Chapters 27-30: The Ghost of Tom Joad

Tom knows Ma is sad so he tries to make her feel better by telling her that he will always be there. He comes up with the idea from something that Casy had told him before, he wants to ensure his mom that she does not have to worry because whether he is alive or dead he will always be around her. He shows her that he will be in everything she sees or does when he says, “I'll be ever'where - whereever you look.” Tom has gotten to the point where he just wants things to get better so he is going to try to take matters into his own hands and wants to go out on his own. He thinks that if people want things to get better that they need to do it themselves. He also thinks that all the lower class people should band together and demand better for themselves. He is going to become a leader, and try to start a movement to better people’s situations thru finishing Casy’s work. Clearly the upper class has it way easier and their lives have barely changed at all since the Dust Bowl began. I think that they have been greedy and selfish, I do not think that they care about what the lower class is going threw and they are not trying to help. They could of helped the economy a lot by actually paying their workers decent wages. The lower class people have had their worlds turned upside down. What I think Tom is trying to do is to help them and make their lives much easier than it is, with just doing what Casy did.

Chapters 21-26: What Jail Taught a Preacher

When Casy is in jail, he does not just sit there depressed and not do anything, he tries to learn and speak to people about problems that they are facing. He picks up on things by watching what is going on in his surroundings. When Casy was telling Tom the epiphany, the moral of the story was that if you start demanding things from the authority they will give it to you but you have to be as a team or a large group. If one person stands up and starts demanding things it would not work, because the larger the mass the more likely the authority will give in. It might be out of fear, or just simply because they know that they have the resources to do so and they were not before because they were being greedy. This had never occurred to Casy because he had never seen it first hand, Tom does not understand because he has never seen it. I think that Steinbeck put this part in the book because he thought that if all the people during the Dust Bowl and the Depression actually stood up together and did not just look out for themselves and tried working as one that they would have gotten out of the rut a lot faster, even though it might have been inconvenient at times. Because if they would have worked together the economy would have gotten better and money would have started circulating again. You see this point a lot in this book also with the I to We.

Chapters 17-20: Life in Hooverville

When The Joad’s arrive in California it is not at all what they expected it to be, it is not a land of flowing jobs and endless ways of opportunity. Although they are all shocked, they quickly adapt and start trying to make an income and to take care of each other. Ma, who is the leader and glue who keeps the family together is trying her best to put food on the table for her family. When the whole families wages only add up to a small amount Ma still needs to feed the family. Although she does not just get as much food as she can and then just feed her family, she tries to give as much as she can to the starving children also in the Hooverville. That again shows the I to We, Ma could have just fed her family and not cared about anyone but them but she does not. Ma is a caretaker, she takes care of the random hungry children that she might not even know because she knows that it is possible for her to do so even though it might not seem easy. When Ma says “We're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people - we go on.”, you see that she is determined to take care of her family and not let anyone get in her way whether it is the security guards, police men, or government. She is very selfless and tries her best to do the right thing and take care of people who are in need, even if it means sacrificing herself.

Chapters 14-16: "This is the beginning - from 'I' to 'we.'"

In these chapters you see the transition from I to We, normally most people just worry about themselves and do not care about the people who they themselves do not care about such as strangers. But as this book continues you start to see how people that the Joads meet help them, these many kind strangers could be selfish and not give each other food or do kind little gestures. But instead they help each other out because they are all in the same boat and want the same goal, the goal of making money and finding a job. When I read chapter fourteen I found out that the northern states did not like the idea of the western states moving to northern states because they had heard that they were thieves, and not good people. You start to see characters act that way towards westerners in later chapters as well. In chapter fifteen a waitress in a diner is being selfish when she sees a father and his two sons in need of food; she brushes them off and does not give them food. Until her co-worker Al tells her to give them some bread, Al is an example of how strangers helped each other. Al did not have to give the man and his sons’ food at all, but he did anyways because he knew what struggles people were going threw. When the Wilson’s car breaks down they feel guilty for causing so much trouble for the Joads, they feel like they are bringing them down so Wilson says, “Seems like its my fault. This here goddamn wreck’s give me trouble right along. You folks been nice to us. Now you jus’ pack up an’ get along. Me an’ Sairy’ll stay, an’ figger some way. We don’t aim to put you folks out none.” But instead of the Joads saying okay sounds good they say no we are going to stick together and fix the car, so you start to see how the I becomes We when the Joads stop caring as much about just their family but when they start caring for the Wilson’s as if they are part of their family as well.

