Through 18 Chapters

I am through with eighteen chapters of the novel Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. This book is really starting to make sense to me, and it is getting to be quite depressing. It seems now that with Granpa's and Granma's deaths that there is no hope for the family of the Joads. Then you add that with Noah wanting to leave the family and survive by the river it seems like all hope is lost. Not only is that all, but then the Joad's have received not one but two warnings of caution of heading to California. These warnings are given by people who have been to California, who were not able to make a living, and who were treated harshly and called "Okies" which is really what the Joad's are. The Joads are just part of one of the biggest migrations in the history of the United States and they do not even realize it.

I really liked chapter seventeen. It was very descriptive and described all the people moving there as a family. It even says "twenty families became one family." Something like that is just nice to see. There is hospitality amongst a large number of different people, and they are together to survive. You rarely see anything like this today. It is usually just me, me, me for everyone even less fortunate people. The few times you see this are in small, poor, poverty stricken villages or third world countries. I feel like John Steinbeck really hit home with this chapter, and it still has a deep, meaningful message today.

This book though is starting to become very depressing, as I am sure it was when this migration was actually happening. I mean Ma sleeping with her mother's dead body? That is so sad! I am now wishing that Steinback would not be so upfront and descriptive with images like this. It makes the book tough to read and it is depressing.