The Grapes of Wrath, The Conclusioning: "The break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath."

Well. I don't know about you guys, but after I finished The Grapes of Wrath, I sure felt completely drained. That last section is just unrelenting awfulness, huh? Like... you feel like we've already had some dismal times, but nope, just had to throw a stillborn baby in there, didn't ya Steinbeck?

Let's see... So, the peach farm. That seemed like a pleasant place to work and live, huh? 'Oh hey, you can have this money while you're being scabs, but as soon as we PUT THESE DAMN REDS BACK IN THEIR PLACE, you've got to accept a pay cut. It was just kind of like the culmination of all the things Steinbeck's been warning us about all the time, and it. Is. Bitter.

And then Casy came back!

And it's like oh YAY, everything's going to be ok because my favourite character except Ma is back and he will MAKE SOCIALISM HAPPEN, only, no, wait, look, instead let's club him to death and get Tom in terrible trouble!

Do we feel like this is some kind of massively downer message from Steinbeck like 'yeah, I really want socialism to happen. But it's never going to happen, is it?' (God, Steinbeck, stop trying to make Socialism happen. It's never going to happen.) Or is it just meant to be like 'that dead guy was really nice and only tried to do good things for everyone, so we should RISE UP and be like him!' I don't know. All I know is that I did not like it! I never do.

I actually kind of misremembered that they snuck Tom out of the peach farm place and then he hid in those woods, because I thought he sort of ran off into the night a la Connie a few chapters back. But nope, he hid in the woods near some boxcars for no discernible reason (oh wait, were they going to have him back in when his face healed? But wouldn't everyone have still been like 'Where the hell did he come from?!') and then STUPID Ruthie went and told on him. I seriously... Like, I like the kids for the moments of comic relief they bring to the novel, but Ruthie is SUCH a cow and she really needs a good talking to! And Ma's just like 'oh... never mind. She's just a kid.' And yeah, she is, but she's also a dickhead and needs to be spoken to!

Anyway... So Tom had to leave. Which was totally sad, but hey! He's going to take on the Socialist cause! (I think) You know that whole speech he gives that reads kind of lamely? Well, in the movie, it sounds totally awesome, and not just because it's coming out of Henry Fonda's mouth. This is where I was going to link you to a youtube video of said awesome moment, but I can't find one. So you'll have to take my word for it. Instead, I offer you what I can only assume was Alice's reaction at Al Joad's marriage announcement:

Which, brings us neatly to the final scene. Which I know we're going to talk about, but I don't really want to. The thing is, it's so... creepy and beyond what we normally expect that the natural reaction to it is EURGH, which I do ALWAYS have and I fully blocked out the ending for probably the first 3 times I read it, but of COURSE I'm going to have to defend Steinbeck here like I've been doing for four weeks (you guys all love when I invade your comments and defend Steinbeck, right? I knows you do!). BECAUSE yes it's creepy and gross, but if you think around it and not about IT then it's a kind of wonderful thing for Rosasharn to do (and sort of makes up for her being a WHINY SHREW for the entire book) and Ma approves which is just GREAT, and then also... It's meant to be gross. It's meant to be like, no things AREN'T supposed to be this way, but look at the lengths people have to go to just to eat! WHAT IS UP WITH THIS SHIT?

Also, I think there's something about hope and survival against all odds in there, but who can really say?

So. It seems about right to wrap things up about now, so GUYS! You did it! (I assume). You read The Grapes of Wrath!

And sadder and wiser women we will rise the morrow morn. Or something. But yeah, I hope y'all got something out of it other than 'I wish Steinbeck would stop being such a damn red' and also, if you needs some more Steinbeck, imagine that in every bookshop you go into, I am SHOVING you towards East of Eden. But The Grapes of Wrath will remain an important book in my reading history, and I've come to believe it even bestowed me with some important Socialist ideals that will never go away. So NICE WORK, Steinbeck! *thumbs up at my indoctrination*

THE END (link up below, my pretties)

The Grapes of Wrath Part 3: "'What ya think everyone else is lookin' for? Di'monds?'"

I've decided to allow myself just one rant this week, so that there's time to focus on the happy things! That actually happened! So here comes the rant to get it out of the way.

Cause, you know, this:

"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolise. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And the children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot."

