... move west. It expressively describes the dust storms, which are what causes the moves. Also, the first chapter foreshadows what is to happen through the novel. Without this chapter, the book would not have been established the way it was. The reader would have only be given a limited view on what life was like for the migrants. Another interchapter, Chapter 3, describes the turtle's journey across the road. This chapter is a symbolic chapter, providing insight into Steinbeck's views ... on nature and man. It represents survival ... ...

• Word Count: 646
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... character development is a character that evolves from self indulgence into caring about his or her family, and then finally society. Many characters in the novel complete this cycle, especially Tom Joad. When we first meet Tom in chapter two, he is walking down the road in a cheap new suit because he was just released from prison. Tom convinces a trucker to give him a ride. Throughout ... was after he came out of the wilderness and went astray from the Judaic religion. Casy again exemplifies Christ when he tells Tom to escape and hide after Tom trips a deputy. The deputy was aiming to ...

• Word Count: 1107
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... carefully working his bare feet into the dust. One of the novel`s most important symbols, the turtle, is presented in the first intercalary chapter. The turtle is symbolic and its adventures prophetic allegory. The life force which drives the turtle, drives the Joads, and in the same direction - southwest. As the turtle picks up seeds in its shell and drops them on the other side of the road, so the Joads pick up life and take ... it across the country to California. As the turtle survives the truck`s attempt to smash it on the highway, so the Joads endure the ... ...

• Word Count: 2399
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... to discourage hitchhikers, he gives Tom a lift to the road where his family, the Joads, lives. While walking down the road, Tom meets up with Jim Casy, the preacher that baptized him. They exchange stories; Tom explains that he went to jail for killing a man with a shovel in self-defense while Jim elaborates on why he gave up on preaching, being sexually immoral with young girls. When they ... strife. Another smaller theme would have to be, no matter what, your family will always be there for you. During the whole story things went wrong, but the whole time they took heart in knowing th...

• Word Count: 2457
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... that he is going to live off the land like Muley. He continues to argue until the family sneaks sleeping medicine into his coffee. When Grandpa Joad falls asleep, they carry him into the truck and start the journey to California. In this chapter, the Joad's have travelled for a day and decided to camp on the side of the road when they meet the Wilson's, whose car has broke down. Because ... Granpa is really sick, the Wilson's offer their tent to him so he would be able to rest. Not ... long afterwards, he dies of a stroke. They hold a quick funeral and bury him even though it is agains...

• Word Count: 1415
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Grapes of Wrath focuses on both the situation of migrant workers during the Dust Bowl as a whole, as well as the situation of a single family during the event, the Joads. Each chapter fluctuates between either the macro view or the micro view. One chapter will be devoted to the workers, the next to something that will affect the Joads. The intercalary chapters, or the chapters containing a macro view, are used in the novel as three main functions ... skill and little education, and their only fallback is California. The reader is presented with the grave situation these people are in; these f...

• Word Count: 507
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... foreshadow events that will happen later in the piece of literature. A good-looking view, like a sunset, that fades away to darkness can be similar to the path a character or characters will travel. An event may seem to be happy, but will end up in disaster. An example of this is when the Joads ran into a man on the road, which lead them to work (this is ... the stunning sunset). Then once the Joads got the job, they realized that it wasn't as good as ... it looked (this is the fading away to darkness). Entry for: Part 3, Chapter 23 "The migrant people, scuttling for work, scrabbling t...

• Word Count: 832
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... it his front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway." (Steinbeck, 22) How the turtle struggled to cross the road represents the troubles and hardships that the farmer's and their families would endure as the coming of the great migration approached. In chapter seven, the reader is shifted into the mind of a crooked car ... What does that event portend about what lies ahead? The first unpleasant thing to happen on the Joad's family is the death of their dog, which ironically symbolizes the pain to be hel...

• Word Count: 5172
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: High School

... uses many symbols throughout his book to make points, from the turtle to the rain at the end. The turtle is one of the symbols that I have picked up on. They talk about how the turtle attempts to cross the road, and he is nearly crushed twice by passing motorists, and is flung off the road by a motorist who tried to squash the turtle in its tracks. I feel that this turtle stands ... poor people. They"re the only ones that"ll help-the only ones." (Steinbeck) We see many examples of this, and one is in chapter 15 at the truck station. You have three people who do not have much money, the ...

• Word Count: 1597
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... uses many symbols throughout his book to make points, from the turtle to the rain at the end. The turtle is one of the symbols that I have picked up on. They talk about how the turtle attempts to cross the road, and he is nearly crushed twice by passing motorists, and is flung off the road by a motorist who tried to squash the turtle in its tracks. I feel that this turtle stands ... poor people. They"re the only ones that"ll help-the only ones." (Steinbeck) We see many examples of this, and one is in chapter 15 at the truck station. You have three people who do not have much money, the ...

• Word Count: 1596
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... their first winter in California. The novel is basically divided into three sections: their time in Oklahoma, their journey to a "better" life in California, and their time while in California. It also contains "inter-chapters" that don't focus mostly on the Joads, and rather the situation at hand for all "Okies" on their way to California. The opening chapter describes the lives of farm owners dealing with ... the drought in Oklahoma along with a dust storm. "Men stood by their fences and looked at ... filled with migrants, or in other words, "a path of people in flight (128)." This des...

• Word Count: 1730
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... - were not expecting people to cheat them or take advantage of how desperate they were. People along the road to California saw the "Okies- as poor, migrant beggars and thieves. When the Joads finally get on the road, they experience much traffic on the highway because lots of other farmers received the same ad Ma Joad received. In chapter 13, the family dog gets run over by a car, an event that foreshadows ... the death of Grandpa Joad. Grandpa Joad died of a stroke. The strain of the heat and his homesickness were too much for him to ... bear. The Joad family was just one of many ... ...

• Word Count: 1294
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... nomadic families came upon harsh, dry deserts and lush valleys; they lived gruelingly out of automobiles or simply out of quality government camps. Living out of a truck while on the road caused many problems for the Joads as well as all other travelers, such as sickness and often death. When darkness fell, they pitched their tents wherever they could stop, most frequently ... cold water, showers, washtubs, and even flushing toilets. The inhabitants governed themselves and held dances each Saturday night. The boxcar camp provided a roof over each family's head in a small boxcar. Lastly, ...

• Word Count: 787
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... self reliance as essential for human survival. In the book, Ma Joad exemplifies this belief when she says "We"re the people we go on" (Steinbbeck ). It seems that Steinbeck is fascinated with the class of people the Joads represent, and their will to survive. In chapter fourteen, in one of the intercalary chapters the narrator asserts that humans are "unlike any other ... thing organic or inorganic in the universe."- They have a will to survive that ... the time on the road; and the time in California where the novel ends. This division of the novel corresponds to the three stages of t...

• Word Count: 1670
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School