Analysis+of+Chapter+12


 * This passage is an expository essay because it explains Highway 66, which is the road that leads to California from the East.**


 * Steinbeck defines Highway 66 as "the main migrant road" and includes a detailed list of all the places it passes through.(118)
 * Steinbeck compares "Cars limping along 66 like wounded things, panting and struggling. Too hot, loose connections, loose bearings, rattling bodies" (122).
 * Steinbeck classifies Highway 66 as "the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership...66 is the mother road, the road of flight" (118).
 * Steinbeck also tells a story of hope to contrast the previous examples of despair. He portrays a family of twelve who had no car to get to California and had to rely on the generosity of others to get them there. At the end of the passage, Steinbeck writes, "But how can such courage be, and such faith in their own species? Very few things would teach such faith" (122).


 * The main argument Steinbeck is trying to convey in Chapter 12 is that the road traveled by the farmers to start their new life in California is difficult and it's a matter of luck whether or not the families make it. In a broader sense//,// everyone must use their innate resources to survive the unforseen circumstances that they encounter throughout their life.**

-"We got to get a tire, but, Jesus, they want a lot for a ol' tire." (120) This foreshadows the car troubles the Joads will have to overcome on their way to California. -"Ever hear of the border patrol on the California line? Police form Los Angeles-stopped you bastards, turned you back." (120) This description of the police foreshadow the anti-migrant behavior of the officers that control the government camp the Joads live in for a part of the novel. -The final story in the chapter about the family of twelve who relied on the kindness of others to get to California alludes to the Joads and the Wilsons helping each other through the struggles that life on the migrant road can cause.
 * Steinbeck uses repetition and appeals to your senses to exaggerate the feeling that the journey is long and tiring. "Listen to the motor. Listen to the wheels. Listen with your ears and with your hands on the steering wheel; listen with the palm of your hand on the gear-shift lever; listen with your feet on the floor boards" (119).
 * Steinbeck uses questions to show the uncertainty of success of the families in flight..."Wreck along the road, abandoned. Well, what happened to them? What happened to the folks in the car? Did they walk? Where are they? Where does the courage come from? Where does the terrible faith come from?" (122).
 * Chapter 12 is also used to foreshadow the events that the Joads will endure along their journey:


 * Tone and Mood**
 * Mood-Steinbeck creates a discouraging mood with his descriptions of the hard journey ahead of the migrants on Highway 66..."And the men driving the trucks and the overloaded cars listened apprehensively. How far between towns? It is a terror between towns. If something breaks-well, if something breaks we camp right here while Jim walks to town and gets a part and walks back and-how much food we got?" (119). At the end of the chapter however, Steinbeck expresses hope saying, "The people in flight from the terror behind-strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever." (122)


 * Tone-The chapter is written in a very matter of fact way because it gives realistic examples of things that might happen to the travelers. It is also broken down into a sequence of events starting with describing the road and where it goes, then explaining possible mishaps that the families might face.


 * Works Cited:**
 * Steinbeck, John. __The Grapes of Wrath__. New York: Penguin Group, 2002.
 * "The Grapes of Wrath". //Cliffs Notes//. Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2008. 
 * Image: 

tpatton and atomasek period 3