Week Two: The Grapes of Rath: Still Trucking Along

                Picking up where I left off last week in The Grapes of Rath, Al and Tom were on their way to get a part for the Wilson’s car. When they go to the nearest junkyard, the employee working was a one-eyed man who didn't wear an eye-patch. The guy kept saying things that made it obvious that he felt sorry for himself. Tom wasn't about to listen to it. He told him that the only reason that girls didn't want to be with him was because he didn't wear an eye patch. Tom also said the reason the guy didn't wear an eye patch was because then he couldn't complain and have a pity-party for himself. I noticed this part because it really shows a piece of Tom’s character all through the book. Tom is one of those people that tells it like it is and if you don’t like it then tough luck. I really admire this about Tom.

                Eventually, they get the part and they fix the car and get back on the road. They stay in these man-made camps where there are some unspoken rules. These camps are the base of one of Steinbeck’s descriptive chapters. I find these camps so intriguing because they are filled with people who don’t really know each other at all, but are still willing to help each other. They share food if someone needs them to, and if a baby dies, they all pitch in money. I believe this shows how the world has changed a lot since then because I’m not sure if all of that would happen in today’s world. I know that if I was parked on the side of the road and another car pulled up I would be scared, but in this book the characters, though not always welcoming, don’t mind when others pull up.

                After staying in camp after camp, the Joads and the Wilsons finally make to California, but they still need to make it across the desert. They stop to take a rest at a pond right before the dessert because Grandma isn't feeling good. This is when the Joads have their first encounter with the California lawmen. They find that they are not happy to have all of these newcomers, called Okies in a tone of disgust. The cop tells them they need to move on, so they load up, but the Wilson’s wife has become sick, so the Joads had to move on without them.

                Halfway across the desert, they get stopped by someone saying they need to search for plants, but Tom’s mom gets mad and starts yelling that they need to get Grandma to a doctor. Once they make it across the desert, the reader finds out that she was dead right before the patrol stops them to search. So for over half the trip across, Tom’s mom and the rest of the family had been laying in the back of the pickup with their dead Grandma and the only one who knew she was dead was Tom’s mom. This part kind of creeped me out. I can’t imagine lying on a mattress next to a dead family member.

                Once they get Grandma buried, the Joads come to their first encounter with a Hooverville. These are towns made out of tents and cardboard, or paper, or basically anything you could find, houses. The people in these camps are all looking for work, and there just isn’t ever enough to go around. This is where I ended reading for the week. I am a little scared for the Joad family because they aren’t used to living in a place like this. All of these people were very proud people. They come from an era where a man made himself. They didn't like to accept charity. Living with so little, many of these families had to share, but they always tried to find a way to give back. I believe that this was a great characteristic for people to have, and find it sad that this seems a lot rarer in today’s society.