Chapters 7-13: Personal Connections

I like the book after I have read the chapters but during the reading part I find it difficult to relate or stay awake. But after I have read the chapters I enjoy the message that is being said in them. I always feel behind on my reading, so when I am not reading I feel like it is a burden to read and that it is not fun.

I am enjoying The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck because I like how the story is fast moving, there are not long periods of time where they are not doing anything. An example of what I mean is on page 114.  "Al slipped in the low gear and let in the clutch. The truck shuddered and strained across the yard. And the second gear took hold. They crawled up the little hill, and the red dust arose about them." I think this is a good example because it shows that they did not wait a long time to get going and to leave the farm.

So far, the plot, characters, and themes in The Grapes of Wrath remind me of something important in my life. For me, when I had to move I had to leave my old house for my new one. Although it is not even close to comparing to what the families during the Dust Bowl had to do which was seeing their house get destroyed, leaving most of their possessions, and leaving animals. I think that the big idea of this book will be to be thankful for what you have in your life and do not take anything for granted.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book because I would like to see how the book ends. Also I would like to see what the message is behind the book. What's probably going to happen next is the Joad’s get to California and discover that there really is no jobs and that the land there is just as bad as to where they came from.

Re-Did Chapters 3-6 Economic and Political Pressures

The banks role is to make money off the land, sense they technically own the land they can do whatever they want with it. Considering that the land is almost dead they plant cotton which ruins the soil more, but the bank does not care because it is their last resort to try to make money. The bank is not a person it is a figure head, that way it is no one’s fault for what is happening to the people. The banks have a huge impact on the farmers and their families, now the farmers have nothing and are getting kicked off their land. The farmers have no money and are starving; now they have no home and no way of making money. The families are speechless and do not know what they are going to do. Some of the farmers decide to work with the bank to make money for their own families because they are, "look out for their own.". They in my eyes are doing the right thing; they are doing everything they can for the people they love even if it is hurting other families lives. They only get paid three dollars a day but that money sets food on the table for their family. Although from the people whose land is getting destroyed I do not think it is the right thing to do, all the farmers could try to gang up and over throw the bank instead of half of them working for the bank and the other half getting left with nothing.

Re-Did Chapter 1 and 2, Reflection on Tom Joad

When I first started reading about Tom Joad I was surprised at how he acted and how he said things in a certain way. How he asked the truck driver for a ride, he said it in a way that gave me the idea that he thought he was better than the truck driver. "Sure - I seen it.  But sometimes a guy'll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker." he put his words together so he basically cornered the driver so that he did not have a good outcome with either option, either way he was doing something bad. Also how at the end of the ride he casually told the truck driver that he was just released from jail and it was for killing someone, he told him with a smile on his face and acted like he did not care. His personality makes me think that he is devious and is a bad man. Also how the whole car ride Tom acted like he was not interested in what the driver was talking about, and how he kept smoking and drinking. When he talked about going to his dad’s house it sounded to me that he did not want to go home because he could not answer a lot of the drivers questions about his father, but in actuality it was just him not knowing because he had been in jail. The poor view the rich like they have had no impact by the economy or the Dust Bowl, and the poor just think that they are spoiled. He is a confusing character I was not expecting him to say he killed a man, the rest of the book should be interesting I can not guess what he is going to do.