Andrea Fua
Acadec Period 6
Language and Literature
Prompt 1: Over the years, critics have variously referred to The Grapes of Wrath as art, as documentary
and as propaganda. Assess which of these labels it fits best in a well-structured essay that includes text-
specific details to validate your opinion.
Is it art? Is it a documentary? Is it propaganda? These questions have been asked by many critics. In a
sense, The Grapes of Wrath embodies all these labels. However it best fits under the label of a documentary
because it gives a general depiction of the lives of the people during the Great Depression. It shows a detailed as
well as broad scope of challenges people faced in the United States. Critics might argue however that the novel’s
information is a “pack of lies” that doesn’t truthfully show what went on during the times. In my opinion, The
Grapes of Wrath was a good portrayal of most of the lives of the migrants who moved to California and who faced
discrimination and hardships.
Steinbeck didn’t write this book purely out of imagination. He did his research even going to great lengths
as to live with and accompany an Oklahoma migrant family to California. Through this prism, he was able to
capture the essence of what took place on a general scale. Though many Californians and Oklahomans of the time
didn’t appreciate the representation of their people in Steinbeck’s characters, others loved the emotion it evoked.
Peter Lisca, who wrote about Steinbeck, recalled: “The Grapes of Wrath was a phenomena on the scale of a
national event. It was publically banned and burned by citizens and debated on national radio hook-ups; but above
all it was read.” His book also received onerous attacks from the Associated Farmers of California. This was
because of the way he showed California farmer’s behavior and demeanor towards the migrants. For example in
chapter 21of the novel it talks about how Californians used fear so that the migrants wouldn’t join together to
overthrow them. This ties back to the concept of Over-Soul in the book. By hurting each other they just hurt
themselves. So although it is in general a good documentary of the hard times, remember that views on its truth
and portrayal of the people are still debated and unsure.
In the novel, the chapters switch points of view. In the regular chapters it focuses on the Joads’ lives as
they make their way to California in the hopes of a better life only to be sadly disappointed. Here Steinbeck shows
specific issues that the Joad family faces. For example, in chapter 30 there is heavy rain and the truck is flooded so
Pa convinces the men to build a dam. In the previous chapter, chapter 29, it talks about how people cannot work
due to the “constant rain and water that gets everywhere and floods everything taking away their possessions.” In
these inter-chapters, the focus is on a broader scope of the Joads’ issues. These two chapters show specific and
general instances where floods affect the lives of families. Through this type of organization throughout the book
it provides good documentation of the events during the time. Through the inter-chapters, we get a basic idea of
what went on. Through the Joads’ story Steinbeck helps us connect and relate the general idea to a specific family
thus provoking more emotion and understanding while reading it.
The Grapes of Wrath has proven to be a novel that stands as a memory and remembrance of the difficult
times people faced during a hard time in American history. Though whether the portrayal of characters is accurate
or not, Steinbeck’s characters embody something greater than that. They symbolize the common principles and
challenges of man. Aside from that, his novel serves as a record on the events that took place during the Great
Depression.
Delia Davila
Topic: Highway 66 was an important road in The Grapes of Wrath. How did the highway play a role in the story of the Joads and of the migrants more generally? Can it be considered a character in the novel? Explain your answer in a well structures essay and use text-specific examples to support your perspective.
Title: Route 66
By: Delia Davila
Essay: During the 1930’s, the prairies of the United States gave way to giant storms of dust due to lack of crop rotation and deep plowing. The erosion of the top soil allowed the winds to flurry the inches of suffocating particles over houses, roads, and over a farmer’s dignity- his crops. Like the brave and desperate one-fourth of the farmers affected by the Dust Bowl, the Joads (a fictional family in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath) packed their belongings on their truck and headed to California where they we promised a job in picking fruit. “The people in flight streamed out on 66…all day they rolled slowly along the road” (pg 161). Route 66 is the mother road and is an important role to the Joads’ story and the migrants overall.
