Post 1 (Ch. 1-3)- Julianna

Julianna Hale
Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Read and Post by Oct. 28

Hi Griselda. So the first section is only two chapters but the rest are three; just FYI.

In Chapter 1, which was a very short chapter, I saw that it was just describing a horrible dust storm. It seems that the book takes place in the past, I would say the 1930s because it said, "houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows" (106..Large print copy). This means that the houses weren't very well built back then and they didn't have the right materials to build stable and enclosed homes. This could also mean that they were poor but I got the impression that it took place in the past because 1) It is John Steinbeck and his novels are much older and 2) the text just sounds like it is describing something from long ago. I think that the main point of Chapter One was to just get a mental picture into the readers head. No characters were introduced; just the setting. I also think this chapter was foreshadowing something that is going to happen later on in the book.
In Chapter 2, the real story starts to begin. The character Tom Joad is introduced. He is a hitch-hiker that had just gotten out of prison for killing a man. He started talking to the driver who picked him up but you never find out his name. Do you think the book is going to be about the two of them traveling together like in Of Mice and Men, or do you think it is going to be in Joad's perspective one time and then the other character's perspective the next? Or do you think it might be something else?
Chapter 3, I think, is a symbol of the whole book and what the book is going to be about. The turtle is trying to make his way out of the pond, across the highway, and down the embankment. Also, the turtle is a slow animal. This symbolizes the group of people who have to leave their home, travel all the way to California, and start their lives again there. The slowness represents the long journey. When the turtle is hit by Joad's truck and he ends up flat on his back, this signifies the struggles and hardship the people will have to face. This whole chapter is just one big symbol.