Chapter 19 23 Grapes Of Wrath
In Chapter 9, Steinbeck tells the story of how the American settlers originally moved west and took California away from Mexico. Steinbeck talks of how the they believed that because they farmed the land, they owned it. This is the exact same feeling felt by the Joads and other farmers who were driven off the land that they had farmed for generations. “Once
California belonged to Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish
Americans poured in. And such was their hunger for land that they took the landstole
Sutter’s land, Guerrero’s land, took the grants and brooke them up and growled and quarreled over them, those frantic hungry men; and they guarded with guns the land they had stolen.
They put up houses and barns, they turned the earth and planted crops. And these things were possession, and possession was ownership.” Page 297
Steinbeck uses this chapter as a way to show the cycle of men and how time goes on.
Steinbeck continues and says how those Americans’ descendants became the rich landholders that now stop the “Okies”. They do this because they know the way men work.
They know that once a man fails somewhere, he moves on to somewhere else so that he can feed his family; no matter the cost. However, the cycle must continue and so the “Okies” will continue to keep trying until they die. And every time they try, from looking for work or starting secret gardens, the land owners are there trying to stop them.
In the beginning of chapter 20, the family mourns Granma and talks of what she wanted for her funeral. Ma especially is upset: “‘I know,’ Ma said. ‘I jus’ can’t get it outa my head what store she set by a nice funeral. Got to forget it.’” page 310
Granma’s death however, does not distract the family from the pressing matter of finding work though. The family continues and eventually finds their way into a Hooverville
(cities or groups of families living in shacks that were named after president Herbert Hoover to
California belonged to Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish
Americans poured in. And such was their hunger for land that they took the landstole
Sutter’s land, Guerrero’s land, took the grants and brooke them up and growled and quarreled over them, those frantic hungry men; and they guarded with guns the land they had stolen.
They put up houses and barns, they turned the earth and planted crops. And these things were possession, and possession was ownership.” Page 297
Steinbeck uses this chapter as a way to show the cycle of men and how time goes on.
Steinbeck continues and says how those Americans’ descendants became the rich landholders that now stop the “Okies”. They do this because they know the way men work.
They know that once a man fails somewhere, he moves on to somewhere else so that he can feed his family; no matter the cost. However, the cycle must continue and so the “Okies” will continue to keep trying until they die. And every time they try, from looking for work or starting secret gardens, the land owners are there trying to stop them.
In the beginning of chapter 20, the family mourns Granma and talks of what she wanted for her funeral. Ma especially is upset: “‘I know,’ Ma said. ‘I jus’ can’t get it outa my head what store she set by a nice funeral. Got to forget it.’” page 310
Granma’s death however, does not distract the family from the pressing matter of finding work though. The family continues and eventually finds their way into a Hooverville
(cities or groups of families living in shacks that were named after president Herbert Hoover to