody leads the same meaningless existence and their only concern is to look out for themselves and their own personal wants and needs and just forget about everybody else. They believe in a time when kids used to respect their elders and even each other, and they believe in a time when violence was not just accepted as the norm and ignored by the authorities and anybody who would be responsible for stopping it.

And while they do not necessarily voice these opinions out loud in an effort to change the public, they still affect people such as Montag who realize that Clarisse is genuinely happy and he is not even close.

Enjoying Finer Things in Life in Fahrenheit 451

Clarisse understands a good many things about life. One of the main reasons is because she pays attention to things. She tells Montag that she likes to watch people and try to understand them.

One thing that she understands is that people are so in a rush to get on with their lives and they are always in such a hurry to get to their next destination that they never stop to take everything in that they are missing as they go.

Clarisse has gained a sad sort of recognition of the way people never stop to appreciate things anymore. She finds it sad that people are constantly rushing by on the interstate and never stopping to appreciate the simpler things such as grass or rose gardens or barns. She tells Montag a story about how one day her uncle was driving at forty miles per hour on the highway, simply trying to enjoy everything as he went along, and he went to jail for two days for it. This shows that people are so wrapped up in rush and moving and getting things done fast that they cannot even recognize the value in somebody else desiring to slow down and appreciate the finer things in life.

I also believe she understands that because of this nobody will ever be truly happy. If the happiness in your life is always revolving around the next thing you are trying to achieve or accomplish or the place you are trying to get to, then you will never arrive. You will always be one step behind actually achieving the happiness that you are trying to get. I believe that the author is trying to convey in this book that the way to being happy is by stopping to enjoy simple things and not basing your happiness on the next big thing that you want out of your life, because if you do then you will never be satisfied with what you have, you will just keep running after the next thing.

Past Memories in Fahrenheit 451

One important reason why Clarisse touches Montag so profoundly is because she reminds him of a long ago day when the world opened up to him and reality was not so harsh. From the moment he meets her he says he feels as though her fact reminds him of something from his past that was important to him. The light he can see in her face reminds him of something that was very profound to him when he was just a child. He recognizes that the light she has in herself is a certain type of light that is not like electricity but more like a soft candle's glow.

The light he sees in her makes him remember that when he was a child one day the power went out in his house where he lived with his mother. His mother found the two of them a candle and for an hour they enjoyed the light of that candle which made the world glow in a different sort of way. By the soft light of the candle that was somehow gently flattering and not as harsh as the light of electricity, he found a new way to look at the world. For one brief moment while he and his mother were together without the power off, they shared something important and profound. They found a way to discover the world anew without the harshness of the world to stop the wonderment of the things he found in it. The world no longer felt so large and overpowering, but it felt as though it were small enough that he could take it on with his mother. He was able to look at the world from an optimistic view and stop seeing it as overpowering and too much to handle.

This important way of seeing the world with new eyes was something that Clarisse brought back to him in that one moment. Although he did not realize it at the time, it foreshadowed the way she too was going to make him able to see the world in a new and wonderful light that he had not seen for a very long time.

Affect of Setting on Mood of Novel in Fahrenheit 451

The setting of the novel really contributes to the mood and the interpretation that the reader makes about the different parts of the novel. The way the night is described when the narrator is out burning books and doing his job is entirely different from the way it is described when he is walking home with Clarisse. The change in the description of the setting changes the mood and makes the reader better understand the ideas the author is trying to convey.

When the narrator is out burning books the night is described in a very dark and depressing way. The sky is described to be red and yellow and black when the books are being set on fire. This puts a description of destruction and gloominess into the reader's mind. It is mentioned that as the books go up in flame their remains are swept into the wind which is made dark by their ashes. The image of dark wind, red and yellow and black flame, and sparks flying everywhere lends an air of mystery and unhappiness to the scene.

When the narrator chances upon Clarrise while rounding the corner later that night, the night is described in a more mysterious yet light kind of way. The scene that unfolds is described with autumn leaves dancing along the pavement and a soft moonlit glow. Clarisse almost has the appearance of floating as the leaves on the sidewalk dance slowly around her. This scene has a peaceful and mysterious feeling to it. The trees above them made great sounds and let down dry rain as Clarisse and Montag are standing there together, which lends a feeling of intimacy and surprise. The air as they walked is described as warm-cool and the pavement they walk on is described as silvery, which suggests loveliness and light.

