Chapters 7-13: Personal Connections

I am enjoying The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck more than I had anticipated. The way Steinbeck writes has a way of encouraging the reader to delve into the novel and see a bigger picture through his descriptive paragraphs and some short, yet detailed chapters that don't flow indirectly with the rest of the book. For example, pages 104 and 105 paint a very vivid picture of the family slaughtering two pigs before they head out the next day. "Tom struck twice with the blunt of the head of the ax; and Noah, leaning over the felled pigs, found the great artery with his curving knife and released the pulsing streams of blood. Then over the fence with the squealing pigs." Being a vegetarian, I generally find things like this repulsive, but for some reason when I was reading this, I just could not seem to put the book down, which shows how phenomenal of a writer Steinbeck is. 
Leaving home is a rather nerve racking, daunting, yet exciting thing. While reading Ma and Tom's conversation about the opportunity in California, I found myself thinking about all of the opportunity I will have if I decide to go to college in Pennsylvania. The thought of being seven hours away from the town and people that I am most comfortable with absolutely terrifies me, but that is all part of the journey and process of growing up, or in the Joad's family case, living the American Dream.


I am most definitely looking forward to reading the rest of this book because there is just something that is so enticing about it that makes me want to continuously read it without breaks in between. Although it is a bit of a slow read for me, I find that I enjoy it more because of that since it forces me to pay closer attention and really focus in on what is happening and why things are the way that they are for people during this time. I am predicting that life will not be as easy in California as the Joad family thinks. The journey is not going to be as smooth and easy as they think, and they are bound to face a few hardships on the way, as well as once they settle in their new location.