Chapters 21-22

THE GRAPES OF WRATH—Chapters 21-22 Discussion Questions

CHAPTER 21
1. What are the causes that contribute to the changes in the character of the migrant people?




2. As a result of the growing numbers of migrant people, what changes take place in the locals?




3. How are the “little people” of California similar to the “Okies”?




4. Explain this quote: “The great landowners were glad . . . And pretty soon now we’ll have serfs again.”





CHAPTER 22
5. What are the major differences between Weedpatch and the Hoovervilles?




6. Is Weedpatch Steinbeck’s version of Paradise? Is there a serpent? Explain your answers.





7. Timothy invites Tom to join Wilkie and him at work, even though it means fewer hours for the Wallaces. How does this action contribution to the “we” theme of the novel?





8. What is the connection between the Bank of the West and the Farmer’s Association? How does the landowner explain this to the men?




9. Why does the Association dislike the government camps?


10. What does Ma mean when she says, “We come home to our own people . . . Why, I feel like people again,”?




11. Describe the atmosphere at Ma’s tent. What contributes to that atmosphere?




12. What does the “sin-woman” represent? How does Rose of Sharon react? How does Ma deal with her when she appears again?




13. The members of the “committee” have a sense of self-importance. Is self-importance of value? Explain.




14. How do the children handle adapting to their new environment?




15. What do Pa, Al, and John discover about the availability of work?




16. After their emotionally torturous ordeal, what are Ma and Pa finally realizing?




17. The family is temporarily happy. What events foreshadow the problems to come?

Grapes of Wrath

THEMES:

1) The importance of the land to the people
2) The Strength of Women
3) The Importance of family (even the definition of WHAT IS FAMILY)
4) We vs. I
5) People vs. “Moloch”
6) Anger

Characters:

Tom Joad
Jim Casey
Muley Graves
Herb Turnbull
Willy Feeley
Old Tom Joad
Ma Joad
Al Joad
Grandpa Joad
Gramma Joad
Noah Joad
Uncle John
Rosasharn
Connie Rivers


Allusions to the Bible:

“The Angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s Wrath.”

Vocabulary for THE GRAPES OF WRATH

1) Pique
2) Imperturbability
3) Rivulet
4) Germinate
5) Zenith
6) Scuttle
7) Declivity
8) Bemuse
9) Petulant
10) Dissipate

Essay Prompts

Evaluate the role of Nick Carraway as the narrator of this novel. What about Nick makes
him singularly appropriate for this particular story? How does Fitzgerald's choice of this narrator contribute to characterization and theme development within the story?

Evaluate the social critique advanced through the novel. What aspects of American society does the novel criticize and how? (Consider why Nick claims that Gatsby "turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby...")

Evaluate the presentation of dreams and illusions in the novel. Does Fitzgerald make a distinction between them? What statement does the author make about the human tendency to dream and the role of dreaming in the American ethos?

Evaluate the role of minor characters in the novel -- Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, Meyer Wolfsheim, Owl Eyes, Jordan Baker. Why did Fitzgerald include them and in what ways are they important to the story?

Evaluate how this novel is about the concepts of emptiness and fulfillment in human experience. What does the novel seem to say are
the forces that create these concepts in a human life and how are these concepts related?



Evaluate Fitzgerald's use of a particular literary device within the novel. How does this device contribute to the meaning of the work as
a whole?



Evaluate the role of setting in this novel. In what ways are the settings of the novel instrumental to the larger thematic meanings?

Here's a great website of Gatsby comics.

Go here

Fitzgerald website and new vocabulary

Here is a good website on Fitzgerald, his life, and The Great Gatsby.

Vocabulary List # 2

mesmerize
sardonic
decadent
pastoral
rendezvous
indulgence
prestigious
prominent
expatriate
exasperate
affable
aspirations

Vocabulary Words

1) Wan

2) Prodigality

3) Feigned

4) Languidly

5) Colossal

6) Complacency

7) Levity

8) Extemporizing

9) Supercilious

10) Infinitesimal

11) Fractiousness