• Significance Of The Slot Machine In Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck
• Significance Of The Slot Machine In Grapes Of Wrath Walkthrough

Machines and Animals: Pervasive Motifs in 'The Grapes of Wrath'

Through out the Novel The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses many different symbols to represent a bigger picture or even to give us an image and help us picture a scene more vividly. The Bank The bank is a symbol of power, it controls the people and turns them against one another, even during a crisis like the dust bowl, it is able to cause some. Having trouble understanding The Grapes of Wrath? Here's an in-depth analysis of the most important parts, in an easy-to-understand format. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck contrasts the ideals of agrarian democracy against the unnatural intrusion of machines. In one case, Steinbeck equates the bank, having taken control of a.

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Gta online casino podium car. JEGP focuses on Northern European cultures of the Middle Ages, covering Medieval English, Germanic, and Celtic Studies. The word 'medieval' potentially encompasses the earliest documentary and archeological evidence for Germanic and Celtic languages and cultures; the literatures and cultures of the early and high Middle Ages in Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia; and any continuities and transitions linking the medieval and post-medieval eras, including modern 'medievalisms' and the history of Medieval Studies.

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Chapter Discussions and Assignments
Chapters 1, 2 and 3
Chapter one: -Establishes the situation from which the people and happenings will emerge. A prelude. Importantly, deals with the Depression as a devastation of the land—not just Wall Street meltdown
-Through the use of exquisite description—primarily colors, the author chronicles the progressive destruction of the drought.
- -Red turns to pink; gray to white; green to brown; the ploughed earth becomes a thin hard crust. It is a growth cycle in reverse.
-Conflict: man vs. nature—devastation of the drought
-The dawn comes, but no day—
--Read descriptive excerpts--
--The effect of this description/imagery of the physical state of things—and by implication –the mental/emotional state—and as we know as we read—the moral state of things—is devastating. Unity of narration.
--No individuals are introduced. Why? To suggest that the problem of survival is timeless, ageless, elemental; a problem for all humankind
--“The women studied the men’s faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else remained.” What is that something else? The immediate crisis is economic, but there is a loss of morale, of dignity as well.
-What does Steinbeck suggest about the power of wrath when he writes that as long as the men were “hard and angry and resistant, ..no misfortune was too great to bear”?
The men are watching the devastation of the dust storm with worry and concern, but their faces “became hard and angry and resistant.” This line stands as an early reference to the theme of the novel’s title, the idea of wrath, which is presented by Steinbeck as a necessary quality that will enable his characters to retain their dignity throughout the hardships they have to endure. It helps them to retain their sense of humanity, even when they have to live under inhumane conditions
The Dust as symbol: Repeated 27 times in chapter one. Why all that repetition? Life comes for the land and the land has turned to dust. It is all-pervading and everyone is caught up in its swirl.
Visual and aural effects: alliteration; assonance; repetition; personification;
The earth dusted down in dry little streams; every moving thing lifted the dust into the air; the dust from the roads fluffed up; the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and the wind felt over the earth, loosened the dust and carried it away; the stars could not pierce the dust to get down;
Crust, fluffed, brushed, muffled.
The wind becomes an agent of the dust as it assists the dust in dominating air, sky, sun, and stars. –The women must battle it; the children are obliged to play in it, and the endurance of the men is tested
Dust assignment? Pictures? Letters? Classwork? HW?
How are the owners of the land like the dust? Agents of destruction
Chapter 2
Hello Tom Joad. LW song.
Significance of slot machine: fixed by the “system.” Only seems to give a fair chance
Motif of lowly truck driver following orders. At this point, there is hope; people are not reveling in oppressing and persecuting their fellow man
What is significant about the way Tom convinces the driver to violate his “No Riders”policy?
Tom convinces the truck driver that they are both members of the same social class,oppressed by the wealthy company owner/capitalist. By having Tom suggest that the policy was probably imposed on the driver by his boss, Steinbeck is beginning to set up his socialist theme of the oppression of the masses by the capitalist.
Irony: Juxtopisition of driver who travels and Tom who believes he is going home to settle down when in reality he is going to be traveling, an exile.
Chapter 3
What human characteristics does the turtle exemplify?
The turtle exemplifies the qualities of strength and endurance. It gets struck twice on its way across the street. Yet, the turtle resumes its path patiently and continues to endure and move ahead against all odds.
