Post 2 (Ch. 4-6)- Julianna

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

Hi Griselda

I do agree with you that the driver is a very curious person. He never flat out asked why Tom was in jail but Joad knew he the man wanted to know.

Chapter 4- Chapter four was actually confusing for me at first because of the language that Steinbeck uses. I'm not sure if it is a dialect or if that is just how they spoke back then. I did figure out though that the man sitting under the tree was a former preacher who had baptized Joad as a young boy. It is ironic that the preacher would become a man who drank and took girls out in the field (Sex). Joad explains that he was sent to jail for killing a man in a drunk bar fight but I think that his punishment was a little unfair. Joad states that the man had come at him with a knife and that he had picked up a shovel and hit him. I think Joad only did this out of self- defense. Casy (the preacher) asks Joad if he could come along with him because he wanted to see Joad's father again. Finally, Joad picks up the turtle he hit in the road and brings it back as a present for his little brother.

Chapter 5- This chapter is sad. The bank and landowner can't afford to keep the farmers so they have to let them go. The farmers, whose only source of money is by farming, fear for themselves and their families. They ask where will they go and the owners say to California. The men try to think of ways to support themselves and one of the ways was to destroy their homes. They got paid $3 per day to ride on a tractor and destroy everything in their path, even their own home. It was the only way they were going to get by.

Chapter Six- I thought that this chapter was kind of depressing for Tom. He thinks that his family has just up and left without leaving any note. Everything in the house is gone but that is because once the neighbors think the family leaves, everything left in the house is up for grabs. I actually think that Tom's father is very smart but also naive at the same time. He thinks that writing is waste, that if you want to tell a person something you tell it to there face. This is smart because this is like our era with texting. Some people think that communication should be kept alive and if you want to tell somebody something, call them and not text them. He's naive though because writing is an important feature to have. I think that Muley was a little irrational when he said that his family had moved to California but he wanted to stick to his grounds and not leave his home. He knows that he get arrested for going back because it would be considered trespassing. So now, he is just wandering around the town when he could be with his family in California. Do you think he is being irrational?