“66 is the mother road” (pg 160). In The Grapes of Wrath, the motherly figure, Ma Joad keeps the family together during the road trip to California. “Ma watched the structure grow and followed it. ‘We don’ want you to go ‘way from us,’ she said. ‘It ain’t good for folks to break up” (pg 225). Ma tells this to Rose of Sharron after Rose excitedly described the future life of Connie and her baby. Ma knows that by keeping the family together, they can accomplish more. In this view, route 66 is a mother character who leads caravans of united “Okies” to California on one diagonal road. On the mother road, the migrants become family. “In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all…And now the group was welded to one thing, one unit, so that in the dark the eyes of the people were inward, and their minds played in other times, and their sadness was like rest, sleep”” (pg 265). After a day of driving, the migrant families are able to find and park next to many other families like themselves who share the same problems (John Steinbeck compares this to the common universal need for sleep). Also, besides Ma’s influence to keep their family together, route 66 keeps the Joad family united with the Wilsons. Though both families are strangers, they help each other’s survival. “Sairy Wilson walked slowly and carefully toward him [sick Grandpa]. ‘How’d you like ta come in our tent?’ she asked. ‘You kin lay down on our mattress an’ rest…We’ll he’p you over” (Pg 185). Sairy Wilson helped rest and bury Grandpa Joad after a few minutes of greeting Pa. As mentioned before, route 66 unites family to one. If this road was nonexistent, families would not achieve a better life in California, because those who understand their difficulties never traveled together as one. For when families stay together on a common journey –or route, they definitely can accomplish more.
Richard Hyunh
“Git ‘fore we was awake,” someone would say to you and you’d say, “translation please.” Go before we were awake would be the rough translation into Standard English. Steinbeck utilized his knowledge of “Okies” dialect while he wrote Grapes of Wrath. This dialect added a more authentic feel to the story because it allowed one to become more immersed in the story due to the fact that you see things through their eyes more so than if they all spoke the same dialect. The use of a local dialect is common in literature because it adds to people’s character in the sense of either their social standing or ideals.
The more authentic feel generated from the dialect is because it shows how people spoke. It showed how they were likely educated. This is no different than in the American classics “To Kill A Mocking Bird” and “Tom Sawyer,” in these classics you are exposed to a southern style dialect that showed the level of education that people may have had access to. Also it helped build character in all of these. The Joads for example showed a simplistic dialect that reflected the life that they all lived, a life of farming and simplicity that was not concerned with the giant machines of the city world. It showed that they grew up farming and it was what they knew and that would surely show when they came to work in California.
People would call this simplicity stereotyping, however it is to the contrary. As stated earlier dialect usage is a reflective tool that can and usually does represent the style of life that people live. For example the complex life of a rich white man in London might have a long and colorful vocabulary in comparison to a farmer who lived in Oklahoma.
The fact that it can show the style of life someone lives helps to build the character of someone. You can obviously tell someone is a very religious person who acts on their solo religious beliefs will surely mention God or Christ in their normal speech.
Sucharita Yellapragada
P.6
Acadec
Language and Literature
Essay Prompt #11
Women Rule!
Since the dawn of the early river civilizations in the world, patriarchal societies have roamed wide. Countless times, men have always been given the title of "head of the household." However, whether history claims it or not, for the past few centuries women have started to assert more authority than men do. In fact, today, in many households, if one asks the man of the family, who is in charge, he will say his wife is. While women were once seen as subordinate to men, they are no longer. In the modern world, men seem to shift their power and authority to women. The perfect example of power in a family shifting to a woman is portrayed in the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Throughout the novel, Ma Joad, the mother and wife of the Joad family (migrating from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life and work), becomes more of the driving force and leader of the family. The center of power and strength in the family shifts to her as she realizes along her trip that there is something greater than related family.
Along the way to the fulfillment of this realization, she has to accept different outsiders into her family, something that is hard for her to do. The first person to join her family is Jim Casy, an ex-preacher who meets her son, Tom Joad on his way home to his family in Oklahoma. When the Joads tell Tom and Jim that they are heading out to California in search of work because the bank is taking back their property, Casy asks if he too can come with. They all question Casy of what he is going to do out in California and whether he will continue to preach. Even Pa and Tom are not so sure about taking Casy with them. They wonder if they can feed an extra mouth. Ma replies to their argument by saying, "It ain’t kin we, It’s will we…I never heerd tell of no Joads or no Hazletts, neither, ever refusin’ food an’ shelter or a lift on the road to anybody that asked. They’s been mean Joads, but never that mean," (132). Here Ma asserts her authority and makes the decision of allowing Casy to join the Joads on their trip and thereby become a member of their family. This is the first of many decisions and acceptances she has to make.
