Oklahoma and California Time Line

Oklahoma

·      1931

o   Sever drought hits the Midwestern and southern plains. Dust from the land began to create storms.

·      1932

o   The amount of storms starts to increase, 14 storms were reported.

·      1933

o   President Roosevelt comes up with the Banking Act of 1933, which stabilized the baking industry and restores people’s faith in the banking system by putting the federal government behind it.

o   The Emergency Farm act gives $200 Million for refinancing mortgages. It helped farmers who are facing foreclosure. The Farm Credit Act of 1933 established a local bank and sets up local credit associations.

o   In California's San Joaqin Valley, where many farmers from the plains have gone to seek farm work, the largest agricultural strike in America's history begins.  More than 18,000 cotton workers with the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union went on strike for 24 days.  During the strike, two men and one woman were killed and a hundred others were injured.  In one settlement, the union was recognized by growers, and workers were given a 25 percent raise.

·      1934

o   The dust storms started to spread out from Oklahoma and covered more than 75% of the country, and severely affected 27 states.

o   The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act is approved.  This act restricted the ability of the banks to dispossess farmers in times of distress. 

o   The "Yearbook of Agriculture" for the year 1934 announces that 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land has essentially been destroyed for crop production.  100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of their topsoil.  125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil.

·      1935

o   The government bought cattle from farmers, so the farmers would avoid bankruptcy.

o   Roosevelt approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act.  This act provides $525 million for drought relief and authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration, which will employ 8.5 million people.

o   April 14^th, Black Sunday, Worst blizzard.

·      1936

o   Los Angele Police Chief James E. Davis sends 125 policemen to patrol the borders of Arizona and Oregon to keep “undesirables out.”

§  The American Civil Liberties Union sues the city.

·      1937

o   FDR's Shelterbelt Project begins this year.  It calls for the large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern Texas.  FDR believes this his project will help protect the land from erosion. 

·      1938

o   There is extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows.  Trees are planted in shelterbelts and other conservation methods result in a 65 percent reduction in the amount of soil that is blown from the land.  However, the drought still continues.

·      1939

o   In the fall, the rain comes and brings an end to the drought that has engulfed the plains for so long.  During the next few years, with the coming of World War II, the country is pulled out of the Depression and the plains are once again golden with wheat.

California

·      1930

o   Historians have differed over how to explain the influence of New Deal social policies at the local, state and national levels. Some have argued that Roosevelt's New Deal programs, by expanding the role of government, created opportunities for political entrepreneurs to use federal programs to build a base of support for themselves and the Democratic Party in their communities. The lives of Florence Wyckoff and Helen Hosmer indicate that a more complex and organic process occurred in San Francisco. Both women came of age in the early-1930s and were profoundly influenced by the human suffering and injustice they witnessed during the Depression.

·      1933

o   Long Beach Earthquake.

o   Alcatraz made a prison.

·       1934

o   San Francisco's maritme strike, which began May 9, 1934, tumbled out of control when the Industrial Association, made up of employers and business interests who wished to break the strike, and the power of San Francisco unions, began to move goods from the piers to warehouses. The first running battles between unionists and police began Tuesday, July 3, 1934. There was a lull during the July 4 holiday when no freight was moved, but disturbances picked up again Thursday, July 5, 1934 - known as "Bloody Thursday." This is the San Francisco News' coverage of the first day of the rioting -- July 3, 1934. --Bloody Thursday."

o   About to begin the sixth year of the depression.

·      1935

o   The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened on November 12, 1936.

·      1937

o   The Golden Gate Bridge was completed and opened to pedestrian traffic on May 27, 1937. The following day it was opened to vehicular traffic.

·      1928

o    - Completion of Parker Dam and the creation of Lake Havasu.

Discussion Questions 2

Who are the "owners of the land"? What are their main characteristics? How do the owners use terms such as "the bank" and "the company"? Why do owners speak "as though the bank or company were a monster"? Why is it said that "When the monster stops growing, its dies. It can't stay one size"? Why is it said that "The bank is something more than men. I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it"?
The owners are the banks and the big companies.
Some of them hated what they had to do. They didn't like to be cruel. Some of them made themselves be cold, because it was their job.


What does the cotton do to the land? Why do they farmers plant it?
The cotton sucks up all the nutrients.
They plant it for money. They continue to plant it until it fails.


3. What is the role and effect of technology in the mode of production depicted in the novel? What are the effects of increased productivity (due to technology) on the lives of farmers and labourers? How are tractors characterized? How about their drivers? What is their relationship to the land they work? What is happening to the land? What economic trend do the hired tractor drivers represent? What forms of production seem no longer possible? What seems to be the only alternative?


4. What are the tenants thoughts on large amounts of property (five, ten thousand acres)? How does the size of the land affect the relations between the owner and the land he owns? How is the size of the land related to economic imperatives and emerging modes of production?


5. What arguments do the tenants use against the repossession of their lands by the owners? Why do they repeatedly point out that "Grampa took up the land, and he had to kill the Indians and drive them away... and he killed weeds and snakes"? Is this Ironic? Why?

They feel that the repossession isn't at all fair since the land is their livelihood and their way of sustaining themselves, supporting their family. They do so much with it, and they figure they should own because they're physically, mentally, and to some extent emotionally attached to it, rather than holding a piece of paper which is the only notification of the banks' ownership. Comparing snakes and weeds to the Indians, symbolizing them as things that are not wanted on the land that need to get out. However, the irony is that the farmers are mad that they are getting kicked off their land, when in fact Grampa kicked the Indians off their land and they feel this is justified. Snakes are more than likely a biblical reference here.

