Chapter 28

In chapter 28, one of the symbolism was rain. Rain could mean life or death. In this case, I think both things are going to happen. With rain, comes the birth of life on Earth. Not only do plants grow and babies are born, but Tom has a "rebirth". While hiding out in a dark cave and having nothing to do, he starts thinking and reflecting on Jim Casy's teachings. He finally shares the same faith and philosophy that Casy had. This is when Tom realizes that his calling in life is to help others and help unite the migrant families. Do you guys think that Tom made the right decision of leaving his family and helping others? Or was it selfish because his family, especially his mom, needed him?

Chapter 22

Chapter 22 in my opinion gives a comparison of what California is like for the migrants who are arriving. I came to this conclusion because as seen in previous chapters the camps that were scattered throughout California were dirty and overcrowded. We would also see how the general population of California doesn't like at all the incoming migrants looking for jobs. This resulted in the residents of California disrespecting, and showing very rude and unfair treatment toward these migrating families.  This view of California however was changed during this chapter, when the Joad's found themselves in a government camp which was clean, not crowded, and free of unfair treatment. The people within this camp were also very different as they seemed to welcome and treat the Joad family with respect. Ma Joad was one of the characters most impacted by this change since she said that she had felt like she was treated as a person again. I believe that this is a clear comparison of the two types of communities that could be found in California as well as the two types of people and treatment that, as a migrant family, you could come across.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25 starts off with a detailed description of the setting, just like in Chapter 1. I believe that the purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the "growing wrath" of the poor in the country. When I read this chapter, it deeply touched me and made me angry. How is anybody able to throw away food while others are dying of starvation? Also, this chapter describes the struggles people are facing due to the selfishness of the landowners and the wealthy. Out of the whole novel, this chapter is one of my favorites due to the emotional connection I had to it.

Chapter 30 SPOILER

In this chapter we see a  fear of flooding and  Rose of Sharon ironically starts feeling pains in her body which means she will soon give birth. As of this issue Pa Joad helps insist the men to build an embankment After this Rose of Sharon gives birth but sadly to baby whom is unaliv. Later in the Joads go to a barn which they found in order to get away from the flooding and they find a boy who's father is slowly dying of hunger then Rose of Sharon goes into action and feeds the starving men with her breast milk.

Chapter 22

"We're Joad's. We don't look up to nobody.  Grampa's grampa, he fit in the revolution. We was farm people til' the debt.  And then- them people. they don't somepin to us.  Ever' time they come seemed like they was a-'whippin me-all of us.  An' in Needles, that police.  He done somepin to me, made me feel mean.  Made me feel ashamed.  An' now I ain't ashamed.  These folks is our folks- is out folks.  An' that manger, he come an' set an' drank coffee, an' he says, 'Mrs. Joad' this, an' Mrs. Joad' that- an' 'how you gettin' on, Mrs. Joad?' "  She stopped and sighed.  "why, I feel like people again." 
- In this quote Ma Joad starts off saying that she has pride in saying that she is a Joad, and everybody else should as well.  The Joads don't take anything from anyone, they stand up for themselves.  However, that changed ever since they left there farm.  While on the road they experienced the corruption of the world and it was starting to change them.  How she talked about the officer in Needles, she had to stand up for herself and be harsh so she could defend herself against him.  They made the family feel ashamed to be who they were, treated them like they were less than human.  Yet that changed once they got to the government camps.  The people at camp would treat her all the same, they would treat her equally.  For example, as she explained, the manger would address he as Mrs. Joad's instead of an "Okie".  That's why she says, "why I feel like people again," she was reminded that she was equal and human.

Chapter 4

The introduction of "preacher" Casey seems almost metaphorical. During a time of devastation and poverty, the preacher is the one left the most morally and spirtually conflicted. It seems to go together well with Tom's questionable faith. Additionally, this novels lack of emphasis on faith so far seems to foreshadow the tone of what's to come. It seems that Casey has turned towards an almost philosophical way of thinking. Which really excites me for the future of this character. But if a former preacher has such a lack of faith, what does that mean for the characters to come? 