While traveling to California, the Joads come across a family known as the Wilsons. They help fix the Wilsons’ truck and camp out with them. While with the Wilsons, a tragic death occurs. The Wilsons offer their assistance in helping Grampa get through the seizure he undertakes. However, in the end, he dies in the Wilsons’ tent. It is because he dies there that Ma accepts the Wilsons’ as a big part of the Joad family. This event leads to an even bigger acceptance reached in California. When the Joads finally reach California, they find a camp called Hooverville. With most of the food eaten while traveling, there is little left for her family to eat and, her family is not the only one in the Hooverville. One afternoon Ma cooks a stew that attracts a huge crowd of starving children. Ma, being the nurturing and caring mother she is, wants to feed them. At the same time, she has a priority to her family, especially the men and Rose of Sharon. She decides to give her family first priority and gives the leftovers to all of the starving children who haven’t had breakfast. In this act of kindness, she develops her maternal powers and proves to accept the children as an outside part of her family.
The very last instance where Ma shows her "superhuman understanding" as Steinbeck puts it, is after the Joad boxcar is flooded. Rose of Sharon and the family discover her baby is stillborn and she becomes very sick. Ma Joad leads a sick Rose of Sharon to higher ground in the rain; they eventually discover a barn up in the hills of the valley. Here they meet two men, one is a boy who gives Rose of Sharon a dirty blanket to warm herself up with. The other man is the boy’s father who is desperately starving and needs to drink milk to get stronger. The boy asks Ma and Rose of Sharon to help his father. However, the two of them don’t have any money on them. What they do have is a mother-daughter instinct and Ma asks Rose of Sharon to breast-feed the man. Rose of Sharon agrees. They hold this conversation not verbally, but in their minds. "Ma’s eyes passed Rose of Sharon’s eyes, and then came back to them. And the two women looked deep into each other…She said, ‘Yes.’ Ma smiled." (580). Here Ma shows leadership by asking Rose of Sharon to commit a selfless act. Not only does this act show that Ma is accepting an outsider into her family by having her daughter nurture him, but it also reaffirms the value of the communal over the individual, which Ma represents throughout the novel.
Accepting Casy into the family, feeding starving children not of her own, and teaching her daughter the true meaning of selflessness, are just three of the many ways Ma asserts her power and authority in the novel, as the true "head of the household." Though, in her case, there is no true household, she certainly has her family to be in charge of. Whether in Oklahoma, along the Route 66, or in California, Ma shows her role as the dominant leader of the family. Each and every time Ma is faced with tough challenges, she manages to keep herself- as well as her family- together. No matter how hard things may be, she meets every obstacle head-on. This is why, as Steinbeck puts it, Ma Joad is "the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken."
Priya Patel
John Steinbeck’s the Grapes of Wrath encompasses the difficulties of workers during the Great Depression in many different forms and styles. He tells the story of these migrant workers in the viewpoints of the Joad family and through a viewpoint of the workers in general and their struggles. He portrays these different viewpoints by separating them into two different types of chapters, one of the Joad story and journey, and the other of the workers migration, which slowly depicts the unity of these workers. The reason why Steinbeck does this is to help understand the situation from different standpoints: from the viewpoint of the Joad family at a small scale and from the viewpoint of the general migrant worker population at a large.
Steinbeck’s main plot in the Grapes of Wrath is the Joad family and their journey from being evicted off their farm to how they take on the issues they face in California as “Okies.” Steinbeck uses this technique to express how the Great Depression affected families individually, apart from the masses as a whole. At the start of the story, Tom reunites with the entire family, where Ma wishes that no one to be separated by anything. However, the story ends with only 7 members out of the 12 family members together. This reflects that through all the difficulties, the family had no choice but to split up to solve or run away from their problems. This might not have happened to all families but this could be one result of what happened to them. Also as times get tough and Pa can no longer keep control of the family, Ma becomes the head and takes charge of all family matters. Steinbeck uses this as a perspective of how some women came to assert their dominance and importance in families as the basis, where they may have needed to take matters into their own hands when the man couldn’t do anything until he finds work. Steinbeck uses the Joads as a single symbol of all the families that were out moving west during the Great Depression.
