GOW+Chapter+5

Focus questions

=__Grapes of Wrath__=

Chapter 5 Outline


The purpose of this chapter was to explain to the reader the situation at hand and the plight of the common man in 1930’s America. Steinbeck uses pathos, an appeal to the reader’s emotions to convey the message clearly and get the reader to sympathize with the Joad family and the rest of the tenant farmers. By doing this Steinbeck conveys the message that we are better as a whole, like the turtle shell from chapter 3, than as individuals. Also, this chapter helps to impress the depth and power of the problem at hand in American agrarian society at this time.

__Organization__
Steinbeck uses a cause and effect style of organization in this chapter. Put simply, he states that because the farmer’s did not do produce the owner men were taking the land back. The cause, “The owner men sat in their cars and explained. You know the land is poor. You’ve scrabbled at it long enough” and the effect, “You’ll have to get off the land.”

__Tone & Mood__
The mood of this chapter is depression, sadness, disappointment and sorrow. The tenant farmers are depressed and sad because they are losing their farms and disappointed in their neighbors for plowing their homes down. Steinbeck’s tone in this chapter reflects great sympathy for the farmers and their terrible situation.

__Language & Style__
The language used in this chapter is formal and concrete. Steinbeck gets to the point in his sentences without using excess baggage or making them fluffy. Even thought the language is simple, Steinbeck retains a rhythm in his writing contained in the pauses and sentence structure. He appeals mainly to the visual senses of the reader in this chapter, “The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects.”

__Literary Devices__
To convey the image and theme of this chapter Steinbeck uses several literary devices. To improve on the idea of the bank as evil, he uses personification, “A Bank or a company can’t do that, because those creatures don’t breathe air, don’t eat side-meat.” He also uses some repetition and anaphora in the chapter to better describe the situation of the owner men, “Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid and some worshipped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and feeling.”

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 * "The Grapes of Wrath." SparkNotes. 2006. SparkNotes LLC.. 21 Mar 2008 <[|http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grapesofwrath/section3.rhtml>.]
 * Steinbeck, John. __The Grapes of Wrath__. Centennial Edition. New York City: Penguin Books Inc., 2002.