Grapes of Wrath

1. Grapes of Wrath Chapters 22-26, Period 1

2. Schedule for this week

3. FDR’s “First Inaugural Address”

4. Discussion Questions 22-24, Gov Camp • The weedpatch camp is a communal camp where people work for what they need and things are shared, the basic tenants of communism. What things work well in the government camp? What doesn’t work well? • Many see the camp proprietor as an FDR figure, why? •  Why aren’t the government camps sustainable? What creates trouble for them?

5. Discussion Questions 25- “growing wrath” • Why is the fruit allowed to rot instead of being picked? Why is it deliberately destroyed? Use a quote. •  Steinbeck reveals who/what he feels is responsible for the migrant plight, see the quote below, what is it? • “There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates--died of malnutrition--because the food must rot, must be forced to rot” • He also reveals where the title comes from: “and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage”(477). Explain how he uses “the grapes of wrath” as a metaphor.

6. Chapter 26: Serious Loss • Who does Tom meet up with and how has this person been transformed? What movement is he part of? • How does he die?   • What is the significance of his last words?: "You fellas don't know what you're doin'. You're helping to starve kids ... You don' know what you're a-doin" What is Steinbeck hoping to show his readers here? (Think in terms of the novel’s message, the religious allusions, history…) • What does Tom do? Is he justified?

7. “generosity versus selfishness” One clear theme that emerges in the novel is “generosity versus selfishness.” Discuss specific scenes and conversations that illustrate this theme. Be sure to include mention of scenes from your most recent reading assignment. • Man vs. Society examples? Man vs. Man?

8. Group Paragraph • Number off 1-8 and gather with the other students with the same number as you. • Find your question on the next slide and write a group paragraph (body paragraph style) responding to the prompt on your white piece of paper. Turn them in to the sub, I will scan them and post them on the website.

9. Questions: Focusing on 19-26 1. Tom’s character-Come up with a comprehensive statement about Tom’s character, carefully considering why Steinbeck needed to create a character like him. Then provide a character analysis of what the purpose of his character is 2. Casy’s character-What has Casy added to the novel so far? Why include him and what can we gather about him from his major comments and actions? 3. In many ways, chap 19 is a philosophical summative chapter. Explain its purpose. 4. Articulate Ma’s role in the novel so far, considering scenes like: Chap 20 when Ma tries to quell Tom’s emotions, her handling of grandma dying, the stew scene etc. 5. What is the purpose of Chap 21? Dig deep. 6. Chap 22-24 What is Steinbeck trying to portray with the government camp? Be clear, there are positives and negatives and careful thought needs to be given to its inclusion in the novel. 7. Chap 25- Synthesize the criticism that Steinbeck is making in Chap 25 and connect it to the novel as a whole. 8. What key kernels of insight can you pull out about Chap 26? Be sure you discuss what lesson does Ma claim she has learned from her experiences? Who does she believe are the only people who will help a person in trouble?

10. Consider the following: • Don’t you dare just summarize! Really think about the question. Review the question and/or scenes necessary. What kernels of insight can you provide? What quotes fit perfectly and can you clearly articulate the how and why they fit perfectly? (you don’t have to write the analysis down in its entirety but you should be able to explain how the quote fits on the spot) • Organize your response into a few succinct analysis filled sentences

11. GOW Animation • Student final project from last year from a non-MAP student. It is an animated video combining animated art from GOW and the song’s content, using the song to drive the emotions • She created this frame by frame, it is her own art, and she learned the software herself • Song is called “Dust Bowl Dance” by Mumford and Sons. Song is certainly based on GOW. • Thoughts?

12. Legacy Through Music • In 1940, Woody Guthrie recorded a ballad called "Tom Joad". • The Norwegian composer GeirrTveitt composed a cantata for mezzo-soprano and orchestra called "The Turtle", using an excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath. • Kris Kristofferson's 1981 single "Here Comes That Rainbow Again" is based on a scene from the book. • On Pink Floyd's 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason, the opening lines for the song "Sorrow" are paraphrased from the beginning of a chapter in The Grapes of Wrath: "Sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land.” • In 1991, the English progressive rock band Camel recorded an album Dust and Dreams inspired by the novel. • In 1995, Bruce Springsteen recorded his song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" on the album of the same name. The lyric is set in contemporary times, but the third verse quotes Tom's famous "wherever there's a ..." lines. The song was later recorded by Rage Against The Machine

13. So what happened to the migrants? A revised version of this essay appeared as  “The Dust Bowl Migration” in Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and Policy, eds. Gwendolyn Mink and Alice O’Connor (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2004)

14. Things got worse… •   Until 1941 states felt free to restrict interstate mobility, focusing that power, when they used it, on the poor. • California had been especially hostile to poor newcomers. In 1936, the Los Angeles police department established a border patrol, dubbed the "Bum Blockade," at major road and rail crossings for the purpose of turning back would-be visitors who lacked obvious means of support. • California's Indigent Act, passed in 1933, made it a crime to bring indigent persons into the state. • In 1939 the district attorneys of several of the counties most affected by the Dust Bowl influx began using the law in a very public manner. More than two dozen people were indicted, tried, and convicted. Their crime: helping their relatives move to California from Oklahoma and nearby states. • The prosecutions were challenged by the ACLU which pushed the issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1941 the court issued a landmark decision (Edwards v. California) ruling that states had no right to restrict interstate migration by poor people or any other Americans.

15. Then things got better… •      Fortunately the poverty that drew the artists was much less permanent. Even as The Grapes of Wrath was flying off bookshelves in 1939, conditions were beginning to improve in rural California thanks first to federal aid programs (in part driven by Congress because of GOW) and then to the World War II defense boom that pulled many of the migrants out of the fields and raised wages for those remaining. • Still, incomes for many former Oklahomans, Arkansans, and Texans would remain low for some time. As late as the 1970s poverty experts in the San Joaquin Valley talked about "Okies" as a disadvantaged population and could point to poverty and welfare use rates that exceeded norms for other whites. • But the bigger story was the climb up from poverty that most families experienced in the decades after the Depression. Taking advantage of the wide open job markets for white male workers that characterized the war and post war eras, the Dust Bowl migrants and their children made steady, if unspectacular, progress up the economic ladder.

16. Formal Unions • The United Farm Workers of America (UFWA) is a labor union created from the merging of two groups, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by Cesar Chavez. • By uniting together the workers are able to negotiate wage minimums, insurance, and contracts. • The NFWA and the AWOC, recognizing their common goals and methods, and realizing the strengths of coalition formation, jointly formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966.[1] This organization was accepted into the AFL/CLO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm workers Union.[2]