Along with the storyline of the Joads, Steinbeck includes vignettes of other anonymous migrant workers and other tales of life during the Great Depression and the people’s reaction to the migration west. Steinbeck uses 4 styles of narratives for these miniature narratives. The first one is a form of Biblical prose which helps give authority to these passages. The second style is staccato prose which provides an outside view of objects that multiply in extended lists. During the vignette about the corrupt salesmen all he would talk about were cars and he would refer to them by their names continuously, constantly in long lists detailing while normally we would just refer to them as cars. The third style is when the narrative voice slips into internal monologue. Steinbeck uses this style a lot throughout the vignettes for he starts them out with an omniscient 3rd person narrator into an omniscient 1st person narrator that details the event of what’s going for they have the experience firsthand. The fourth style Steinbeck uses is the dialect of the migrants which help envision a realistic scene of the event.
The point of Steinbeck splitting the book into two different types of chapters is to capture the concept into two broad narratives. These two different types of narratives are scenic and pictorial which he uses to help create a flow and correspondence between the chapters. The first type of style narrative is scenic which he uses to dramatize the interaction between characters. The Joads are largely dramatized throughout the book because of the dialogue and dramatic events that occur. The second type of style narrative is pictorial which displays a visual image (or use of imagery). The rest of the chapters on the vignettes use a great amount of imagery to describe the details of the events and the setting of whatever is going on in that chapter.
Therefore to conclude, Steinbeck uses these different styles in between the chapters to help encompass the main purpose of the story: to portray the difficulties and struggles of the migrant workers and farmers during the Great Depression.
Steinbeck’s main plot in the Grapes of Wrath is the Joad family and their journey from being evicted off their farm to how they take on the issues they face in California as “Okies.” Steinbeck uses this technique to express how the Great Depression affected families individually, apart from the masses as a whole. At the start of the story, Tom reunites with the entire family, where Ma wishes that no one to be separated by anything. However, the story ends with only 7 members out of the 12 family members together. This reflects that through all the difficulties, the family had no choice but to split up to solve or run away from their problems. This might not have happened to all families but this could be one result of what happened to them. Also as times get tough and Pa can no longer keep control of the family, Ma becomes the head and takes charge of all family matters. Steinbeck uses this as a perspective of how some women came to assert their dominance and importance in families as the basis, where they may have needed to take matters into their own hands when the man couldn’t do anything until he finds work. Steinbeck uses the Joads as a single symbol of all the families that were out moving west during the Great Depression.
Along with the storyline of the Joads, Steinbeck includes vignettes of other anonymous migrant workers and other tales of life during the Great Depression and the people’s reaction to the migration west. Steinbeck uses 4 styles of narratives for these miniature narratives. The first one is a form of Biblical prose which helps give authority to these passages. The second style is staccato prose which provides an outside view of objects that multiply in extended lists. During the vignette about the corrupt salesmen all he would talk about were cars and he would refer to them by their names continuously, constantly in long lists detailing while normally we would just refer to them as cars. The third style is when the narrative voice slips into internal monologue. Steinbeck uses this style a lot throughout the vignettes for he starts them out with an omniscient 3rd person narrator into an omniscient 1st person narrator that details the event of what’s going for they have the experience firsthand. The fourth style Steinbeck uses is the dialect of the migrants which help envision a realistic scene of the event.
The point of Steinbeck splitting the book into two different types of chapters is to capture the concept into two broad narratives. These two different types of narratives are scenic and pictorial which he uses to help create a flow and correspondence between the chapters. The first type of style narrative is scenic which he uses to dramatize the interaction between characters. The Joads are largely dramatized throughout the book because of the dialogue and dramatic events that occur. The second type of style narrative is pictorial which displays a visual image (or use of imagery). The rest of the chapters on the vignettes use a great amount of imagery to describe the details of the events and the setting of whatever is going on in that chapter.
Therefore to conclude, Steinbeck uses these different styles in between the chapters to help encompass the main purpose of the story: to portray the difficulties and struggles of the migrant workers and farmers during the Great Depression.
