John Steinbeck greatly portrayed a serious struggle in his book, "The Grapes of Wrath." It is a display of some of the struggles forced upon some people after the depression. This novel goes into great detail about some of the challenges people were forced through due to a foreclosure of the banks. The people in this book have to deal with some very hard times. Many things are thrown there way and character is definitely seen through the way they handle themselves. Maturity is seen through these characters through out the book.
One of the major characters of this book is Tom Joad. He is always ready for what life throws at him. He handles situations the very best he can. Although he sometimes makes mistakes in the things he does, he seems to grow from his wrongs into a better person. He is a pretty well rounded character in my opinion. I also think that Jim Casy is a very big character in the novel. He definitely proposes many themes in the novel, one of the biggest one's being unity and everyone coming together as one; equality. I think he is a great inspiration for Tom. He also helps build a lot of Tom's character, in my opinion. I also believe that Rose of Sharon is a very important character in this novel. She is seen with much growth through out the novel. She starts very immature. She becomes pregnant and on her journey she loses her husband when he abandons her. Then later on she loses her baby. Rose, however, shows a great strength at the end of the book, when she helps nurse a poor man back to help with the milk she is carrying.
I think the book is full of many symbolic things and it contains many great themes. I find the death of their dog, in the beginning to be very symbolic. This is almost foreshadowing some unseen tragic events that that family is going to face. It is similar to the introduction to all their struggles. A theme I found very relevant in this novel is the one portrayed by Jim Casy; equality. This theme is seen through out the book. It is very relevant when the Joad family helps the Wilsons. I think by them helping each other, it shows how everyone is struggling through the same things and one's struggles is another's struggles. This book is full equality, or longing for an equal and unified society. This book was a challenging read, but I definitely got something out of it. I enjoyed it personally.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Huck Finn Blog
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by mark Twain was a great read. I enjoyed the book. It was a challenge to read due to all the gramatical errors but I found them quite comical. The tone, which was most often ironic and sometimes childish, made it very fun to read. It was at sometimes hard to understand because of the time and setting. The language was often slang and put in a more southern tone. Every once in a while, I was forced to reread the text because of the slang terms. This made it a harder read than most novels.
Huck Finn is a story of a young boy. He is of a poorer descent, but runs into a great deal of money that belonged to a gang of robbers with his friend Tom Sawyer. They each inherited six thousand dollars in gold that was stored in the bank for them. Huck's father is a lazy, no good alcoholic who had abandoned Huck and only came around very seldomly. After all of this money was discovered, he showed up again and tried claiming it, saying that Huck was his son and he had rights to it. Many people tried to stop this act, but one new judge sides with Pap. After a good while of harrasment from Pap, he finally kidnaps Huck and holds him hostage in a cabin. He endures many beatings, and one day, finally tired of it all, he fakes his own death and runs away to an island.
At this island, Huck runs into a former slave, Jim. Jim is hiding out in fear of being sent away to a horrible plantation. They help each other live together on this island. At one pint, the river is flooded and they find a raft, then start on down the river, after they hear word of Jim'' warrant for an arrest. They run into trouble down the river with a band of robbers. Luckily they escaped, capturing all their money. They also run into officials looking for runaway slaves, but Huck claims his father is very ill on the raft, so they fled in fear. They also run into a steamboat that smashes their raft and separates them. Huck runs into a very kind family and is caught up on their battle with another family. A battle between the two families led to many losses. All the while, Jim was fixing their raft and finally caught up with Huck, so they could continue their escape.
On their journey, they run into two scam artists and are forced to help them. They cause many problems for them, but the greatest one being when they sell Jim to slave owners. In Huck's attempt to free him, he comes to find the people Jim was sold to were none other than Tom's aunt and uncle. The aunt and uncle perceive Huck as tom, so he plays along with their beliefs. When Tom arrives, he claims to be his little brother, Sid. They attempt to free Jim, and come to find he was free all along. Then their identities are discovered and Huck fears of going back, but discovers his father had died. He then sets out west in an attempt to start fresh.
This book was quite riveting. The adventures made it very exciting to read. All though there were some spots that were a little tricky to understand, the over all book was great.
Huck Finn is a story of a young boy. He is of a poorer descent, but runs into a great deal of money that belonged to a gang of robbers with his friend Tom Sawyer. They each inherited six thousand dollars in gold that was stored in the bank for them. Huck's father is a lazy, no good alcoholic who had abandoned Huck and only came around very seldomly. After all of this money was discovered, he showed up again and tried claiming it, saying that Huck was his son and he had rights to it. Many people tried to stop this act, but one new judge sides with Pap. After a good while of harrasment from Pap, he finally kidnaps Huck and holds him hostage in a cabin. He endures many beatings, and one day, finally tired of it all, he fakes his own death and runs away to an island.
At this island, Huck runs into a former slave, Jim. Jim is hiding out in fear of being sent away to a horrible plantation. They help each other live together on this island. At one pint, the river is flooded and they find a raft, then start on down the river, after they hear word of Jim'' warrant for an arrest. They run into trouble down the river with a band of robbers. Luckily they escaped, capturing all their money. They also run into officials looking for runaway slaves, but Huck claims his father is very ill on the raft, so they fled in fear. They also run into a steamboat that smashes their raft and separates them. Huck runs into a very kind family and is caught up on their battle with another family. A battle between the two families led to many losses. All the while, Jim was fixing their raft and finally caught up with Huck, so they could continue their escape.
On their journey, they run into two scam artists and are forced to help them. They cause many problems for them, but the greatest one being when they sell Jim to slave owners. In Huck's attempt to free him, he comes to find the people Jim was sold to were none other than Tom's aunt and uncle. The aunt and uncle perceive Huck as tom, so he plays along with their beliefs. When Tom arrives, he claims to be his little brother, Sid. They attempt to free Jim, and come to find he was free all along. Then their identities are discovered and Huck fears of going back, but discovers his father had died. He then sets out west in an attempt to start fresh.
This book was quite riveting. The adventures made it very exciting to read. All though there were some spots that were a little tricky to understand, the over all book was great.
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