So, ok, I know the whole of chapter 25 was basically Steinbeck pushing back against progress, but how progressive is progress really if it can't stop children from dying? It seems clear that something has gone horribly wrong when SO much food is being produced, and then just left to rot because it can't be turned into money, when people are starving to death. I think this just really got to me because it still happens, and honestly, it really shouldn't. I know that in the EU, there are lakes of milk and wine, and mountains of rice, wheat and sugar, because SO much is produced, and it seems RIDICULOUS to me that it can't go to feed people who need it, and it always has. And yes, I understand economically that it isn't a good thing to just give people free food, but fuck economics, fuck 'progress', fuck profits, what about a little bit of humanity?

Rant over. But it still burns in my SOUL.

Now let's talk about crazy religious fanatics! I mean, seriously, horrifyingly scary woman,

Who just goes around scaring pregnant young girls whose husbands have JUST RUN OFF AND LEFT THEM (stupid Connie), telling them that they're sinners and that their babies are going to fall out of them?! Assholes, that's who. Or, also, Clack probably would have done it if they'd spoken of pregnancies and things in Victorian times, which obviously they didn't. I did enjoy her return and Ma's threatening to beat her with a stick (GO MA!) and the way Ma basically told Rose of Sharon that she wasn't important enough for God to be bothered about, which was a pretty refreshing thing to hear from a mother about their kid. I also enjoyed how, in the following chapter, Steinbeck basically made it clear that such fundamentalism provides pleasure for a certain kind of person, which, you know, these poor people deserve in their lives. But maybe not at the expense of other poor people WHO ARE PREGNANT AND VULNERABLE.

Also, this preacher sounds like a douche: "He says 'The poor is trying to be rich.'"

By having nice dances and shit? How fucking dare they?!

Anyway... Did we all notice the nice shift in tone in this section? I mean, sure the preacher (the nice one, our preacher) got carted off to jail, and they had to escape that Hooverville before it got burned to the ground, and those people threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their town, but... The government camp! How freaking wonderful is that place? I surely was amused that the children had never seen a toilet before, and that Ma and Rose of Sharon had a whole excited conversation about the showers, and basically, I wouldn't mind living in one of those camps!

Too bad Connie didn't stick around to see the nice camp, and lasted all of about 2 hours in the Hooverville before running out on his PREGNANT WIFE. For personal reasons, though, I don't exactly mind any of this, because it made for some amusing opinions about Connie being allowed to come out in the open:
PA: "'Well, he ain't no good... all the time a-sayin' what he's a-gonna do. Never doin' nothin'."
TOM: "'She might's well give him up. He's prob'ly studyin' to be President of the United States by now.'"

Fortunately, Rose of Sharon still has Ma (GLORIOUS MA) around, to dole out sage advice, aka things that she should probably already know. You know, like:
"'They's times when how you feel got to be kep' to yourself.'" (Translation: You're not the only one with troubles, girl, buck up!)
"'In a little while it ain't gonna be so bad. In a little while. An' that's true.'" (Translation: Time heals all wounds. This too shall pass.)

At this point, if I didn't actually know what was going to happen, I would be SO optimistic. I mean, sure there's this threat of escalating violence, and sure there've been allusions to children starving (Ruthie and Winfield better watch out!) but ALSO there's been another WILKIE sighting, "'This here's my boy Wilkie'" at which I squealed a tiny bit, and which I choose to take as a good sign, blindly ignoring all I know. For all I know, they changed the ending since the last time I read it. IT COULD HAPPEN!

The Grapes of Wrath, Part 2: "'It don't take no nerve to do somepin when there ain't nothin' else you can do.'"

Before I even say one single thing about this part (GRANMA, OMG!) can I just applaud myself a little on breaking it down pretty well so far? It's like Part 1: Saying goodbye, Part 2: The journey... I'm pretty pleased. The fact that Steinbeck clearly broke down his book pretty rigidly in these ways (at least in the first two quarters) is neither here nor there really.

And now, MA STAYED UP ON THE MATTRESS ALL NIGHT WITH GRANMA'S CORPSE SO THE FAMILY COULD GET TO CALIFORNIA?

I mean, I can't even... The inner strength! The commitment to the family! I had remembered that Granma died but not the circumstances until just before they drove off into the desert, and I was just like 'oh NO, I can't read this again. NO!' But of course I did, and there were tears. Mainly at this:

"The family looked at Ma with a little terror at her strength."

