I wrote this about a year ago, before I had 50,000 words built up in some other story that I myself am writing. Feel free to grimace and mock me for my spelling, grammar, and maybe even ideas. But I hope that those at least are semi sound.
After finishing the Grapes of Wrath i am left with a feeling of John steinbeck just kinda being done with the book.
The
whole book is masterfully laid out, with the characters all believably
developed, and yet, he ends it with a weird scene of Rosasharn letting
an old fifty year old man drink the milk of her dead baby, in a barn, in
the hay. Nothing is really resolved. Tom has to run away, Al stays with
the Weinwraths to marry Aggie, Casy is killed, and Connie has already
run off. The family is falling apart, something that Ma has been dead
set against the whole book. The other characters may have developed into
tougher people bet they all have the same problems. Uncle John is still
worried about sinning, he still feels that even his thoughts are too
sinful for him to remain in the company of other humans. Pa is still
worried about getting a job, he still worries that the control of the
family is now Ma's. Ruthie and Winfield are still just kids, confused
about what is going on but still able to be cordial to each other, for
the most part. Ruthie gets meaner as she becomes more and more aware of
the families problems, but she still is too young to have serious
worries, that she can express. Tom, though he is now on the run to for
killing a man, still worries about what is right. He thinks he is pretty
close, he wants to start a union, and try to help people, but he still
is mre of an impulisive character. His emotions lead his actions and
when he tries to restrain himself it is very hard for him. Al is still
into girls, though he does find Aggie, she is still his main focus,
Aggie and the truck are his chief concern.
The only character with
new worries is Rosasharn. Her husband has run off, something she has
now come to terms with, her baby was born, it was dead, but it is no
longer weighing her down. She is the one who is basically going to
become a new character have a new role if the book continued, and she is
the one that ends the book, the one who does the weird, uncomfortable,
akward thing of letting a much older man suck the milk out of her
breast. After thinking it over, i think that Steinbeck is actually
saying that Rosasharn is now much more important, is a better person,
has more will to survive and make other people survive than anyone else
in the book. And as the Joad's story continues, undocumented she will
play a large part in keeping the family alive. Ma and her will become
almost equals. They will both have gone through personal hardships that
have made them stronger. Ma's is seeing her family breaking up, falling
apart, and Rosasharn's is having her husband run off, and giving birth
to a dead baby. Plus they share the hardships of being Okies on the road
in the middle of the Great Depression.
So ya, thats
what i think of the Grapes of Wrath. Sorry if a lot of the capitol
letters aren't capitol, my shift keys are kinda flipping out. Don't feel
like cooperating anymore. Now I actually have to go do homework, but if
anybody does read this, then i hope you think i am really smart and
insightful after reading that Joad bit. I just want you to know that, i
made that all up and you probably shouldn't quote me.....I am only a
sophmore in highschool afterall. And you may have noticed that I don't
really know how to make sentances, I am just faking it.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
1984, George Orwell
(Spoiler, don't read if you haven't read the book.)
I read this book a while ago but it is the book that gave me this whole idea so I might as well start with it. I apologize if I get plot points wrong, or mess up on a character's name. I actually don't really remember how the book begins, but I will do my best.
When the book first begins, I remember now, Winston Smith, the protagonist, is just coming home from a day of work. He mentions things that will be prevalent throughout the whole book. Orwell writes Winston's thoughts in a matter of fact way. It isn't necessarily bad that the elevator is broken, there is an image of Big Brother on the wall that seems to be always watching you, or that you actually are always watched by the telescreen, it is just how it is. Winston stands with his back to the telecsreen so that he is allowed to think. I could consider this a symbolic hint at what the rest of the book is going to be like. Winston, until he is captured, often turns his back to authority and then seems to work twice as hard to appear to be a diehard Big Brother supporter.
I think that Orwell must have been a very suspicious guy in real life because he has the rebels lead by Big Brother and the Party. He must have, somewhere in his heart, never completely trusted anybody. The message that is clear throughout the book is everyone is breakable, no one is a good person, and the people you think you can trust are actually working against you.
Two of the people that Winston comes to trust implicitly end up betraying him. One is the owner of the little shop where Winston buys the paperweight, the journal, and eventually uses as a place to see his lover, Julia. The owner though he is dressed as a prole, is actually a member of the Thought Police. The other is O'Brien. O'Brien is a member of the inner party who convinces Winston and then though Winston, Julia, that he is a member of the rebels, seeking to overthrow Big Brother and the whole party system. He even goes as far as to write a book of all the flaws and ways the current party works. Once Winston and Julia are completely immersed in illegal activity O'Brien has the Thought Police arrest them. The rest of the book is difficult to read because it is all about torture, physical and mental.
The torture is so acute that eventually Winston is convinced that two plus two is five. To add to that O'Brien does the torturing and Winston thinks of O'Brien as a friend no matter how many unspeakable things O'Brien does to him.
This strange trust that Winston has in O'Brien makes the reader wonder whether O'Brien is even a supporter of Big Brother at all. O'Brien is head of the Thought Police so he would never be caught, it is a possibility to mull over. I have for quite sometime, I don't run out of things to think about or re-think about in the matter because there is no conclusive evidence in the text for either side.
