The Monster

 In Chapter 5 we learn about the insuperable force that lays waste to the farms and homes of Dust Bowl farmers.  This implacable beast stops for no man: "those creatures don't breathe air, don't eat side meat.  They breathe profits; they eat interest on money"(32)"  This beast destroys the farmhouses and barns and fields of the farmers evicting them from the land they have tilled for generations.

What is this "monster"?  Why is it so ruthless and destructive?  What kinds of attitudes, actions and strategies are a response (or at least seen as a response) to this fearsome foe?

All That Lives is Holy

 Religion plays an outsized role in the lives of the Joads and their fellow migrants.  Yet, the closest thing to a preacher in the story, Jim Casy, is a preacher who has renounced his vocation and who voices controversial views that depart from orthodox Christainity.  Early in the novel he proclaims, "The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue.  There's just stuff that people do"(23)  He later adds, "[M]aybe that's the Holy Sperit -- the human sperit--the whole shebang.  Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of"(24).  Later when he is pressed to give a eulogy over the grave of Grampa he says, "This here ol'man jus' lived a life an 'jus died out it . . . He was alive, an' that's what matters.  An' now he's dead, an' that don't matter"(144).  He goes on to quote a Blake poem that states that "all that lives is holy"(144). 

What is the significance of Casy, the preacher who no longer preaches?  What is it telling us about religion in a world that is seemingly suffering from a catastrophic plague almost Biblical in proprtion? What is the novel's take on religion and spirituality?

Turtles, and Weasles, and Dogs, Oh My!

Animal imagery abounds in The Grapes of Wrath.  An early chapter describes a turtle's journey to cross a road only to be hit by a truck (Chapter 3).  Muley Graves describes himself as an animal when he claims, "I was mean like a wolf.  Now I'm mean like a weasel" (57).  In addition the family dog meets an untimely end on the first stop on their journey (130) . 

Choose at least one such image from the chapters we have read.  What is the symbolic value of the image?  What is it telling us about themes, characters or ideas in this novel?  What is the point of all this animal imagery?