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.
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