GOW+Chapter+17

Focus questions

**__Analysis__**

By creating such communities, the farmers are expressing their desire for something normal. When they create their own laws and rules, they are setting up a sort of government. This government, like the United State’s government, has the power to punish those who do not obey its laws. The migrants do not know how to exist without such structure, so they bring it into their own lives. However, these communities are only created in the night and the next morning they dissipate. Night is a time of darkness and unknown, and the travelers look for security. They are able to find this by creating such communities amongst themselves. 

//"The families learned what rights must be observed..." (Page 194)

"And the families learned, although no one told them, what rights are monstrous and must be destroyed..." (Page 194)

"And as the worlds moved westward, rules became laws..." (Page 194)//

The migrants created laws and restrictions for themselves as an attempt at normalcy. They need the stability, even though the temporary communities were not able to provide much.

 

  This passage describes the lives of the farmers as they journey westward. It is organized to demonstrate to the reader the tediousness of their daily lives as migrant farmers. The author describes what the farmers are seeing and experiencing in their small communities that they create. The purpose of this passage is to allow the reader to visualize the long journey to California.
 * __ Organization  __**

  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">**__ Tone and Mood __** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> The mood of the passage is serious and nostalgic. The narrator describes the farmer’s situation with sympathy, as he is able to convey to the reader a sense of solemnity. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">

__**Language and Style**__

Steinbeck uses abstract language in this chapter to describe communities. There is the usual concept of what a community entails, such as a town with stores, homes, neighbors, etc. However, when Steinbeck uses the word community in Grapes of Wrath, he is not referring to this type of normalcy. Instead, the word community, for the travelers, refers to their constructed laws and rules that every farmer is somehow aware of. Also, their communities change daily, unlike a normal one, which usually remains fairly constant. Nightly, their neighbors change and new people are met.

//<span style="font-size: 125%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> "Every night a world created, complete with furniture-friends make and enemies established."

"...and every morning the world torn down like a circus." (Page 194)

//<span style="font-size: 125%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> //"In the morning the tents came down, the canvas was folded, the tent poles tied along the running board, the beds put in place on the cars, the pots in their places." (Page 194)// <span style="font-size: 125%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> These quotes exemplify Steinbeck's use of the word community and how it differs from our concept of a community. The migrants' communities were temporary and had to be created quickly and destroyed by the following morning.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> The sentences that Steinbeck uses tend to be extremely descriptive sentences. He uses sentence variety when introducing a new idea or when further describing an idea that has been previously introduced. Steinbeck includes information on an idea or subject in the middle of sentences to give the reader further knowledge on the subject.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Citations **__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Phillips, Brian and Hopson, David. //SparkNote on The Grapes of Wrath//. 27 Mar. 2008 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">[|http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grapesofwrath/ <span] style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">.

Steinbeck, John. __The Grapes of Wrath__. New York, NY: The Viking Press, Inc., 1939. (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)

Vleck, Kelly M. __CliffsNotes on Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath__. New York, NY: Wiley Publishing Inc., 2000.

APayzant MParsons Per. 3