To what extent does the turtle’s encounter with the car and the truck parallel the fate of the Joad family as they are driven off their land?
The turtle’s life is put in jeopardy by the fast and careless progression of automobiles on thehighway. In the same way that the turtle has to struggle against the inhuman and mechanical threat posed by these vehicles, the Joad family has to fi ght for survival in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by big industries and corporations.
Symbol: The turtle is a symbol of the migrants. Facing haphazard luck and interference, keeps going on in a southwesterly direction paralleling the Joads. Foreshadowing.
Symbol of survival
Symbolism of carrying an oat seed inside his shell which falls out and the turtle’s “shell dragged dirt over the seeds.” Hopeful symbol: turtle perpetuates life, assists in the rebirth of lifeas it makes its way.
Turtle: Excellent realistic description.
Picked up in Ch. 4 by Tom Joad—shows the inter-linking of chapters and inter-chapters and the unity of narration. Repetition heightens symbolic value.
Chapter 4
Tom’s clothes and hat: ill fitting. Tom trying to break in the hat. A reminder of his prison sentence. Tom harbors no resentment at the prison or institutions at this point, he accepts theiri judgment though he feels that he has done nothing wrong. However, the violence that he is capable of is foreshadowed here.
What might Steinbeck be suggesting by making the preacher’s name Jim Casy?
Jim Casy’s initials—J.C.—are the same as the initials of Jesus Christ. His character functions as a Christ-like fi gure who breaks with traditional religious values and seeks his own personal vision of salvation and spirituality
Casy’s song: Casy singing religious lyrics to a ragtime tune is Steinbeck’s did not believe that organized religion was of any use to these people.
Tom’s remark that he should have been a preacher himself: Linking Casy and Tom., both of whom function as Christ figures. Tom will become a leader of the oppressed.
Casy’s new moral code: He has been in the wilderness. Emerges with a philosophy that denies the existence of sin or virtue. Refuses to judgethe conduct of others. Through love and cooperation, people can make life meaningful on earth now—the only place that it counts.
Sex: “ Maybe it ain’ a sin. Maybe it’s just the way folks is. Maybe we been whippin’ the hell out of ourselves for nothing.”
Jesus: “Don’t you love Jesus? No, I don’t know nobody name Jesus. I only know a bunch of storues, but I only love people.”
“Why do we gotta hang it on God or Jesus?..Maybe ait’s all men and women that we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit—the human spirit. Maybe all men got one big soul everybody’s a part of.”
Transcendentalism. The Oversoul; Whitman; Self Reliance
Uncle John: Weighed down by guilt abouyt wife’s death which Casy has declared as irrelevant. His sins old and new seem meaningless in the face of the family’s need to survive.
Chapter 5
Passing the blame: All the people in the story are caught up in forces that are bigger than themselves, beyond their control. Naturalism
No traceable human will behind the evictions, just an inhuman monster created by big business and characterized by dehumanizing greed and opportunism. Mne have created the monster but cannot control it. Civil Disobedience
Who owns the land? Steinbeck believes that ownership does not meran legal possession but in personal experience. People are the land, stewards of the land. Anonymous owners can posses it but never really be theirs.
How is the tractor described? Inhuman imagery. Unnatural insect wraking destruction.
Man inhuman as well
Compared to farmer with a plowhorse to show man and macines remoteness from the land. Brings only death, not life.
Conversation between farmers and driver: People beginning to turn on one another for their own gain. “ My family comes first” attitude. Only later do people realize that by destroying others they are really destroying themselves.
What is the significance of the goggles worn by the tractor drivers?
On a literal level, the goggles are to protect the tractor drivers’ eyes. On a more symbolic level,the tractor drivers wear goggles to avoid having to face the farming families directly. Thegoggles lend them a sense of anonymity. Many of the tractor drivers were originally farmers themselves, and they are ashamed to admit that they are now working for the “other side.”
The company has “ goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception, muzzled his protest.”
Why would it be pointless for the farmers to shoot the tractor drivers in order to avoid eviction?
If a tractor driver were shot or hurt by an angry tenant farmer, the landowner would simplyreplace him with another tractor driver. When the driver says “you’re not killing the rightguy,” he explains that he is simply following orders. The tractor driver does not have anypower to decide whether the farmers can stay, and he could be easily replaced on orders of theones who are really in charge. The tractor driver also implies that the people who make thedecisions are completely out of the tenant farmers’ reach and can, therefore, not be destroyed.
Chapter 6
The turtle’s release: Just as Tom is about to begin his journey.
What does the turtle’s continued journey in a southwestern direction foreshadow?
