20 Chapters Dizzizzle

A while back, earlier this month, I started to read this book called The Grapes of Wrath. Now, about twelve days later I am deep into its plot and story. With twenty of the first thirty chapters finished, I am now able to understand fully what has been, and what is happening on this great and brutal book.

I am sure the Joads are beginning to think, "Why in the hell did we start this trip to California?" So far they have lost three of their family members and they are not even to their destination yet. They are constantly being told how terrible of a place California is, and not to go there because there are no jobs, no food, no fare wages, and no way to survive. I know that is exactly what I would be thinking at this point.

I really liked that Knowles fellow. He was quite the character. I think that he has been my favorite character in this book, even though I have not known him for very long. It was cool how he pretended like he was an idiot just so the police do not find him threatening. I really want to know if Floyd has done anything bad in the past that would make him have to act unthreatening. Maybe he looks scary or something. I just do not know. But hey, that is life! You think you know everything when you really know very little.

I hate how the American squatters basically run the show in California. They seem like they are all very selfish and do not deserve to run the show like my friend the Admiral. These people come from thousands miles away and all these squatters do is give them wages that are not even high enough to live off of. Then they have all this extra cash laying around that they have nothing better to do with than wipe their butt. I mean they all have huge fences, tons of land, and people to work for them. IT IS JUST PLAIN SELFISH!

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.

16 Chapters Down

I have read sixteen chapters of Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I am really starting to enjoy it quite a lot. The more I read along, the more happens in the story. The plot is thickening, and it is getting more and more exciting to read. I still have no clue what the conflict will be for sure. Maybe the conflict will be the Joads looking for something to do once they reach California. Maybe the Joads will not reach California and that is the conflict. At this stage in the book it is impossible to tell for sure.

I really like how Steinbeck adds all of these twists and turns to the story. Like when the car breaks down and the family is forced to go with the Wilson's. Well they are not forced to go with the Wilson's, but the family decides it will be the best way to solve things with a broken down car.

It is kind of cool how the Joads are traveling along Route 66. I think of Route 66 as a road for tourism and wild adventures, not people heading West to make a better life for themselves. It really is a shame that people actually had a life like this. They were just so poor they were forced to move away from their homes just to survive and feed their families or themselves.

One thing I dislikes about chapter sixteen was when Tom and Casy went to the gas station to get a con rod for their car. I found it just a little too convenient that they managed to grab the last available con rod from their 1925 Dodge. It is getting to be like a soap opera and getting too predictable.

Anther thing I did not like was proprietor at the camping sight. It is hard to imagine people were actually that mean to possible customers. I am sure the proprietor could have survived without making the family camp at the sight. He also was a bull spitter and told them cops would arrest them for sleeping in the ditches on the side of the road.

through 14 chapters

I am through reading fourteen chapters of Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. This book is really beginning to grow on me a lot. Steinbeck throws that twist into the novel by ‘killing off’ Granpa. I did kind of see it coming though after they overdosed him with the cough syrup before they left. I do not know if over dosing on cough syrup could ever lead to a stroke, but I think they are related. The whole trip up until he died Granpa was just lay in the back of the truck. I knew something was wrong when he never did anything but lay there. Maybe another cause of his death was just his heart died. He never wanted to go to California, and he was forced to go. Maybe once he woke up from being drugged and saw he was on the road to California and away from where he was born and raised, he just did not have the hope inside of him to live. I mean he was a Granpa of at least a twenty five year old grandson. I am guessing that Granpa was quite old given this fact so anything can just knock him into a spiral towards death.

It was pretty cool that not only is Casy a former preacher, but he doubles as a doctor. It was very cool to read about how Casy knew that Granpa was dying at the time. Then later he says he knew Granpa was dying way before he actually did die.

One thing that still confuses me is every other chapter. I do not get why in every other chapter Steinbeck has to put in unnecessary information. I am just confused as to why he does this. If I could ask John Steinbeck one question about this book, it would be; “why are these chapters like this?” It is just so weird to me and I am sure to many other people.

through chapter 12

I am through with the first twelve chapters of Grapes of Wrath. I am starting to like this book. I am inspired in a sense by how much hope the Joads and Casy receive about the thought of going to California. They have no clue what California is going to be like, yet they pack up all of their things in hope of a better life. In today’s time something like this would never happen. The Joads would have had more background to California, and they would have known whether or not they could possess a better life by moving there. I do get a joy though in reading how much hope these people have in their minds about gaining a better life. When in all reality, it is a slim chance, in my mind, that they will get what the Joads are leaving for.