Everyone realises how amazing Ma is to have done that, and respects her so much for it. And also for that time when she threatened to beat everyone up with a bit of metal, which was pretty badass.

*Tries to get a handle on all the rest of the journey* Shall we make a little note of who we've gained and lost? So Granma and Grampa are both dead, which I think is a huge loss because how funny were they?! But it's ok, because "'They was too old... They wouldn't have saw nothin' that's here.'" But I'm still sad.

And the freaking DOG got run over, which personally I didn't need, that poor little jackrabbit got squished (technically not part of their party, but still) and Noah decided to stay by the river because he's an odd one. And maybe because Steinbeck decided he had too many characters? (I'm hoping there was a better motivation behind this. And maybe there was!) And then the Wilsons joined them and swiftly left them, and Mrs Wilson is clearly not long for this world: "'I'm jus' pain covered with skin.'" UGH.

Anyway. Getting away from the sads, may I give you some anger instead? As I am whenever I read this book, I'm FURIOUS at the way some people can treat other people. It's not just that the rich just keep all their wealth to themselves and couldn't care less about anyone else (capitalism, I'm looking at you) but that the system is such that, if people (and that's 'the majority of' people) tried to change the system and make it better for the majority, they're going to get slapped down by the government, or, you know, the rich. This is something that comes up more and more as the book progresses, but I think it's worth noting now that Steinbeck seems to be fairly hopeful that things could change, which is why he has Casy around, but as we all know, from, you know, the fifties, the people with all the everything (money, power) would do anything to make sure it all stays the same.

And it's still happening today, and that's why this book is still relevant, and why I'm STILL angry.

So there's that, and there's also this attitude about money that's kind of interesting, in that, the Joads have literally none, and they want to make more, but what little they have, they will share with other people (like the Wilsons) because they know that it's people that matter, and not money. This is true of all the people who are travelling to California, and differs only amongst the poor people coming back from California, who also think that people are more important, BUT know that you can't live without money. And then you've got the people with jobs and homes, who aren't rich but don't know what it's like to be that poor, and because they don't want to find out, they develop a hatred and a lack of understanding for those people who have nothing:

"Them goddamn Okies got no sense and no feeling. They ain't human. A human being wouldn't live like they do. A human being couldn't stand it to be so dirty and miserable. They ain't a hell of a lot better than gorillas... They're so goddamn dumb they don't know it's dangerous. And, Christ Almighty, they don't know any better than what they got.'"

Seriously. And then, there're the rich people who don't even think about the poor people, other than about how much they can exploit them to get the most profits, but Casy reckons that they're pretty deeply unhappy guys (and, come on, they're clearly guys):

"'Fella havin' fun, he don't give a damn [about dying]; but a fella mean an' lonely an' old an' disappointed- he's scared of dyin... If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do'll make him feel rich.'" 

Which is all very well and good, but there are people dying, and he doesn't give a crap, so I'm not exactly going to feel sorry for his inner poverty. But anyway, this reminds me of two things:

1) This conversation I had with my friend Frances where we both said that, if we were rich, we wouldn't just want to keep all the money we had because it would kind of make us feel like crap and so we'd, you know, redistribute the wealth, and also if I had a company, I'd redistribute the profits around more evenly, improving the workers lives, because, you know, people are more important than profits.

There's probably a reason we're both poor, but anyway, I think this is kind of what Steinbeck's driving at here.

2) There's this bit in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this reminds me of, where the incredibly rich Big Daddy essentially admits that wealth is useless because everyone's got to die and there's kind of nothing you can do about it. I don't really know why this is relevant, except that it's nice having a rich person in literature admitting that money is kind of useless, apart from the things you can do with it. Which can make it the most useful thing (and give you inner wealth. You know.)

I'm going to have to stop before I try and get us to form a gang and start a revolution, but first, a couple of Joad handy household hints:

1) Submitted by Tom: If your hand starts bleeding, you can't go wrong with rubbing a little bit of wee and mud on it. Works a treat!
2) Submitted by Ma: "'Take your breath in when you need it, an' let it go when you need to.'"

The Grapes of Wrath, Part One: "'You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff.'"

Good lord. I haven't read The Grapes of Wrath for 3 years (basically exactly, the last time I read it in October too) and returning to it is always a teeny bit nerve-wracking- is it going to be like I remembered it? Will it toy with ALL my emotions? Will I still want to hug all the Joads and tell them it'll all be ok, even if I'm not sure it will be?

