THE GRAPES OF WRATH

This book has very fond reminders of our countries past and what people had to go through in the early 1900s to survive.

So far I have enjoyed reading this book and the stories Steinbeck has wrote in it. Even though this book was a slow read and not many of the chapters had points or reasons, Steinbeck had discriptions for everything. When he brought a charecter into the book he focused only on them for the time being and that was one of the things I liked about "The Grapes Of Wrath". Another thing I enjoyed was reading how all of the chaceters had changed from the begining to end of the book. For example: Rose of Sharon; at the begining of the book she was a selfish complaining girl and by the end she became a very giving women and a motherly figure, even though she had a stillborn. Like how she helped the old dying man at the end of the book... Tom; at the begining of Grapes he only thought about himself and day to day life of himself and he was ready to hurt anyone that came between that. At the end, he killed two men and spent jail in time for only one. The second murder was when Casy was killed... Tom killed his murderer and ran from the issue that evolved from that by hiding from the police. I believe that Tom had a reason for the second murder over the first because he learned from the second death. He changed his life afterwards and learned that life is worth living if you have patients for others... Ma; she changed dramatically in "The Grapes Of Wrath". Pa explains that Ma changed once she had children and her "old self" was coming out of her agian. She went from a sweet loving mother that had patients for anyone to a person that had to make threats to get what her family needed. At the end of this book she had to learn that even though her family didn't have much neither did anyone elses. She helped feed hungry children when she barely had enough for her own, this showed that her loving charecter at the begining was still there even though she didn't show it as much as before... Many people had to make sacrifices for others they didn't even know... Pa; he had one of the biggest changes of all. He was the "head guy" after Grampa past away but after the trip started and everyone was leaving the family and making there future choices Pa had lost his "rank" and Ma took over the family roll. Even though in the 1900s women weren't good for anything other then cooking, cleaning and having kids; Ma showed everyone that no matter who you are or what your gender is anyone can run a family. And this was very rare for a women to be in charge of family choices.

John Steinbeck had very interesting points in his writing that made me think about things differently... Like how the preacher wasn't a preacher but everyone said he still was a preacher but he knew he wasn't anymore. When by the end of Grapes he truely was i believe because he helped people without really helping them. Tom he saw Casy as a friend not as a preacher and at the end Casy changed Toms life for the best without meaning to. He was still a preacher in my eyes.

"The Grapes Of Wrath" shows the struggles our ancestors had to live through to survive everyday life. And that life that we know isn't anywhere close to what it was before. Also this book had great stories told in it by Steinbeck about our countries struggles...