I think that some time Casy will be a preacher again. I know he always says he “ain’t no preacher no more,” but there’s just a feeling in my gut that Casy will find his way back to the Lord by the end of this book. I get this tone from the story that this will happen. It might be that Casy is so annoyed by everyone saying things like “why ain’t you a preacher no more?” or “you ain’t gonna preach in California?” that he will just give in and be ordained again.

For some reason I found chapter twelve quite intriguing. Most people would think it is just John Steinbeck rambling about boring, empty houses. I found it exciting to here Steinbeck describe these houses and the manner they were in as this great migration was taking place. I still can not complain about how descriptive Steinbeck is. These images just come alive in my head, and maybe that is why I am enjoying this book so much. Once again, it is like I am watching this book on my television.

Nine Chapters Finished

I have finished reading the first nine chapters of The Grapes of Wrath. It still is very confusing but I can see the start of a plot. This is good because it is a sign the book is beginning to speed up; which will make the book easier to read. I have noticed however that every other chapter does not belong to anything in the book. It probably does, but I can not connect it to any of the characters yet because I still know very little about any of their backgrounds. But these chapters are so random; the chapter about the car dealer was so weird. It was just the car dealer talking the whole time and being annoying. I did not like how rude he was. Maybe that chapter was when Grampa and Pa went to the dealer and bought the truck. It is very confusing though. I had not even met Grampa or Pa yet when I read that chapter. Why would they introduce a story about Grampa and Pa before they were even introduced in the book?

There was also that chapter about all the junk that some people had to get rid of. I think that connects to when Pa and Ma were selling all of their "junk" to get money to go to California. Nothing about Pa or Ma is mentioned in this chapter with the junk though. Pa and Ma do not mention later in the story of the stuff that was sold in this auction; like harness, carts, seeders, or little bundles of hoes. This fact makes it hard to make the connection between Pa and Ma and getting rid of their "junk."

The very hint of a plot line is kind of nice to me. I am glad the mention that everyone is going to California is brought up. It means something exciting might happen and I will want to continue reading this book. It just took FOREVER for this evidence of a plot to appear.

Six Chapters Finished

I am through six chapters of the book Grapes of Wrath. I still am quite bored by this book. Through the first chapters all that I have been left with has been more questions. I am still left wondering what that turtle was involved in the book for. I do not know why but that turtle is really bugging me. Authors do not just put unimportant details like that into books. These are the facts I know about the turtle; it was described to well to be unimportant. It was involved in two maybe three chapters. There is no significance to the storyline. For some reason Joad holds on to the turtle for the longest time, and then he just lets go of the turtle because he does not want to hold onto it anymore. It is all very puzzling and misleading to me.

Another complaint I have about this book through the first six chapters is there is no plot so far. I have not figured out what is happening. Joad, Casey, and Muley talk about going to California but they do not decide if they are officially going to go or not. This book moves a little bit too slow for my taste, but maybe it will get better considering there are thirty chapters and 580 pages, but who knows? Some books are boring the whole way through.

There is one thing I like about this book, however. This "thing" is how descriptive John Steinbeck is with everything. As I am reading through this book it is like I can nearly reach out and touch them. He creates these images that are just so clear. I was complaining about the turtle, but as I was reading I felt like I was sitting on the side of that road and watching the turtle trying to walk and climb on top of the road. The book may move slow, but it feels like I am watching a television show.

Through Chapter4

I am through with reading the first four chapters of Grapes of Wrath. So far I do not know why two of the chapters were included. The first unnecessary chapter, which was Chapter One, talked about nothing but how dusty the Corn Belt was during the Dust Bowl in the Depression. I mean of course it is going to be dusty, it is THE DUST BOWL. I struggled to make it through this chapter without falling asleep. I think if it was longer than a handful of pages I might have.

The other unnecessary chapter was Chapter Three. All this chapter did was talk about some turtle walking around, going up a hill and onto the road. This leads me to wonder whether or not the turtle will eventually symbolize something. But as for now, this turtle has no significance to me at all and did not need to be included in the book.

I think it has been kind of hard to read the dialogs between Joad and the old priest/pastor. It is similar to reading the words of Nigger Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Most of the time I have to read through the phrase more than once to understand what they are saying. It really makes things difficult, and makes the book read a little slow.

One thing that confuses me so far about Joad is why he seems like a poor man. I can not figure out if he actually is poor or just wants to live that kind of life. I mean he has to hitchhike to get back to his road so that leads me to believe he may actually be poor. Then a contradiction to that would be Joad is dressed in completely new attire. I want to know why these two things are happening.

Another thing that is bugging me is the old priest. I want to know how a priest becomes a person that does "as many bad thing" as this old priest has done. He never tells us what he did that made him such a bad person so this makes me question him and what he has actually done.

I am sure these questions will all be answered as I continue reading.