The Grapes of Wrath: ch. 1-12

So far The Grapes of Wrath is a very interesting book. Many things of happened. The author, John Steinbeck, separates the chapters by telling the story of a family in the even chapters and telling more metaphorical stories in the odd chapters.

The story starts out in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl time period. Many farmers are being evicted from their farms and homes because they can not pay for the big machinery that is now being used for farming.

Most of the farmers are poor. Steinbeck gives a good analysis of the "good and bad", "rich and poor", in the first few chapters of the book. The farmer is depicted as the good, yet poor person, and the salesmen, owners of big farm machinery, government, ect. are depicted as the bad rich people.

After the farmers are evicted from their homes they try very hard to sell some of their valuables, so they can save money to move to California (this is where the people who evicted them tell them to go). The wives gather up things for their husbands to sell, contemplating on whether to keep special family heirlooms. In the end, they sell almost all of their most prized possessions. The farmers take their things to the pawn shops hoping to make a lot of money, but they only come back with around 15 dollars.

After finally making enough money to buy a car, the farmers go to a used car dealership. The salesmen totally screw the farmers over. They sell them the worst car they have for a very high price. The farmers, not knowing much about cars and only wanting to finally get to California, pay the very high price and set out on their way. Unfortunately, the farmers hit many speed bumps along the way and always have to get their cars fixed, which costs even more terribly high prices.

All these things happen to the main family in the book, the Joad family. They also have problems with departing from their home, especially the grandfather. The family also starts to blur the lines of women's and men's work. Everyone helps out with everything to keep the family together and working.