6. What is the significance of the unhung gate and the story of the Jacobs's baby devoured by a pig because a door was left open? What does the unhung gate indicate? What do the gates symbolize? What is their purpose, both literal and symbolic? How do such images relate to the concerns of the novel?

The gate was never kept open after the incident with the Baby getting eaten by a pig! :) The fact the gate is left open indicated to Tom that no one is around. His family, or more specifically, his mother is dead or they've moved somewhere else. 

7. Why is there a picture of an Indian girl ("Red Wing") on the wall of the house? What about the sofa pillow (with a picture of an Indian on it) Grampa stole from Albert Rance? What about Albert's claim that "Grampa got Injun blood"?

Perhaps there is a connection between the manifest destiny and the overtaking of Indian land and the banks repossession of the land from the farmers. The house is desolate, ripped apart, with all the things taken out. Tom Joad has nothing left here, which is how the Native Americans felt once they got their land taken from them while being relocated to reservations or getting killed off.  

8. What is the significance of the figure of Muley Graves who refuses to leave the land? What does his name suggest? Why is he "like a damn ol' graveyard ghos'"? Why does he say, "If they throw me off, I'll come back, an' if they figger I'll be quiet underground, why. I'll take couple-three of the sons-a-bitches along for company"? Is this the only ghost that walks the land? What are ghosts anyway? Is this land haunted?

Muley means hornless when referring to a cow, or just a cow without horns. Stubborn as a mule is also an expression which fits the stubborn quality of Graves' wanting to stay on the land to rebel against the owners. Graves equates to death, lack of life, depression, all of which seem to suit the surrounding farmlands. He is described like a graveyard ghost due in part to his name, and perhaps the idea of a ghost town is a town that had all its inhabitants relocated with just empty buildings sitting alone. The farmlands seem to fit this description. 

9. Why do the owners claim (in Muley's words) that "We can't afford to keep no tenants... the share a tenant gets is jus' the margin, a profit we can't afford to lose."

10. Why does Muley share his food with Tom and Casy? What is his argument justifying his obligation to share?

Discussion Questions 1

1. Look closely at the opening paragraphs. Steinbeck notes details as well as the wide angle shot. He was influenced by film - and his description of place is cinematic here. The Fourth structure of these paragraphs mirrors the structure of the book, as it moves back and fourth from the detailed Joad chapters to the inter chapters that cover a wider perspective. 


2. The end of this opening chapter focuses on the people on the land, men vs. women. Note the ways that the book contrasts men's "figuring" to women's methods of coping. 
Men just stand their with a blank face, appear strong, but don't know what to do. 
The women act on what the men feel. As long as the men don't give up, the women know everything is going to be ok, but if the men give up, the women know some thing is wrong. 


3. Why does Seinbeck first introduce Tom Joad leaving jail? What thematic concerns are thus introduced?
Leaves people with questions, but shows what he has been through, and what he is like/his background.


4. In Ch. 2 these is a mention of flies and bugs, why do you think this will be important?
They want to get inside the dinner, but there's a screen door blocking them. Desperate to get in, but there is something in their way. 


5. What's the description of Tom Joad in ch. 2? What does this description tell us about him? Where did he come from (specifically) and why was he there? 
His clothes were cheap and new, they didn't fit him. He is just wearing the standard clothes that the jail gave him. 
He came from jail, because he killed a guy. 


6. What impression do you get of the Truck Driver in ch. 2? Why does he want to be a "Good Guy"? What theme does this reinforce? 
He was being manipulated by John. He wants to be a good guy, and go against what his bosses say. 
We vs. I


7. What's the significant about the following quote: "Sure they stop, but it ain't to eat. They ain't hardly ever hungary. They're just goddamn sick of goin'- get sick of it. Joints is the only place you can pul up, an' you stop you got to buy somepin so you can sling the bull with the broad behind the counter. So you get a cup of coffee and a piece of pie. Kind of gives a guy a little rest." 
They want to stop to have some interaction. They want some company, doesn't want to be a bad guy. Wants to be a regular person. They want to be part of every one else. 


8. The turtle chapter is justly famous. Early reviewers often focused only on the historical accuracy of the novel, whereas Steinbeck insisted that he was not writing merely social history. His vision was also highly suggestive, symbolic, mythic. The book, he said, had four layers - readers could take out of the novel what they could, based on their sensitivity and sophistication as readers. The turtle symbolizes the migrants in several ways. Discuss.
The turtle symbolizes the migrant workers because the turtle works hard even through the tough times. The farmers in the first chapter are going to have to work through the drought and rough events even though things seem dire, things will work out in the end, just like the women know.

9. What opinion does Casy, the former preacher, have about sin and using "bad words"?
He doesn't mind using them. they are just words folks use, and they mean nothing bad with them.

10. Why is it important that Casy was a "Burning Busher"?Because the Burning Bush alludes to the Bible. The Burning Bush is where Moses was told to lead the Israelites. Suppose it symbolizes dedication to God, as Moses did what God told him by leading them there, given Casy's past experiences as a preacher, he must have obeyed God similarly until he couldn't make sense of it anymore.. 


11. What's significant about the Jesus Quote? What themes does it reinforce? 
The preacher doesn't seem to understand why people have to rely on God and Jesus so much. He says perhaps that maybe the strength of people and the Holy Sperit is within everyone. This correlates to the corporations and all the businesses buying up all the farmland leaving the people out. You can't have one person in power, rather have respect for everyone around. Themes: People vs. Molloch & Importance of Family