Tuesday, November 9, Language and Literature will be taking up the whole hour again.
I will be presenting the whole hour (gee whizz, I wonder how that happened...)
There will be a 25 question multiple-choice test on the basic plot of Grapes of Wrath, just as a heads-up :D
Then we will go over the novel as a whole, then Steinbeck's life again IN DETAIL.
Tuesday, October 19th, there will not be a lesson from Language and Literature.
The following week, you will either be learning about Grapes of Wrath (chapters 19-30) from Jasmine F.
Homework due: PowerPointT Cornell Notes for Novel Chapters 19-30.
Here's a heads up: for every chapter, we will have you write a (graded) summary. Nothing too detailed, and we will allow you to skim your books, but only for 30 seconds. Hint: bring your books, but also READ THEM. No Sparknotes or Cliffnotes allowed.or Let America Be America Again, from Angelynn Jose.
The homework for which, idk, except that you should read the "before", "after", and actual poem. Look up all the definitions and stuff so that you can be prepared for the lesson and Angelynn doesn't have to waste time explaining the simple stuff.
For further reading on all short selections, there is a Short Selections guide available on Demidec. There's also one available for you on the novel!
The really scary homework that's coming up:
In about 3 weeks we will have an essay practice where you will have to explain and give examples of the motifs that I gave you on Oct 12 (you know, Iniquity, Over-soul, Birth/Death, etc. It can be found in the Novel Resource Guide on Demidec). This will count as a cheat sheet for the final in December. Until then, we will allow you to use any notes you might have already taken on examples of the motifs during the essay practice.
If you have already read the novel and don't want to reread the book to prep for lectures, just read Sparknotes and the section from the Novel Resource Guide on Demidec.
You must read all information in the USAD guide about the short selections by the time of your lecture.
GRAPES OF WRATH CH. 1-5
CLASS LESSON NOTES
Nature is organismal: Everything in nature formed a whole in which the whole and its parts were inextricably related.
-> Engrave this in your head, for the next 6 months.
Learn not to hate the narration chapters. Learn to love them. If you really pay attention, it comes naturally. These are some of the really meaningful portions.
♥ This “learn, terse” style. (learned from his Stanford professor, Mirrielees)
Chapter 1:
Think about the audience of the book. Context.
Around that time, lots of propaganda, but Steinbeck stays away from politics in this chapter.
-nature, equilibrium: wind, rain, corn, earth, and man
-juxtaposition: nature& humanity, the balance of which is delicate
Tone: think of imagery (for my examples, see page 3-5)
Personification: “cunning, whimpering wind”
So the tone is? The feeling of APOCALYPSE. (End of the world! Oh no!)
Chapter 2: truckdriver & Tom Joad
MOTIF #1: Corporate greed v. the commoner
-ordinary truck driver, waitress… BIG RED FANCY TRUCK
-Tom persuades for a lift: or else you’re just your boss’s lackey!
-Tom’s been in jail, but he doesn’t know about the farm families being tractored out.
Chapter 3: the Turtle! (allegory)
|
At the highway: car swerves to miss it, but truck purposefully hits it.
Who’s in the car? Truck? Again: Ordinary folk v. cold industry.
Symbols of industry: the highway (not turtle’s natural habitat) and truck.-->
Tom picks it up.------------------------------------------------------------>
“His yellow toe nails slipped a fraction in the dust”
Turtle slips from dust, but keeps on and survives & spreads seeds to new places.
Means “Migrants will do more than survive. They will usher in a new era”.
How did readers during the 30’s recognize all this symbolism?
Chapter 4: Jim Casy
-> What was his deal?
Stopped being religious cuz he kept sleeping with women.
Resolve:
1. Sin + virtue don't exist. so don’t judge.
2. True religion (the spirit_ = people’s love for each other.
*THINK! When being tractored out, what if the tractor driver sympathized with the victim family?
THEME/MORAL:
COMMUNITY IS TRUE NOBILITY.
Irony: as tom looks back @ prison with fond memories. While prisoners’re entitled to food, working families are starving?! Where’s the justice in that?
STEINBECK POV: The Christmas Card Poem that Granma Joad gave Tomà Ordinary folks ain’t dumb.
(RANDOM: Compare to “1984”)