The drastic difference between these two scenes greatly affects the book. It almost appears as though they're two totally different nights. This mood helps to show the reader that the moment Montag meets Clarisse is special and important.

Hidden Meaning in Fahrenheit 451

I saw a small kind of significance in the exchange that the narrator and Clarisse exchanged about him being the same fireman. Although the words seem normal enough, as I was reading it I believed that it was clear that Clarisse understood a little something about how the fireman felt.

First of all, she says that he "must be the fireman." The fireman seems to think that the way she says this is strange. She then tells him that she would have known he was a fireman even if she had her eyes closed. This leads me to believe that she knows there is something about the firemen that is distinguished and makes them easily identifiable. The fireman, though, sees only the surface of what she is saying and thinks that she is able to recognize this because he smells strongly of kerosene from lighting fires. He tells her that his wife hates the smell which is unfortunate because you can never quite get the smell out.

The part that I find significant is when Clarisse says, "No you don't." She says this in awe as if she already knew this. I believe that this goes deeper than simply the smell of kerosene. I think that when she says you do not ever entirely get the smell of the kerosene out no matter how furiously you scrub, she means that you never quite wash off the mark of being a fireman, no matter how hard you try. Being a fireman is not just an occupation but rather a state of life that leaves such a mark that you can never quite get it off even when you try your hardest. The things they are involved in with the burning of books burns something into your conscience that can never quite stop nagging at you no matter how hard you try to block it out and keep it from influencing you. This one small comment made a big impact on the way I view Clarisse.

Lightness Symbols in Fahrenheit 451

Clarisse, with all of her light, airy ideas and awed way of viewing life, is set up to be the opposite of the firemen and their destruction. She seems to depict the ideas of light and life. There is also no fear in the way she looks at the world; she is simply amazed by it.

Before Clarisse even shows up in the novel her appearance is forecasted as an important part just waiting to happen. The narrator is able to almost sense her presence when he rounds specific corner each night before he finally stumbles upon her. He describes the atmospher as though the air is charged by a person sitting and quietly waiting for a period of time. He could not understand why he felt that way but he had some sort of feeling as though something important were waiting there for him.

When she actually appears for the first time in the novel, Clarisse makes even more of an impression of lightness and also importance to the narrator's life. Every single way her appearance is described lends itself to the idea that she represents everything that is good about life. Her dark eyes are described as though they make anyone who is looking at them feel as though every word they have to say is the most fascinating and important thing anyone has ever said. Her face appeared to have a gentle hunger as though it would take in anything it possibly could with endless curiosity. It was described as appearing to have a constant light in it, and it appeared to be of the lightest milk crystal. Her dress is described to be white and whispering as she walks, representing peacefulness and tranquility. Every move she makes is graceful and tranquil and leads the reader to believe it is because she is not in any hurry, for she is at peace with life and ready to take on things as they come to her.

Darkness Symbols in Fahrenheit 451

The author seemed to characterize the dark side of the novel from the very start. Firemen and everything associated with them are characterized to be on the darker side of the spectrum. Just by the adjectives he used alone Ray Bradbury shows the way he wants the readers to feel about the firemen and the way they burn things. By using certain words he makes you feel everything a little bit more deeply. For example, in the very first sentence it describes how the firefighter likes to see things blackened and changed. Although at the time this description seems to bring pleasure to the narrator, it does not leave a very pleasant feeling with the reader. When most people think of things being blackened they think of unpleasant things and destruction, and most people do not find destruction to be a very good thing, unlike the firemen in the book.

The appearance of the firemen also depicts a kind of darkness. Their helmets are described as beetle-colored. Most people are not overly fond of beetles and when they see them it inspires all kinds of unpleasant emotions, whether it be fear or disgust or simply melancholy. They also are supposed to smell of kerosene which is an unpleasant smell to most and does not inspire happy feelings. Although the firemen seem to think of it almost as sweet as a type of perfume, those around them seem to find it repulsive and disgusting. Clarisse says she could feel his presence with her eyes closed, but she does not necessarily say it in a positive way. This comment suggests to the reader that she can almost sense his destruction and his darkness without even having to see the man himself. Clarisse also mentions that most people are afraid of firemen. This seems to suggest that they have some sort of air about them that pushes people away. Just in the first few pages of the novel, Ray Bradbury uses a lot of different senses to show you that the firemen are meant to represent darkkness.