Chapter 14 ­ Grapes of Wrath Discussion Questions: ●
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Why are the "owners" in the Western states getting nervous? What do they perceive as the immediate enemy? What is their opinion of government intervention and labor unity movements? According to Steinbeck, is technology itself (e.g. tractors) the problem? If not, then what? ● What are Steinbeck's observations concerning the meaning of "I" and "we"? ● What is the meaning of the statement: "If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results; if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you you forever into 'I,' and cuts you off forever from the 'we.'"? ● What does Steinbeck imply concerning the future of capitalism and capitalists? Chapter 15­ Discussion Questions: ● What is the significance of descriptions of the interior of hamburger stands along the highway: "The walls decorated with posters, bathing girls, blondes with big ­ and slender hips and waxen faces, in white bathing suits, and holding a bottle of Coca­Cola and smiling­­see what you get with a Coca­Cola"? ● How do those posters work? ● What do they suggest? ● Are they similar in any way to the yellow handbills? ● Seen briefly through the windows of large cars on the highway, how are wealthy described? ● What are their main concerns? ● Why is it said that they meet in "lodges and service clubs" and "reassure themselves that business is noble and not the curious ritualized thievery they know it is; that businessmen are intelligent in spite of the records of their stupidity; that they are kind and charitable in spite of the principles of sound business; that their lives are rich instead of the thin tiresome routines they know; and that a time is coming when they will not be afraid any more"? ● What is the meaning of the cars that "whizzed viciously by on 66"? ● Consider the scene where a family attempts to buy a ten­cent loaf of bread at a sandwich shop. ● What is the meaning of the situation? ● What different sets of values collide here? ● Why does the father hesitate to take the loaf for ten cents after learning that it costs fifteen? What is his argument? (recall Aquinas) ● Why do the shop operators sell the bread and the candy for less than its actual value? (is this a violation of Aquinas's principles of fair trade?). ● Why do the truck drivers leave extra money behind? ● What is the cause of this series of acts of kindness? ● What happened to sound business principles? ● What is Steinbeck suggesting concerning human nature and the possibility of sympathy for the plight of the needy? ● What is Steinbeck suggesting about the nature of commerce and its values? Ch. 16 ● What are Rose of Sharon's and Connie's plans for their future? ● What trade does he want to learn? ● Why does Ma know that "it was all a dream"? ● Why does Pa refuse to leave the Wilson's behind after their truck breaks down? ● Why does Ma refuse to go on after it is suggested that Tom and Casy stay behind to fix the truck? ● Why does Casy suggest that it's as if the migrating families were "runnin' away from soldiers"? ● Is his statement significant in some respect? ● Why does he suggest that "They's gonna come somepin outa all these folks goin' wes' ... They's gonna come a thing that's gonna change the whole country"? ● What does he mean? ● Why is Tom told by the camp proprietor that he cannot sleep in a ditch and has to pay him instead a half a dollar to stay in the camp? ● What does Tom's reply suggest, "If I pay you a half a dollar I ain't a vagrant, uh?"? ● What is the implied relationship between business and the law? When Tom objects to paying, the proprietor says, "Well, we all got to make a livin.'" ● What is significant in Tom's response, "Yeah, ... On'y I wisht they was some to make her 'thout takin' her away from somebody else"? ● What revelations does the ragged man make to Pa regarding the realities of working in California? ● Where is he going? ● What happened to his family? ● What is the secret of the yellow handbills? ● How do the owners manipulate wages? ● Why do free laborers accept to work for meager and ever shrinking wages? ● What does this suggest about labor markets and the ways in which capitalists maximize their profits? ● How does the ragged man describe the death of his children? ● What killed them? ● Was it heart failure as the coroner pronounced? ● Why does Tom say, "­ right, ... I'm a bolshevisky"? ● Is he serious at this point? ● Is some awareness beginning to dawn on him? ● What is the meaning of his throwing a clod at the camp owner's house? Ch. 17 ● What social phenomena take place among the migrant families on the way to California? ● What rights are established among them? ● Why does Steinbeck speak of "the right of the hungry to be fed; the rights of the pregnant and the sick to transcend all other rights"? ● What is the basis of such rights? ● What rights have to be limited or eliminated? ● What do the men talk about after supper? ● Why do they suggest "the country's spoilt"? ● Are they right in supposing to have a share in the guilt for what is happening, "maybe we sinned some way we didn't know about? ● What is the effect of the songs of the guitar player? ● Is this situation a symbol? ● Is it in any way related to the storytelling craft of the Steinbeck? ● What is the purpose of art? Ch. 18 ● What do the two men in jeans (a father and son) tell the Joads about life in California? Where are they going? ● What do they say about the land in California? ● Why is some of the land unused? ● Why are they warned about sheriff deputies? ● What are the California owners worried about? ● What is the significance of the story of the man who owns a million acres and is scared of dying? ● Why is it suggested that the very rich are also very poor inside? ● What attitudes are the Joads told they will encounter in California? ● Is it surprising to see white Americans as victims of a sort of discrimination? ● Is that ironic? ● What is that discrimination based on? ●