Well, in a word, yes. I'm so... I'm still BLOWN away by the writing, even on this, what, fourth or fifth reading, and I'm still in love with everything about it! And I'm only a quarter of the way through, with SEVEN pages of quotes under my belt. And it's not like I can just write down little sentences, it's like, massive chunks of text that I just find completely perfect. DAMN Steinbeck, just show everyone else up, why don't you?!

I really am. And now I have to say more things about it? Whuuuut?!

Ok. So, to take it from the beginning-esque, I really love how Tom is introduced, in that for that entire chapter, you don't know anyone's name and the story could equally be about either Tom OR the truck driver, and THEN you find out Tom's a murderer and it's like 

Oh SHIT, now I have to have sympathy for a murderer? But obviously it's all ok because, you know, self-defence and all. And he wasn't even carrying a weapon! The 1930s prosecution system is a JOKE!

And then we meet the Preacher. Or rather the former Preacher. And I have to tell you, I kind of love Jim Casy! In spite of his... not so good activities with what seem to be kind of young girls (I mean, not like the KIDS. But maybe still-in-their-teens girls, when he seems like he's more like Tom Snr's age) he's clearly the philosophical centre of the book, the character who wants to make things different, and who has stopped looking at the heavens so he can focus on things actually happening on earth. I, of course, love his new found kind-of-atheism, but also that, in spite of this, he's also the most deep thinking, and, in his own way, moral character. It's never really occurred to me before (or it has and I've forgotten) but Casy seems kind of like a substitute for Steinbeck for me at the moment- he wants to help do something for all the displaced people, which is exactly what Steinbeck was trying to do with this book.

And I'm sure the Cult-of-Wilkie ladies will agree, Casy is clearly a hottie:

"[His] was an abnormally high forehead, lined with delicate blue veins at the temples. Fully half of the face was above the eyes."

 Amazing.

Can we talk about some of Steinbeck's descriptions please? Because, honestly, I was swooning all over myself while I was reading Grapes, because I've apparently been starved of Steinbeck for a long time! And by, 'can we talk about it', what I really mean is, here are some quotes from this first part that I really really liked:

"It was a long head, bony, tight of skin, and set on a neck as stringy and muscular as a celery stalk."

"Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding."

"And her joy was nearly like sorrow."

Jesse is excited by your awesome writing.

There are so so so many things that I haven't even brought up yet, so I sure hope everyone's focused on different things as we normally do so that everything gets said! For my part, I just want to talk about two more things: Ma, and those teeny chapters that aren't exactly about the Joads.

I love Ma. I think she's fantastic, and even though the men think they're in charge, and do get to make the decision, Ma is the one who turns their decisions into actions. About the only quote I didn't write down is something like 'women are always tired', which is not said so much as a criticism as a compliment to all that they do to keep their families working, and together. She seems like the paradigm of a mother figure, and I know that this:

"She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone."

Kiiind of makes me think of my own mother, so... She's pretty important! 

And now, the teeny chapters. I think it would be really easy to read them and go '... well, how is that relevant?' and it's true that these chapters aren't exactly about the Joads, except that they ARE about the Joads, as well as every other family and people displaced by the actions of evil capitalist overlords. Whilst the chapters about the Joads mean that you can be empathetic to one particular story, these in-between chapters mean that you can be FURIOUS about the entire situation. Especially the capitalist overlords.

I also think that they contain some of Steinbeck's BEST writing, but that's neither here nor there. Unless you're reading a book, which oh look, we are! 

"How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it.

They sat and looked at it and burned it into their memories. How'll it be not to know what land's outside the door? How if you wake up in the night and know- and know the willow tree's not there? Can you live without the willow tree? Well, no, you can't. The willow tree is you. The pain on that mattress there- that dreadful pain- that's you."

 There is SO much more to say, but if I don't stop here, I almost definitely never will. Link up your posts below, pretties, so I can say more in excruciatingly detailed comments, probably involving quotes. Don't say I don't do anything for you!

My Steinbeckian Feelings, Laid Out For You In A Blog Post

Ah, Steinbeck. I'm not sure that I've ever fully expressed my love for Steinbeck here, other than maybe in Top Ten Tuesday posts, and in every single mention I've ever made of this readalong, but I love the dude SO HARD.