Chapter 19

John Steinbeck, in this chapter, portrays a different but interesting type of capitalism in California through the owners of the land.  Due to the fact that the owners has so much power of the employment rate, they become in control.  For example, the owners are very few; therefore, as individuals they own a vast amount of land.  When you're an owner you can chose to either pay fewer people to operate machines or pay more people to do the work the machine would normally do.  This also has the same concept when it comes to picking fruit.  The owners sent out the handbills expecting that they would get more workers than they needed.  By doing this they would get desperate, hungry people willing to compromise for wages lower than they normally would be.  They become in control of what their paying and don't expect the migrant workers to disagree with the pay because there is little work to began with.  In other words the land owners are in control of the employment rate and therefore dictate how the "squatters" live their life.

Chapter 16

In this chapter you find that every character is changing some for better and some for worst.  Along with the personality change you also find their motives beginning to change.  For example, it seems that Ma Joad is becoming stir crazy and defiant against her husband.  However, this is misinterpreted for her intention on keeping the family together.  Ma Joad has always been the one to keep the family together emotionally and not she's doing it physically.  Unlike Ma,  Granma seemed  have changed for the worst ever since her husband had died. Although that is to be expected with loss, one can conclude that Granma is no longer herself.  Rose of Sharon and Connie motives are very different from Ma Joad's, being that they want to break away from the family and start their own life.  Connie explains that he can start studying and make a living by owning his own store. Upon hearing this Al finds that he too can do that as well.  Although the others are looking farther into the future, Tom, Pa, and Casey's motives focus more of the simple, immediate goals.  Such as getting the family to California and initially supporting the family by getting jobs.  Even though everyone seems to have different motives, I think I agree with Ma  Joad of the fact that the family is better off sticking together. 

Chapter 13

I think chapter 13 slightly introduces what Casy was saying when he says he's been preaching for a while but he's realized there is something worse than the devil. notice everyone's life style and how the hard working men are always at the bottom, Casy was talking about capitalism. The big companies take in all the profit while the rest of society is hanging on by a thread. For example, the "yellow painted company stations" have oppressed the man that's been trying to run a small business. The man in turn oppresses the joad family without meaning to harm them but regardless the cycle goes on and creates a bitter society.

Chapter 17

In this chapter we see a much more optical description of a community which helps provide a idea of self-government unlike Jim Casys ideas of love and focus on the afterlife. If everyone followed the laws it would be most likely be possibly for people to govern themselves. Also, as of mentioned by a "spring up" of people in a new community was the rise of industrial workers whom fought for higher wages and workers rights. which eventually led to new rights and the idea of self-government. These community's both focus on the idea of freedom rather than ideas of communism.

Chapter 18

In this chapter the Joad family have arrived in California even through the difficulties to get there they are still a whole and/or family once again. Ma Joad is embodying dignity by trying to keep the family as a whole as of which Grandpa or Pa Joad would have done. Also, dignity and rage have been much controversial in the novel but are associated in a way as of growing and intense anger as of which much people have dealt with in order to achieve the dignity that they are given. Rage will also teach the Joads how to handle their rage towards a forced journey to a new life thus teaching them how to handle a new life. Therefore, the most meaningful episode of this chapter is Ma Joads stability to move westward even through Grandpa Joads death which shows her true compassion for her family and mostly her legacy.

Chapter 28

Tom`s isolation from the family, and any other human interaction, had allowed him free rein of his time. As a child is told to sit in time out and reflect on thier actions, so too did Tom. His reason for being alone gave way to thoughts of his actions and what had caused them, the murder of the ex-reverend Jim Casy. "Guess who I been thinkin' about? Casy!" ( pg. 418). It was then that Casy truly became a Christ-figure in my opinion. Throughout his time with Casy, Tom unknowingly listened to all Casy said and became the "apostle" to Casy's Christ-figure. It was also, in Chapter 28, when Tom's dynamic character aspects became apparent to any and all who had followed Tom through his journey, reintroducing him as a person prepared to lead the way to change. Chapter 28 was the chapter which presented Tom in his final form, so to speak, and bore the fruit which had been nourished by the hate of migrants. All the challenges and trials thrown at Tom Joad failed to raze his determination, and instead gave way to another unflinching "Okie", adding to the growing grapes of wrath.

Chapter 3

     Moving away from the Joads Steinbeck focuses on a turtle and its journey across the road. After observing the road the turtle started to cross the road, this symbolizes the start of the Joads' journey to California. However when on the road the turtle had a bit of difficulty getting across, this show the difficulty the Joads will face during their travel to California. One thing that got my attention in this chapter are the cars that the turtle encounters during it journey, since the turtle resembles the Joads I can to believe that the cars resembles problems or issues that will stop the Joads from advancing, but I doubt that these problems will stop them since they have each other.

