Chapters 27-30: The Ghost of Tom Joad

Tom does something very selfless in order for the family to not have to live with the fear of him being caught and them being accused for hiding a criminal. Essentially, everything that is wrong with the country as this point in time sort of represents Tom. Police beating folks for trying to survive, the rich farmers hardly giving workers a dime, etc. Tom is that. He is the struggle that is going on throughout all of these family's lives. I am unsure if Steinbeck intended for that connection to be made when writing this, but it is something that finally clicked in my mind as I was nearing the end. 
After Casy dies, Tom changes his view on life and in a way, becomes the new Casy. It's not that he obtains an abundance of knowledge on life, he just starts to see things differently. In his last conversation with Ma, he tells her that even though he will be gone, he will still live on in everything that the family endures and must go through during their struggle to restart their lives. 
When you think of ghosts, you picture mysterious sounds or shadows dancing across the floor. Ghosts are not visible, and to the rich farmers, migrants are invisible as well, as if they are ghosts. 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' is not just about Tom becoming a ghost when he disappears, it is about all of the Okies that have moved West in search of work but found themselves become transparent when it came to obtaining work and being able to live like humans should, rather than sleep in dusty tent camps along the sides of roads. When you have everything that you want in life, you tend to not see the needs of others, and only care about your own problems, not matter how more fortunate you may be than them. The idea of this rich vs poor society is merely ghosts and the people who fear them.

Chapters 21-26: What Jail Taught a Preacher

How I interpret what Casy is saying is that even though there are consequences for doing something that is vital for survival and no one may not care to listen to your reasoning, by speaking up enough, eventually someone is going to hear you and come along and make a change. Casy realized during that time that there are a lot of things that people constitute as needs, but when you break it down, there are so few things that we truly need in life, but we all just get so caught up in living a grand life that we tend to miss what is really important. After this conversation, it gives a better understanding why Casy lives such a simple life and does not see the point in having all sorts of fancy things because he does not need them to survive. 
While he is in jail, Casy and the inmates are served rotten beans for their meal. One prisoner is not happy with this and complains. Nothing happens, go figure. But this one prisoner standing up for something gave others courage to stand up and complain and yell. It is an obvious theme throughout this book that there is strength in numbers. With every fiber of his being, Casy believes that if all of the migrant workers stand up to the farming companies about their low wages and minimal hiring, then they can make a change.
These kind of things do not just happen in novels; they happen all over the world. Take a journey to the other side of the globe and look at the revolts in countries such as Egypt and Libya. In Egypt, the citizens (mostly teenagers and young adults) had had enough of the government and decided to do something about it. The government responded by blocking social networking sites in order to prevent people from spreading the news of their rallies. Fortunately, it is impossible to block the internet from the entire world, so news got around and in the end, the people won.

Chapters 17-20: Life in Hooverville

Everyone has their breaking point during this whole experience of going west in search of work. The interesting thing about this book is that Steinbeck does not make it obvious that the majority of these families in camps and Hooverville has reached that point, which allows for the reader to dig deeper into the novel and ask questions along the way. Ma has not lost it yet, and anything sort of indication that she has, she hides it quite well. It was a difficult time when the Joad's were in that camp and Ma could not stand the thought of all of those hungry children and knowing that there was so little that she could do to help them. 
Looking at that scene in the book, I instantly think of the hunger problem around the world and how there are millions of people that go to bed hungry and of the families that struggle feeding their children. I am not sure if Steinbeck was intending to include a bigger picture during this chapter, but that is what I take away from it. I feel Ma's pain because it is such a frustrating thing knowing that there are people that need help, but you just do not know what to do to make things better. 
Ma knows that if her family is going to make it in a time where every family is fighting for the same thing, that they have to stay strong and maintain the mindset that they can achieve what they set out to. I think that Ma has such great leadership qualities about her and I really admire that. Throughout their entire journey she is continuously telling the family that they have to stick together and that it will be worth it in California. If Ma ever became weak, the family would fall apart. 
When she left the remainder of the soup out for those kids, it showed that she knew that she had to help, but was not sure what to do, so she gave all that she had, despite the minimal amount, because she knew that it was the right thing. It really shows a lot about a person's character when they do things like that, and it is something that I am continuously striving to improve about myself.