The turtle suggests the perseverance and endurance that the Joad family will, likewise, have to demonstrate. Like the turtle, the family will soon be migrating to the south and west. Interestingly, the image of the turtle in its shell resembles the migrants, who will carry all of their worldly goods in trucks and cars as they migrate.
Journey motif: Places the Joads in the pantheon of the Odyssey, Huck Finn, Don Quixote, Catcher; in which the hero, a wanderer, moves through experiences which end up involving him with a new understanding of the world and himself.
For Steinbeck, movement means determination, survival. Not blind instinct, but will.
Muley Graves: The bitter alternative to the Joad’s decision to migrate. Name reveals his stubborn spirit that mirrors that of the Joad’s but his last name reveals his futility, and his end which will be death. Symbol. Still, he shows some dignity: will not go because he was told to do so. He is wandering around in a graveyard of hopes, a graveyard of abandoned farms.
“ Like an ol’ graveyard ghost.”
Tom refuses to sleep in cave: Will not lower himself to Muley’s degardes condition. When Tom does sleep/hide in a cave, it is to emerge reborn with a new , clear vision of himself and his role in society.
Theme: Human dignity
What effect does Steinbeck’s use of colloquialism and regional dialect?
Steinbeck’s us of colloquialisms and regional dialect lends a sense of realism, honesty, and verisimilitude to the novel as a whole. Readers will fi nd the characters to be more believable and authentic.
What is significant about Tom’s prediction that Pa Joad will be critical of the writing skills he acquired in jail?
Tom explains that “ever’ time Pa seen writin’, somebody took somepin away from ’im.”Pa has come in contact with writing only in the form of legal documents: mortgages, foreclosures, leases, eviction notices, etc., all negatives, from his point of view.
Chapter 7
Car Dealer:
Conflict has degenerated/escalated from man v. nature to man v. man
3 important aspects:
1. car dealer(s) have no sense of brotherhood or compassion. No values, decency. Irony: they count on the Okies values—honesty, decency and use ot against them.
2. Car dealers refelect Steinbeck’s view of business: the fee market system creates inhunman valueless people who care only for profit not their fellow man. Passes the buck: turns loans over to a finance agency. No one takes responsibility for their actions.
3. Introduces the car as “home”
Prose Style: Staccato, abrupt, blunt. Mirrors harsh mechanical facts of life the Joads are encountering on the road. Inhumanity, indecency.
How and why do the pace and tone change in this chapter? How does Steinbeck achieve this new pace and tone?
The pace quickens and the tone becomes more detached, no longer a narrator telling a story about people to an audience, but almost as if the audience were watching a hidden-camera program. Steinbeck achieves the fast pace by using a series of short sentences and sentence fragments. He also limits his punctuation—e.g., no quotations marks for the limited dialogue. He achieves the distant tone by merely stating action without detailing it. He states action, but does not develop a motivation or an emotional state.
Newsreel technique: John Dos Passos
Staccato & repetition: Carl Sandburg
Chapter 8
Characterization of Ma & Pa &: Elemental, God-like , larger than life. They surmount tragedy by moving forward.
What does the following description reveal about Ma’s character and her standing in theJoad family: “And since Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless sheacknowledged hurt and fear, she had practiced denying them in herself”?
This description reveals that Ma has lived through many hard times and has suffered enough to have “practiced” pretending that she is all right for the sake of her family. The passage also reveals that the family depends on Ma for guidance. Ma’s reaction to difficult situations paves the way for the entire family to deal with hardship.
Change Tom sees in Ma: Resentment building. She can understand Tom’s prison sentence, but not the loss of home /land. She echoes Casy’s call for people to unite but as a warning to Tom not to go it alone. Ma is the first to see the need for a concerted effort among people.
Theme: Unite as group, not stay as individuals.
Negative themes: economic and moral decline; loss of dignity; shattering of family unit
Positive themes emerge in chapter 8: Ma as matriarch senses the protection and power that arise form collective action. Innate understanding about keeping the family together develops into a social manifesto: the importance of collective action to bring about change.
See examples when Wilson’s & Joads join together; then the government camp where community organization is in effect
Theme: Love Ma important symbol of love. Casy prophesizes and the Joads act on his prophesies. Whitmanesque brotherhood. Tom is converted or reborn-from primitive individual to ne wway of thinking due to his interaction with Casy and Ma.
“ Ma watched the preacher as he ate (communion). She watched as though he were suddenly a spirit, a voice out of the ground.”
Casy: A pragmatist. God is love, but since he cannot know God he can only judge the effects that love has on his fellow man. He judges that good, and says that what is needed in the world, call it what you will.
Pragmatism 3rd of three philosophical strands in novel. 1. Transcendentalism 2. Whitmanesque Brotherly love 3. Pragmatism
Pragmatism = what is rather than “why” or “what should be”
Ch. 6 “ Hope of heaven when their lives ain’t lived?” They got to live before they can afford to die.”