Because the thing is, he can be SO funny, and then also really sad, and just kind of, you know, covers the entire range of human emotion, whilst also stringing together amazing sentences AND creating characters that have the perfect mix of good and evil, or that are, in other words, just like real people. I've read a LOT of his books, and I haven't read one that I didn't like- even his book about war was excellent; his Journal of a Novel really gave an insight into how the creative process, or at least his creative process, works; and I can tell you, having read a thousand pages of his letters, that I can't think of anyone I'd rather have received a letter from. Plus, you know, he was kind of dishy

Although it's possible I just think that because I like his books so much. You tell me! (Repeat above gif)

So anyway. Like, I suspect, a lot of people, I oscillate between thinking that East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath is my favourite Steinbeck. All I know is, I've read The Grapes of Wrath a lot more, but that doesn't really mean much. Either way, this is my revelation that I have, indeed, read The Grapes of Wrath before. So obviously my posts about it aren't going to be 'OMG this happened!' but, short explanation, I reviewed East of Eden on here and one post was really not enough to get out all I wanted to say about it, and then when I learned that readalongs were a thing, I thought 'oh heyyyy, that's a good way to talk about The Grapes of Wrath loads!' And I'm taking you all with me!

Possibly above all things, I love his politics. I believe that he's the leftest leftie that I can think of (ok, maybe not that I can think of. But he's pretty left wing-ish) and hopefully these are your politics too, because there's going to be a bit of that in The Grapes of Wrath (and also because otherwise I probably can't talk to you anymore. Sorry). But his politics are really motivated by the way he feels about people, and how unjust the world is, and how he just wants everything to be better and OMG Steinbeck just hold me! And so he is the loveliest lovely.

The End. Except to say, hey, link up your posts below please! And then we can all visit and get our Steinbeck feels out in the open. And I can defend him to anyone who dares besmirch his name!

The Grapes of Wrath Readalong: The Grapey and Wrathy Schedule

It's SO nearly time for The Grapes of Wrath Readalong that I can practically TASTE it, and you know what it's going to be?

After extensive (like, 5 minutes) thinking, I hath decreed that we should post posts on Tuesdays, starting on the 2nd (in 1 WEEK!) because posting on Mondays, as Alice pointed out to me, means that you kiind of have to do homework over the weekend, which, you know, I'm pretty sure we're all too old to do (or maybe we're not... Hi young people/grad students!)

ANYWAY! Here is the schedule, as laboriously (I took the number of pages and roughly divided them by 4) devised by yours truly:

October 2nd: Things we think about Steinbeck- Have you read Grapes before? Were you booored? Do you harbour a (very understandable) love for Steinbeck? I think we all want to know.

October 9th: Chapter 1 through Chapter 11 (that means to the end of Chapter 11. Which I didn't know until like a month ago, so... Just wanted to make that one clear)

October 16th: Chapter 12 through Chapter 18

October 23rd: Chapter 19 through Chapter 25

October 30th: Chapter 26 to End

And it's about as simple as that, folks! I've just realised that this means there are some pretty long chapters, which, you know *sigh* but they're also AWESOME chapters so it's all going to be ok. So get your sad gifs ready, and I'll see you all back here next week! I can't guarantee you'll like the book, but I CAN guarantee Skarsgard gifs. The End.

The Grapes of Wrath Readalong!

So, I've been going on about this for ages and people have been going 'I want to read The Grapes of Wrath with you, Laura!' and I'm like 'GREAT!' and then ignore the fact that I might actually have to do something useful where people can sign up and things and have an awesome picture thing to put on their blogs!

Or... A kind of crappy picture thing that took THE LONGEST time to make and so no one's allowed to be mean about it, ok? The picture's not important, it's all about the book!

This is really just a sign up post, but if anyone wants to share anything in the comments then, yeah, go forth with that! But otherwise, I'll post a weekly reading itinerary thing in the last week of September a la readalong QUEEN, Alice, and we'll be good to go! This'll be my... ooh, 5th or 6th time reading The Grapes of Wrath, but I'm POSITIVE it'll be the funnest! Sooooo sign up!

Note: Everyone hold off on taking that picture, cause Alice has offered to do a nice one for me! So... just hooold your horses. If, that is, you even want to put it anywhere on your blog, obviously...