The Grapes of Wrath Study
As the novel opens, what is devastating the land? ️️The dust, the drought, and the fear of losing
everything
When the men's faces become hard and angry and resistant, why are women relieved? ️️Because
they're not giving up
What theme of the novel is exemp...
As the novel opens, what is devastating the land? ✔️✔️The dust, the drought, and the fear of losing
everything
When the men's faces become hard and angry and resistant, why are women relieved? ✔️✔️Because
they're not giving up
What theme of the novel is exemplified in this quote from the last paragraph of the chapter:
"Women...knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole."
✔️✔️-The men were the head of the household. -The women relied on the men and would fight as
long as they did too)
Find elements of personification and simile in Chapter 1. Explain them. ✔️✔️-The last rains lifted the
corn quickly. (1rst paragraph, 3rd sentence)
-The clouds appeared and went away, and in awhile they did not try anymore. (1rst paragraph, line 6)
-The dust slipped back into darkness and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn. (bottom of
page 2)
ADJ from chapter one: ✔️✔️Bleak, pale, depressing
Find an example of alliteration on page 8. ✔️✔️The truck driver ".... looked over his coffee at the lean
and lonely waitress. He talked the smart listless language of the roadside..."
Why do you suppose the truck driver agrees to give the hitchhiker a ride? ✔️✔️He wants to be a good
person and wants to show he is not afraid of the owners of the company.
Why does Tom Joad appear to be surly? ✔️✔️He feels the truck driver is nosy.
Where has Tom Joad been for four years, and for what reason has he been there? ✔️✔️He has been
in the McAlester State prison for having killed someone with a shovel.
, Tom says his father is a "cropper" with "forty acres"; the surprised driver says, "A forty acre cropper and
he ain't been dusted out and he ain't been tractored out?" (Pg. 8)What does the driver mean?
✔️✔️He seemed surprised that Tom Joad's father has not been driven off the land because of the dust
storms or showed off the land by the tractor and the banks. A sharecropper rarely had land, let alone
forty acres.
What seems to be the point of devoting three entire pages, the whole chapter, to a turtle crossing the
road? ✔️✔️The turtle seems to represent endurance and persistence of some kind. The turtle is the
Joads.
Define theme. See if you can find a theme in the turtle vignette. ✔️✔️Theme- the central or dominant
idea behind the story.
Mankind must struggle against overwhelming forces.
Why did Jim Casy give up being a preacher? ✔️✔️Initially, he felt like a hypocrite because, after
preaching about sin and virtue he committed sex acts with the women he was preaching to. He came to
the conclusion that maybe there is no sin and virtue, just things people do.
What is Casy's conclusion about love, the soul, and the Holy Spirit? ✔️✔️He loves pople, not Jesus or
God. He has come to believe that in the world there are not individual souls; instead there is one big
soul that everyone is a part of.
What contrast is there between Jim and Tom? ✔️✔️Tom is tough; he speaks directly and acts
forcefully. Jim is more circumspect; he is a thinker.
As they near Tom's home, what surprise awaits them? ✔️✔️His family home looks abandoned.
If Jim Casy is a Christ-figure, what, besides his preaching, points to it? ✔️✔️His initials are J.C.
What are the banks compared to in this chapter? ✔️✔️They are equated with monsters that need
profits to feed on or they will die.
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