The Grapes of Wrath

2nd Drafts DUE Next Monday.

 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




1) Give three detailed examples (detailed means a paragraph or more) of the following themes (and be able to explain how the examples fit the themes):

A) The Strength of Women
B) The Importance of Family (and the change of the definition of family)
C) We vs. I (this includes self-sacrifice and altruism)
D) People vs. Moloch
E) Anger
F) Capitalism vs. Socialism

G) The Great Depression

2) Symbols, Allusions, Analysis and higher orders of thinking

Be able to explore the ideas invoked by the following

 Pretty Boy Floyd
 The One-Eyed Man
 The men returning from California to go back home
 Exodus, Moses, the Plague
 Jesus, Judas
 Handbills
 The Joad’s Truck and Highway 66
 Tractor vs. Horses
 The turtle (at the beginning of the book)
 Desert (and places like Bakersfield, Barstow, etc.)

3) Be able to explain the following by description, events that happened, and what the places mean (symbolically and literally)

Weedpatch
Hooverville
Farms in Oklahoma
Dustbowl
Swarms of Cars
Truckstops

4) Outline the plot

5) Be able to explain the significance of the following characters (what they do, what they represent and how they are important or how they function in the novel)

Tom Joad, Jim Casey, Ma Joad, Pa Joad, Rose of Sharon, Granma and Grandpa Joad, Noah, Al, Muley Graves, Connie, the Wilsons, Ruthie and Winfield, Mr. And Mrs. Wainwright, Agnes Wainwright, and …

6) Be able to summarize and explain the significance of the following chapters: 22, 24, 26, 28, 30

7) Be able to discuss and explain in a paragraph what Steinbeck is doing in the “Descriptive” chapters of the novel and how these chapters function in the overall work.

8) Discuss how THE GRAPES OF WRATH is (or works as) socialist commentary?

9) Relate THE GRAPES OF WRATH to another book read in English 11.

10) The meaning of Land.

11) Economic Decline = the decline of family