When Winston is finally released he is just a shell. His mind has been worn down from the stress to think whatever it is that he is told to think. The only thing that lets the reader know that he is still a tiny bit Winston is that he will remind himself that two plus two is five, and when he finally realizes he loves Big Brother, he is happy because he gets to die.
The book starts out dark but matter of fact. It isn't till the end of the book when the reader has had the depressing thought provoking situation bored into their head that they really realize how bad it has been all along.
In one scene toward the beginning of the book Winston is walking down the street where a bomb is set to explode. He ducks for cover because that it what the proles are doing and the proles have good intuition. When he gets up and continues on his way there is a body part in the street from a prole that didn't move fast enough. He just kicks it aside with his foot, no biggy. I just kept reading till that processed then went back and read it again. Winston's train of thought didn't even wander as he kicked the hand, or whatever it was, out of the way. So neither does the reader's.
At the end of the book when you close it and look up, pulling yourself out of the world, you are plunged back in with -- Wait a minute, it didn't just get worse at the end, it was that bad from the beginning. How was I able to sit through this whole book?
I think that George Orwell did a very good job with the whole thing. It is a different take on the human condition. It doesn't voice and opinion on whether humans are inherently good or bad, it just shows how he thinks humans would cope if there was nothing good at all. If they never knew anything good, what he thinks would happen. As 1984 is the only book I have read with such a theme I am inclined to believe what Orwell thought, that humans would think as told, do as told, and rethink as told. Their job isn't to support themselves, or have interesting ideas. For them to survive they are to be something that is nothing.
I read this book a while ago but it is the book that gave me this whole idea so I might as well start with it. I apologize if I get plot points wrong, or mess up on a character's name. I actually don't really remember how the book begins, but I will do my best.
When the book first begins, I remember now, Winston Smith, the protagonist, is just coming home from a day of work. He mentions things that will be prevalent throughout the whole book. Orwell writes Winston's thoughts in a matter of fact way. It isn't necessarily bad that the elevator is broken, there is an image of Big Brother on the wall that seems to be always watching you, or that you actually are always watched by the telescreen, it is just how it is. Winston stands with his back to the telecsreen so that he is allowed to think. I could consider this a symbolic hint at what the rest of the book is going to be like. Winston, until he is captured, often turns his back to authority and then seems to work twice as hard to appear to be a diehard Big Brother supporter.
I think that Orwell must have been a very suspicious guy in real life because he has the rebels lead by Big Brother and the Party. He must have, somewhere in his heart, never completely trusted anybody. The message that is clear throughout the book is everyone is breakable, no one is a good person, and the people you think you can trust are actually working against you.
Two of the people that Winston comes to trust implicitly end up betraying him. One is the owner of the little shop where Winston buys the paperweight, the journal, and eventually uses as a place to see his lover, Julia. The owner though he is dressed as a prole, is actually a member of the Thought Police. The other is O'Brien. O'Brien is a member of the inner party who convinces Winston and then though Winston, Julia, that he is a member of the rebels, seeking to overthrow Big Brother and the whole party system. He even goes as far as to write a book of all the flaws and ways the current party works. Once Winston and Julia are completely immersed in illegal activity O'Brien has the Thought Police arrest them. The rest of the book is difficult to read because it is all about torture, physical and mental.
The torture is so acute that eventually Winston is convinced that two plus two is five. To add to that O'Brien does the torturing and Winston thinks of O'Brien as a friend no matter how many unspeakable things O'Brien does to him.
This strange trust that Winston has in O'Brien makes the reader wonder whether O'Brien is even a supporter of Big Brother at all. O'Brien is head of the Thought Police so he would never be caught, it is a possibility to mull over. I have for quite sometime, I don't run out of things to think about or re-think about in the matter because there is no conclusive evidence in the text for either side.
When Winston is finally released he is just a shell. His mind has been worn down from the stress to think whatever it is that he is told to think. The only thing that lets the reader know that he is still a tiny bit Winston is that he will remind himself that two plus two is five, and when he finally realizes he loves Big Brother, he is happy because he gets to die.
The book starts out dark but matter of fact. It isn't till the end of the book when the reader has had the depressing thought provoking situation bored into their head that they really realize how bad it has been all along.
In one scene toward the beginning of the book Winston is walking down the street where a bomb is set to explode. He ducks for cover because that it what the proles are doing and the proles have good intuition. When he gets up and continues on his way there is a body part in the street from a prole that didn't move fast enough. He just kicks it aside with his foot, no biggy. I just kept reading till that processed then went back and read it again. Winston's train of thought didn't even wander as he kicked the hand, or whatever it was, out of the way. So neither does the reader's.
At the end of the book when you close it and look up, pulling yourself out of the world, you are plunged back in with -- Wait a minute, it didn't just get worse at the end, it was that bad from the beginning. How was I able to sit through this whole book?
I think that George Orwell did a very good job with the whole thing. It is a different take on the human condition. It doesn't voice and opinion on whether humans are inherently good or bad, it just shows how he thinks humans would cope if there was nothing good at all. If they never knew anything good, what he thinks would happen. As 1984 is the only book I have read with such a theme I am inclined to believe what Orwell thought, that humans would think as told, do as told, and rethink as told. Their job isn't to support themselves, or have interesting ideas. For them to survive they are to be something that is nothing.
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