Ch. 25
Why is the fruit not picked and is instead allowed to rot? Why is it deliberately destroyed? How is Steinbeck employing the idea of rot and decay as a metaphor? Besides unharvested fruit, what is rotting and decaying? What are the causes of that corruption? Consider the following passages:
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates--died of malnutrition--because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
How is Steinbeck employing the image of the grapes of wrath? Consider the following biblical verses: "The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath" Revelation 14:19.
What might the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in 1932 (overwhelmingly defeating the Hoover) have averted in the United States? In what way did Roosevelt's economic policies address some of the problems described by Steinbeck? How did they reverse the policies of Hoover and the Republicans? How do those issues relate to the contemporary situation in the United States? Is the danger of severe economic slumps still real? Could the U.S. go hungry again on such a massive scale? What could cause such a disaster? What about the world economic system as a whole? Is the misery in which most people still live throughout the world a problem with a solution? What are the core issues surrounding the existence of misery and hunger? What are the core issues surrounding their solution?
What does Steinbeck think of the scientists and technicians who work to improve crops and increase productivity in farming? What happens to the prices of produce with such improvements in productivity? What happens over time to the small farmers? What stands between the abundance of food generated by improving techniques and the hungry people who need it? What does Steinbeck suggest about people with enough brains to develop wonderful technologies but who are seemingly unable to come up with a rational system for the distribution of products?
Ch. 26
Why do the Joads leave the goverment camp? Where are they headed for? What is the Hooper Ranch? Who is the man who directs them there? What is the significance of details of his dress such as "a massive gold wedding ring ... a little gold football ... on a slender chain across his vest"? What do these details reveal?
Why are they employed at the Hooper Ranch? What sorts of wages do they receive? What are the conditions of life there? How does it compare to the goverment camp? What different effects do the two types of camps have on the working people? What are people transformed into at a place like the Hooper Ranch? (see the scene after the Joads finish their scanty meal). Are the workers allowed to move freely about the ranch and leave it when they want? What in fact is their situation there? What makes such things possible in a supposedly free country? Is their situation there in some way symbolic of the condition of working people under capitalism?
How does the company store operate? How does it justify its high prices? In what different ways are the workers taken advantage of? How is this situation representative of the condition of all consumers in capitalist societies?
What lesson does Ma claim she has learned from her experiences? Who does she believe are the only people who will help a person in trouble?
How has power shifted within the Joad family? Who seem to be the strongest in the toughest circumstances?
Who does Tom run into after sliding under the barbed wire fence surrounding the camp? What is he doing now? How has he been transformed? What caused the change? What movement is he part of? How does he die? What is the significance of his last words?: "You fellas don't know what you're doin'. You're helping to starve kids ... You don' know what you're a-doin" (compare these words to those of the government camp people to their attackers in Ch. 24). What is Steinbeck suggesting about the reality of spiritual truths and powers in the material world? What does Tom do?
What are the effects of the life they lead on the different members of the Joad family? What is Ma's perspective on this matter? What happens to Winfield? What causes his illness?
Why do the Joads leave the Hooper Ranch? Where do they end up?