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

It takes a lot for a person to admit defeat and to realize that there are certain circumstances that they cannot overcome alone. When the Joad's meet the Wilson's along the side of the road, it is not obvious at first that they are going to need each other's help in order to make it further west. It is always easier to look at other's misfortunes and tell yourself, "Well, that's too bad for them. Lucky for me though, I've got what I need". Everyone is capable of doing the right thing, even if it forces us to sacrifice some luxuries of our own. Chapter 14 illustrates how people do not do things in order to be praised for their good deeds,  but rather because they know that it is what they have to do.
"Them wasn't two-for-a-cent candy," he said. 
"What's it to ya?" Mae said fiercely.
"Them was a nickel apiece candy," said Bill. (pg 161)
When the father and his two sons come into the diner/store, Mae sees how poor they are and that they are struggling to get by on their journey. She took note of how the boys stared into the candy case, with a wishful look in their eyes. Steinbeck wrote Mae's character as the kind of woman who does not take crap from anybody and really sticks to her guns. In that instant though, she got real. She could see in the father's eyes that he wanted to make his boys happy more than anything, so by allowing him to afford something special for his kids, it shows that it is possible for everyone to have compassion for others.


"We been nothin' but trouble, nothin' but trouble." (pg 167)
The Wilson's are the kind of couple that are forever grateful for anything that anyone gives them. Their truck has given them trouble since day one of their journey. Loneliness comes and goes throughout the journey for all the families. If one family was struggling, there was a very good chance that many others were in the same situation. Families bonded and came together with similarities that they discovered when camping over night. Suddenly, it was not so lonely to be alone. Helping a fella out was just what you did. If someone needed a blanket to keep their baby warm, you lent them yours for the night because in that moment, that blanket probed to be life or death for the parents' child. Later on down the road, someone else would return the favor because that is just what folks did back then. They did not assist others to be praised or to win awards, they did it because it needed to be done. The Joad's took the Wilson's along with them after they formed a bond since Grampa died in the Wilson's tent. The Joad's did not know how else to thank them except help them further their journey. They became one large family and there was nothing that could be done to break them apart.

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.

Chapters 3-6: Economic and Political Pressures

To the farmers, the banks were opportunity. As technology started to advance, farmers needed to stay up to date with equipment and tractors in order to stay as efficient as possible for a demanding, growing country. Farmers could borrow money from the banks to pay for the new pieces of equipment, but in time had to pay bank (the basic loan process). As the dust bowl progressed though, farming the land became difficult as there was nothing but dust to farm. And let's face it, no one particularly enjoys eating dust. The only solution for people was to sell their things back to the bank and then leave, otherwise the American Dream could not be achieved. 

While there are some characters in 'The Grapes of Wrath' that fought against the banks (Muley, Grampa), the rest cooperated with them. They knew that their families could not survive living the way that they currently were, surrounded by dust and debt. Many young children had to experience their parents essentially be treated like a wild horse; coaxed into captivity, tricked into thinking that they would have a better life, then when tragedy strikes, they break and tame them to obey and act like they want. As time went on, the banks became more of an enemy, rather than opportunity. It was as if the banks stabbed the people in the backs and expected them to recover on their own.

Chapters 1-2: Meeting Tom Joad

I think that the truck driver instantly knew that Tom had just come from prison, he just chose to not say anything about it. He did not want to come across as a judgmental person who felt that he had more self-worth than a hitchhiker. During the time period that this book is set in, the wealthy viewed the situation of the dust bowl/Great Depression as sort of every man for himself. On the flip side, the poor looked at the rich with the mentality that they should be assisting those that were less fortunate than them during this time in order to bring the country out of this economic turmoil. Tom Joad looked at the sticker in the driver's window and saw it as a way of the more fortunate (those with transportation) to keep the less fortunate (hitchhikers) "under control" in a way. By under control, I mean that the stickers would prevent the hitchhikers from wasting the companies truck driver's time by having to stop to pick up and drop off their passengers. When the driver breaks his company's rules, he is breaking the vision that most have of those that are better off than them. The driver knows that Tom was recently released from jail, but he also knows that he does not want to come across as a kiss ass that sucks up to the boss man. By doing this, it proves that no matter the circumstance, people are always capable of doing the right choice, even though it may not seem to be a smart choice.