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What are the Joads's reactions at hearing themselves being called 'Okies'? Why is it suggested that 'Okies' aren't human and are like "gorillas"? What are those attitudes and perceptions reminiscent of? What is the significance of Noah's decision to remain by the water stream? Why does he refuse to go on? What does Steinbeck suggest by the figures of the Jehovites who want to hold a meeting in the Joads' tent as Granma is dying? Why does Ma turn them away? What sorts of sounds are they heard making as they hold their meeting somewhere else? What is this all about? How is California described after the desert crossing? What is the Joads's reaction at seeing the "the vineyards, the orchards, the great flat valley, green and beautiful ... the morning sun, golden on the valley ... The grain fields golden in the morning"? How is their situation similar to that of Tantalus? Ch. 19 ● How does Steinbeck describe the appropriation of California by Americans? ● What was the justification of that appropriation? ● How was it pursued? ● How was property defined, distributed, protected, and ensured? ● Is the influence of John Locke's ideas visible in that process? ● What happened then? ● How did the character of the owners change over time? ● What became important instead of land? ● How did the farmers become 'shopkeepers' of sorts? ● How is America said to have followed in the steps of Rome? ● How is the industrialization of farming related to the re­introduction of slavery (of Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos)? ● What happens to the size of farms and the numbers of owners? ● How do the owners pay the laborers? ● How do company stores function? ● Consider the significance of the following passage from Marx. ● How does it illuminate the peculiar problems encountered by the Joads in a land as rich as California? ● How does it address the inadequacies of a labor theory of value?: ● "Labor is not the source of all wealth. Nature is just as much the source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as is labor, which itself is only the manifestation of a natural force, human labor power....The bourgeois have very good grounds for fancifully ascribing supernatural creative power to labor, since it follows precisely from the fact that labor depends on nature, that the man who possesses no other property than his labor power must, in all conditions of society and culture, be the slave of other men who have made themselves the owners of the material conditions of labor. He can only work with their permission, and hence only live with their permission." ● ● Why do wealthy Californians hate the 'Okies'? ● How is Roman history supposedly replayed in the migrations of hungry families into California? ● Why does Steinbeck call them "the new barbarians"? ● Why is it said that "a fallow field is a sin and the unused land a crime against the thin children"? ● What is done to oranges and other produce if the price is low? ● What is a Hooverville? ● Why is it given such a name? ● Consider the significance of the following passage: "And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed." ● What allusions is Steinbeck making when speaking of "the inevitability of that day"? What day is he talking about? ● How is this connected to the concept of the grapes of wrath? (Consider the possible connections to a medieval Latin hymn, "Dies irae, dies illae" ('the day of wrath, that day') describing the Day of Judgment and used in the mass for the dead. What is Steinbeck effectively foretelling? ● How does he interpret biblical and religious ideas? Ch. 20 ● How are the Joads (again) exposed to the lesson about the function of the yellow handbills. Effectively, what is revealed as the source of low wages? ● What drives wages down? ● How low can they go? ● How little are people willing to work for? ● What solutions does Tom envision for such problems? ● What are the dangers and punishments for the sort of labor organization Tom proposes? ● What is the black list? ● What does Tom want to do? ● What do the other men advise him to do? ● What is the Weedpatch government camp? ● Why do the people speak so well of it? ● What makes it different from the Hoovervilles and conditions elsewhere? ● Why is the labor contractor from Tulare accompanied by a deputy? ● Why does the deputy try to arrest Floyd Knowles? ● What does the contractor accuse him of? ● How and why do Tom and Casy intervene to help the fleeing Floyd? ● What does Casy do to help Tom? ● What happens to Casy? ● Why important changes, transformations, and transitions do these events signal? ● What is effectively happening? ● What happens to Rose of Sharon's husband Connie? Why? ● What is the effect of the economic and social situation on families and family relationships? ● What does Tom say about sheriff deputies? ● What is the significance of his perception of their being fat and flopping their guns around? ● Why does he say they do not work for the law? ● Why do the police burn down the camp? ● If not justice, what/who are the deputies working for? ● Consider the significance of Ma's words to Tom: "Easy ... You got to have patience. Why, Tom­­us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. they ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people­­we go on. ... Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good, an' they die out. But, Tom, we keep a­comin'. Don't you fret none, Tom. A different time's comin'." ● Why is it said that Ma had "the timeless eyes of a statue"? Ch. 21 ● How does Steinbeck define the danger of machines? ● What makes technology a threat to humanity? ● What are the "paradoxes of industry" that Steinbeck refers to? What do they result in? ● What happens to wages and prices with the ever increasing supply of laborers in California? ● How can the owners cling on to their property in the situation described? ● Ultimately, wihout knowing it, what are banks and companies working toward? ● What line does Steinbeck suggest will eventually be crossed by the exploited laborers? What is the importance of the following passage?: "And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents and spies, for blacklists, for drilling. On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment." ● In the tripartite structure of the novel, what process has begun?