Weedpatch (Pt II) - Grapes of Wrath (sitios de interés)
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Chapter 23: Simple pleasures provide some relief from the poverty.Even without money, the mighrants find temporary relief from their miseries through storytelling, alcohol, playing music, dancing, and prayer meetings. What is it about these free activities that brings pleasure? Try to look a bit deeper than the surface for your answers.
Today we sometimes let ourselves believe that there is no happiness without a cool car, hip clothes, cell phones, and other luxuries reserved for those with money. Could you be happy without all the luxuries that you have and take for granted? What was the best time you ever had that really didn't cost a dime? Did that experience have anything in common with the experiences Steinbeck describes in this chapter?
Chapters 24: Local land owners and law enforcment "set up" a riot so they can close down the government camp.
Why would law enforcement support this plan? Visit followthemoney.org to see "who gives how much money to which political parties? Use the drop-down menus to select a few organizations that you would want the government to support and see who they give money to. Then select a few organizations that you would NOT want the government supporting and see who they give money to.
Early in the chapter some of the migrant men discuss the question of relief (welfare) as being one complaint that the landowners have. The migrants mention government "subsidies" and say "ain't that relief?" See if you can find some statistics on how much money the government gives to big corporations in subsidies?
A recurring accusation of the land owners and law enforcement is that the migrants are "reds." What is behind this accusation? Does Steinbeck give any indications in the story that this accusation is true?
The men realize that the land owners, knowing that "someone" will work for less money if his family is hungry, are playing one man's poverty against another man's poverty in order to keep dropping wages, What do you believe would happen today if the government did not have minimum wage laws?
At the end of the chapter it is discovered that the men who helped the land owners by trying to start a riot in the camp were actually migrant men themselves. They explained that they did it because their families were hungry too. If your family was starving, would you turn on your neighbors if "someone" paid you to? Really?
Chapter 25: The economics of hunger in a country with plenty of food is explained.
Why did the land owners spray kerosene on the oranges that fell on the ground rather than let the hungry migrants eat them? Do some research to find out why the U.S. government subsidizes American farmers to NOT grow food and the destroy milk and other crops they do produce even though we still have millions of hungry people in our country today.
You do the math. Use the data in these charts to:
(1) calculate how many people in the United States fall into each of the identified percentage groups.
(2) calculate the average wealth of people in the United States who possess about 1/2 the total wealth of our country?
(3) Extra Credit: From the answer to Question 2, pick a dollar amount that you believe they could easily "donate" to the less fortunate and still be "plenty" rich enough. Find a total amount that they could "donate" to ending poverty and calculate how much money they could give to every single person living in poverty in the United States.
Chapter 26: The The Joads leave Weedpatch.
When Roseasharn says, "Ef Connie hadn' went away, we'd a had a little house by now, with him studyin' an' all,..." do you:
(a) admire her for maintaining a positive attitude
(b) not admire her for being foolish.
When Al tells the blond girl that he does intend to marry her and promises that he'll come back for her and that they will go to Hollywood together, do you:
(a) admire the blond girl for maintaining a positive attitude and belieiving Al.
(b) not admire the blond girl for being foolish enough to believe Al.
The night before the Joads leave, some of the men get together and talk about labor strikes and labor unions. How do strikes and labor unions offer some hope to the working class?