Chapter 15

Steinbeck uses this chapter as a descriptive chapter. This is because we get to see, through steinbecks description, what the gas stations and restaurants that were on the road to California had to deal with. The employees of these establishments seemed puzzled because of the amount of people that they saw heading west. They were also wanted answers to questions such as, where they come from, and why they are heading west, simply because they had never seen anything like that before. This chapter also gave us a clue as to how people acted and reacted toward the traveling families, through the eyes of the waitress, the cook, and the truck drivers. Toward the end of the chapter we see how a man would like to buy a loaf of bread, for his family, under the normal price, which gives us an idea of how poor these families were and how much they were struggling on this long journey to California.

Chapter 9

     Chapter 9 gives us an example of what is was like for the farmers who had to leave everything behind and start a "new life" in California. The farmers plan to move on and go to California to start their new lives, but then they realize that there are no restart buttons in life. The past will always be apart of them and they can either try to forget it or accept it. In addition it talks about how difficult it was for them to sell their belongings because to them they weren't just objects in their lives, they had a story and meaning behind them. Then it states, "This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us." The farmers put so much time and effort into their land; generation upon generation grew up on that land and they probably planned to keep it for their children's children and so on. They went through so much there and now the banks are taking it away and there's nothing they can do about it. Later on in the novel it says "And some day- the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they'll all walk together, and there'll be a dead terror from it." Is this some form of foreshadowing what will happen later on in the book or is this just a dream statement?

Chapters 20 and 21

       It was rather interesting on why Steinbeck choose the title "Grapes of Wrath". At one point of the story the grandfather mentioned eating grapes when they get to California. However once the family gets there we find out that the people of California, such as the cops, don't want the Okies in there state. In previous chapters we know that those people what to do anything to get rid of all the Okies, which in a way shows their wrath. Since the people of California own the land where they grow the fruit such as the grapes it makes sense why the story is titled " Grapes of Wrath". It called that way because the grapes belong to the wrath of the people of Califorina.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25 is much similar to chapter 1 because it relates to nature and the effects that nature has on society and the world. Also, these chapters relate that  there is no set back to great that can not keep the men remained as an "entire". Furthermore, this chapters promotes a much more broad form of decay through objects and people. This chapter describes the truth behind capitalism and in which store prices would plummet if the homeless people were fed, but must there be money made?

Chapter 5

"But where does it stop? Who can we shoot? I don't aim to starve to death before I kill the man that's starving me." (pg. 38)

This is a quote said by one of the farmers talking to a bank worker who explained that they had been kicked out due to the bank taking their land back.  This conflict poses a plausible question of who does the problem lie with, man v. man or individual v. society.  With this quote the farmer is consumed in frustration that he does not get the big picture. That picture being no matter who you kill that law will still be enforced, the rules will still be instituted.  The physical conflict may lie with man v. man, but the initial over all conflict is with individual v. society. 

Chapter 2

The truck drivers characterization of Tom Joad had varied throughout the whole ride.  From the beginning the truck driver had known that Tom had just got out of prison, but since he agreed to give Tom a ride he must of thought that he was harmless.  However, little things throughout the ride gave the truck driver a suspicion that Tom could've of been in jail for being aggressive.  For example, how he noticed that Toms hands looked like that of one who had been put through labor.  Another example is when Tom started drinking and revealing more about himself.  When Tom started talking openly the truck driver knew Tom was someone not to be messed with and therefore did not ask him any more questions.  When Tom told him how he'd been in prison was when the truck driver became defensive and feared that Tom could be threatening.  By the end of the ride the truck driver said nothing more about the matter and decided not to interfere in fear of Tom Joad. But I wondered why the truck driver gave Tom a ride in the first place, taking a risk knowing that Tom was just released from prison.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 begins with Highway 66 and how thousands of families are traveling on it to get to a land where success and prosperity are available. Highway 66 unifies the diverse landscape of the U.S., just as it gives the fleeing migrants some solidarity in their hardships.This highway sumbolizes unity and a road to success or the awful outcome of obstacles families like the Joad's have to face. Since this highway was described in the first paragraph of the chapter, I assume no one pays any attention to it but I would like to know if anyone had any ideas why there was such emphasis on Highway 66. Steinbeck always begins every chapter with a description of the setting and their importance.