Significance Of The Slot Machine In Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck

To what extend does Casy’s failure to say “Amen” at the end of his prayer illustrate the difference between his religious convictions and the religious convictions held by families like the Joads?
Unlike the Joads, Casy has detached himself from the teachings and doctrines of organizedreligion. He has learned that he can fi nd faith only by experiencing the world and the people around him directly. Casy has turned away from impersonal, organized religion toward a practiced faith that enables him to actively improve the lives of his fellow human beings. The Joads, on the other hand, uphold religious beliefs almost out of habit and a sense of tradition.
They have not yet learned that religious practice is pointless if it does not serve to improve their everyday lives.
Ma also a pragmatist. Does what has to be done. Acts from love. Ch 8 G’mas death.
Imagery
How does Steinbeck use light and darkness to suggest character and developing

Significance Of The Slot Machine In Grapes Of Wrath Walkthrough

relationships?
As the sun rises, the face of Jim Casy—the former preacher and potential Christ-figure—seems to glow, suggesting a state of grace or enlightenment. Tom, who is not yet that enlightened, but will eventually become Casy’s disciple, appears dark.
Chapter 9
What bitterness is being bought? The opportunistic exploiters are buying junked lives. The anger is growing.
A Foreshadowing of the violence to come. The avaricious business men have brought upon themselves the curse to which the title refers: “He s trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” Steinbeck’s socialistic vision iof the downtrodden poor rising in anger.
“And some day the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together and there’ll be a dead terror from it.”
What does the line, “But I warn you, you’re buying what will plow your own childrenunder,” indicate about the relationship between the people leaving Oklahoma and the people staying behind?
The tenant farmers have to make diffi cult decisions as they prepare for their journeys to California. They know that there is a growing division between the people staying behind and the people leaving the state. By taking advantage of those who are selling their belongings, the buyers are perpetuating the system of the banks and large companies pushing people off the land and setting in motion a course of action that can result only in their and their children’s deaths.
Pilgrims Progress: