Alriiiiight, section 2! Let’s kinda go over what’s happened…
Chapter 12 – Descriptions of all the state routes and stuff was kinda boring… but for real, I cannot even imagine how nervous they must be. I have a good 2002 car, and AAA, and you know, a job, and I still get really worried about breaking down on any drive longer than an hour. So driving like 2000 miles away without all that must SUCK.
Chapter 13 – Grampa croaks.
I was disappointed, instead of sad. Grampa and Granma seemed so feisty and fun, so I was looking forward to seeing more of them on the journey. But nope, Grampa dies right away. And so instead of being sad, I was like “Well hey, that’s probably for the best… old people slow ya down.”
Yeah, I’m a mean person. But losing people along the way KIND of helps, cause less mouths to feed and less weight on the truck, etc. I do think teaming up with the Wilsons was a good idea, though I expected Sairy to pass on next.
Chapter 14 – Sooooo… I actually had to go online and read the Sparknotes and Cliff’s Notes for this chapter, because I wanted to make sure I was understanding stuff right. But basically the government, banks, and/or Cali are getting nervous that these tons of displaced and angry people are going to band together and try to start some sort of uprising, and that’s why the Western states are being assholes to the people migrating West. And when I got to the part about Lenin and Marx and other notables being results of angry, poor people, I looked Steinbeck up again and I didn’t really realize before that he was so communist-y. And while I don’t think capitalism is great, I think communism is stupid. As an ideal it sounds fantastic, but there’s a reason communism has never been successful on a national level, and that’s because there will always be greedy people – people who are lazy, who are out for themselves, who will always try to have more than everyone else. So, I guess I like that Steinbeck is all sympathetic to the poor people, and farmers, and so on, but I don’t think he’s supporting the right solution to those problems. He’s a bit… idealistic? hippie-ish? for my tastes.
Chapter 15 – The diner scene. Ehh. It was a nice change of perspective, but I could have done without this chapter. I’m glad Mae ended up being nice to that guy and his kids though.
Chapter 16 – So, Ma is THE BEST.
I love that she was totally ready to cave in some heads to try to keep the family together. Good for her! Also, the preacher kind of tries to point out that hey, there’s a shit-ton of people heading the same way we are, so what if all the jobs are gone… and he just ignored. Though he raises a very valid point! When you think about it, the Joads are… kind of dumb. I know they’re supposed to be just simple farm folk, but come on, they really didn’t approach this thing with common sense. They took the advice of the same men that kicked them off their land, and headed to California. Why did they not talk this out and maybe head somewhere else, like north or east? Or the several times that they were warned by people just like themselves that California wasn’t a good situation, why didn’t they trust them and head somewhere else?
Also, T.J. was an ass in the chapter. And when him and the preacher were basically talking about how horny they both were and T.J. talked about how he “ran down” a prostitute and then didn’t pay her… was I the only one worried that they were both just sharing stories about raping girls? Or did I completely misunderstand that?
Chapter 17 - It’s nice that all the traveling people are bonding and getting into a routine and all, but this was a little boring.
Chapter 18 – They made it!
Hooooray! Honestly, I thought going into this section that the journey would be a lot harder. When you think about it, they only kind of lost the dead weight – grandparents, that dog no one really seemed to care about, and the weird son. Hardly any trouble with their crappy vehicle too. However they get warned YET AGAIN that the situation here is real crappola but they decide to stick it out and maybe it’ll be different for them. Which is just BOUND to be a terrible idea.
Also, Ma is proving her awesomeness once again. Granma dies and she sits with the dead body for houuuurssss to make sure they get across the border and into Cali all right. I felt bad for her, but once again I wasn’t really sad about the grandparent dying. I think this is one of the slip-ups Steinbeck has made in his writing – once the journey started he basically knocked both the grandparents out senseless and then they died. I didn’t really care that they died, because I didn’t get to see enough of them as characters to care.
Overall, lots of interesting stuff and lots to think about, but these chapters weren’t as strong and impressive at the first section. I’m excited to see what happens next… I’m hoping that Connie IS able to go learn some industrial skill so he can provide for his wife and kid. I’m hoping that Al and T.J. find jobs as mechanics or something, and that MAYBE Ma and Pa will find someway to make some money. But more likely, I see this going pretty badly and them maybe having to leave Cali by the end of the next section. We shall see!
~Sarah
I can’t believe you called the Joads stupid! OMG. Except they sort of are, only also not because WHAT ELSE CAN THEY DO?! Nothing, is what.
And the Tom rape thing? I had to read it about 3 times because I was like WHAT THE FUCK? But I’m faiiirly sure that he says that he says ‘she didn’t want no money’ (in fact he does, cause I just looked it up!) but actually now that I think about it, doesn’t mean that he didn’t rape her. Hmmm… *shudders*
The thing is… I kind of think being idealistic is awesome, and since the average person isn’t ever going to be able to do anything to change things, then you might as well be idealistic and think ‘but IF ONLY things could be this way.’ I guess that Steinbeck really is trying to change things though, and really? Good on him. Because the thing is, the reason that things are better now is really because of the more socialised elements of society (education, and, I don’t know, do you guys still have unemployment benefits? Stuff like that) whereas capitalism just fucks everyone apart from the super rich.
HIPPIES FOREVER!
LOL, okay the Joads aren’t STUPID… but seriously, they gave this so little thought! They didn’t even try to explore other options. And they KEEP ignoring the warnings of the people just like themselves. It’d be like a bank kicking me out of my house, and telling me “Oh that area over there is real nice” and I just take their word for it and head on over, and it ends up being the most ghetto, dangerous neighborhood ever. They didn’t even discuss the possibility of seeing what things are like in the East, or in any state except California.
I do appreciate the more “social” programs that we have, and that’s why first world countries being kind of a capitalist-socialist blend is a good thing. But pure socialism/communism, honestly, sounds terrible, and so does pure capitalism. It’s the little blends that make a country really good. (Oh, and yeah, we still have unemployment benefits… too much so, you could say. The only social program we really don’t have is national healthcare.) I guess I’m a little hard about Steinbeck being such an idealist is because I’m such a realist (or pessimist… a little of both). And he keeps talking about the people migrating as if they really will band together and start a revolution – but these people have nothing as it is, including no weapons, tactics, leaders, or anything you would really need to attempt to overthrow a system. And I can’t really picture any revolution taking place in most industrial countries anymore. The majority of the people today in developed countries have the necessities of life, and therefore have no real reason to revolt.
And LOL as far as hippies… I’m not a fan. Mainly because I’m not anti-war. I’m against wars that don’t have a good reason, but I’m okay with wars to defend your country… and I’ve also kind of accepted that war will more likely than not always be a part of human history. Again, that greed thing. Greedy people will always want more, which means they’ll try to take away from others, which will lead to war. Also, I’m not necessarily anti-violence – sometimes violence IS necessary. It’s why I dig Malcolm X and the Black Panthers a lot more than Martin Luther King Jr’s peaceful/turn-the-other-cheek philosophy. So yeah, not a pacifist. I’m also not down with tons of drug use, or “free love” AKA sleeping around with a bunch of people. There’s just so, so, so much about hippies not to like.
And everytime the preacher in this book talks about “one love among all the people” and “people should just love each other” stuff… ugh. It’s just so hippie-ish. How about people just should not be assholes to each other? Even though for the most part, they are. There’s that jadedness again.
“When you think about it, they only kind of lost the dead weight – grandparents, that dog no one really seemed to care about, and the weird son.” Hahaha, you are HARSH in this post! Fair enough, madam. Fair enough.
I think being idealistic about things can be troublesome when it makes you complacent. When you have this ideal that needs to be realized, but is impossible to realize, you kind of wind up saying “Oh well, if people were just better, things would be better.” Which, I mean, it doesn’t really do anything. Kind of a tautology. But it is nice to think about. Disclaimer: this is totally how I am. I suck in that exact manner.
I guess Steinbeck is trying to express these ideals so harshly so that all his readers kind of band together and Get Up, Stand Up.
Yeah… I do sound a bit mean, don’t I? But it’s truuue, and hopefully it’ll make it just a little bit easier on the Joads to try to take care of themselves now.
And yeah… I think people being complacent is what makes that idealism then seem silly, because if you want to bring about that idealistic change, you have to be willing to work for it and get others to work for it. And nowadays a lot of people just don’t have time for that – jobs to go to, bills to pay, kids to take care of, etc.
You know, instead of being all idealistic in the real world, I think I get that “Oh that would be nice” feeling more from sci-fi/fantasy genres, in which I can imagine a completely different place and experience it via books and games and movies and stuff. Or when I read physics books about the multiverse theory – it’s nice to think there could be infinite universes out there where stuff is all kinds of different – maybe in one universe the U.S. IS completely socialist, maybe in one there’s no racism, maybe in another females rule everything, etc… I’ve basically given up on our world, I guess.
Why don’t the Joads pay attention to all the people telling them “No jobs in Cali”??? I mean I guess I get WHY they ignore it, cos at least if they go to Cali there is hope there will be work. Instead of the crushing reality that no matter where they go, they will have nothing and will probably all starve. Or get run over. Or something.
Yeah, it’s like to them only Oklahoma and California exist, so they’re taking their chances on California. And I guess that’s the lesser of two evils, but what about like Missouri? Or the Dakotas? Or anywhere else? It’s like they don’t exist in this book.
“I have a good 2002 car, and AAA, and you know, a job, and I still get really worried about breaking down on any drive longer than an hour.”
Yeah, I’m all worried about my car because a little plastic part fell out of the door handle and I have to pull it really carefully or it makes an awful crunching noise. After GoW, I feel… less worried about that.
I re-read the part about “running down girls” about four times and couldn’t figure out if he raped her or if he had sex with her and then insulted her by offering her money. Either one doesn’t make Tom look like a good person.
Yeah, that thing with Tom is sketchy… no matter how you kind of look at it, it doesn’t sound good.
And so hooray for the awfulness in GoW making us feel better about stuff in our own lives, like cars. That’s called schendenfreude (sp?) or something like that, isn’t it?
I think I was more sad about the dog getting hit by the car than the grandparent’s dying. I’m still confused about why Steinbeck had Noah just “walk off”, like he couldn’t have found a more exciting way to right him off?
Things are definitely going to get worse. The buildup tells us so! And even though people and animals were dying all over the place, when I went back through my notes, it didn’t seem like as much happened otherwise as I felt it had…lots of travelin’ really. So I feel like I’m waiting for Steinbeck to DROP THE BALL.
LOL yeah, it was kind of a lazy way to get rid of Noah… maybe he’ll make a comeback later, & teach his family how to make a living by being fisherman!
And yeah that journey was a lot less… horrible than I thought it would be. Steinbeck better bring the epic awfulness soon, or we’ll all be let down by the lack of excitement.