Grapes of Wrath- Question 2

I am going to answer the question "What are the causes, gains, and losses of the conflict dealt with in this book?" from the book the Grapes of Wrath. The main conflict in the book was that there was a large drought that has caused many farmers to lose their jobs and land because they aren't producing enough goods. This is what happened to the Joad family which is causing them to have to migrate to California to find a home and jobs. On cause of the the conflict was the large drought. The loss of this is that they weren't able to keep their crops good and healthy which made them unusable. Unusable crops couldn't pay the banks, and if they weren't paid the Joads had to leave. There wasn't much of a gain from the drought besides that this led to some of the farmers getting tractors and making double that they were making before. For the Joads there was no gain because they were not one of the ones who got the tractors, or agreed to them anyway. The man who did take this job was Joe Davis and his reasoning for doing it was described by him saying "Three dollars a day. I got damn sickof creeping for my dinner-and not getting it. I got a wife and kids. We got to eat. Three dollars a day and it comes every day." (Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. p.37) A second cause is that the bankers forced them to travel to California. The loss of this was that is that the Joads had a very long journey which was very stressful. The hard part for them was that they didn't know that after they got to California if it would all even be worth it. The gain was that the family got much closer. They learned a lot about and from each other that they might have never known if it was not for them being forced to move.




Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Grapes of Wrath- Question 1

I am going to answer the questions "What does the writing reveal about the author's values and attitudes? From what perspective does he/she write?" from the book Grapes of Wrath. First of all the author of the book is John Steinbeck. John Steinbeck actually grew up in California, where part of the story takes place. He also grew up on a farm and had many jobs as he was growing up. These jobs include part time writer, laborer, apprenticehood-carrier, apprentice painter, caretaker of an estate, surveyor, watchman, and fruit-picker. (Liukkonen, Petri.) This was all before he wrote his first book. This past of hardships and hard work gave him a good idea on how to write Grapes of Wrath because he could refer to stories of his own life. He grew up having to pay for his own schooling and pretty much anything that he wanted on his own. This makes it obvious that he values hard work because he grew up having to do it. This reflects in the book when the Joad family especially has to constantly be doing hard work in order to survive. (Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott.) The author also has a very large value for family as well. This is displayed throughout the book he talks about the Joad family wanting to wait for their son to be out of prison. When it talks about them all sticking together and helping one another survive. Also he values the hard working poor people and sees them as good people. This was shown in the book when the mother said "If you're in trouble or hurt or need—go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help—the only ones."(Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott.p.394) The author writes in the perspective of third person. This allows him to write about the thoughts and ideas of every/ any character he chooses. This gives you a better insight to the characters and how they are really feeling and acting.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Liukkonen, Petri. "John Steinbeck." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. Web. 15 Aug. 2011. .

Old Man and the Sea- Chacter anlysis of the store owner.

Although the character of the store owner may seem small he was a big part of the main characters life. This is one reason why I feel he should have had a larger role in the story itself. The store owners actual name is Martin. He owns the store directly below the main character, Santiago El Cameon. They never really describe his age or his looks in the story which kind of makes sense because Hemingway didn't see him of that much importance. In the story he is the owner of a cafe. This is why he would always give Manolin food and drinks to bring to Santiago. (Hemingway) Santiago never payed for any of the food or drinks. This shows that Martin has a very high regard for the old man. He has a level of respect for him that many of the townspeople do not have. This also shows how he has a very big heart. Most store owners, especially today, would give anyone anything for free. This only happens if they themselves get something out of it. For him to be this unselfish gives the store owner a bigger role in Santiago's life because it shows that someone besides Manoling cares about him. This is why I feel that Martin should have been given a lager part because he was one of the people helping keep Santiago alive because he had nothing to eat or drink and no way of paying for it either. This character shows that there was still kindness in the town but just very little of it because of the Great Depression going on. There were many characters in the book that weren't given very much effort of detail put into them. For some this made sense such as Manolins dad, newspaper guy, and the tourist women. These people didn't play life or death roles in Santiago's life. In my opinion Martin did which would be a reason I would have at least given him a face in the story.

Old Man and the Sea- What I did not like about the book.

Although I am a big fan of this book there are still many parts that I wish wouldn't have been there or would have been changed. One of these being the continuation from "What I liked about the book" describing repetition. Although there were many good ones there was on that I just did not understand. That was the repeating of the purple/violet color of the fish. (Hemingway) This was described multiple times in the book when talking about different fish that were not a great significance in the book. When I was reading I kept searching for a reason of why this color was so important. No matter how much I have looked into it I still can not find a good reason. This is irritating to me because that made me spend the whole book thinking it would all come together and make sense but then low and behold I am on the last page with no explanation. The next ting I did not like about the book was the very vague ending. I didn't feel like they left me hanging like in many book but I feel like all effort was lost at the end. I feel as if Hemingway put so much effort into the entire book but at the end just kind of lost the flair. There really wasn't much of a formal resolution of the fact that Santiago was deemed unlucky. (Hemingway) That bothered me because that was part of the conflict in a way, the part where he wanted to redeem respect again. I feel as if Hemingway should have given as much effort into the ending as he did the story because with a vague ending the story itself becomes kind of mediocre. It is like when your friend tells this long and kind of interesting story but at the very end they don't really tell you what happened and you feel like the story became kind of boring. So pretty much I loved the story and the storyline up until the very end because Hemingway didn't really give us one.

Old Man and the Sea- What I liked about the book.

I thought the Old Man and the Sea had some very good qualities to it. One of these being the writing skills of the author. The author used symbolism a lot which helped give the story depth and more interest to me as the reader. Some of these symbols included Joe DiMaggio, the harpoon, and the mast. (Hemingway) The author also used the tactic of repetition. This is a hard tactic because it can be overdone but when done right it can be perfect. Hemingway did it almost perfect, and I will describe those in perfections in the blog of "What I didn't like about the book." For this blogs sake I will describe the perfections. These being the repetition of the lions on the beach story because each time it was told there was another detail or part of the story given. (Hemingway) This makes a mini story inside of another story giving the book huge amounts of depth. Writing with depth is a huge plus for me because I don't like stories that just give the exact meaning to everything. That doesn't allow any creativity from me as the reader. My biggest plus that I can give to Hemingway's writing was his use of details. The amount of detail he would put into something was crucial! Whether it was very little because that part of the story had less significance in comparison to others. Maybe it was also the use of extra details to show the amount of prominence in the story. I loved this tactic because it gave me a better idea of what to think about and what not to worry about as much. Some authors tend to add details where they aren't needed making the story drug out and boring. The last thing I loved about the story was simply the story line. The story of someone who most would say is defeated and weak coming through hardships and being somewhat of a hero is always a fascinating story. What made this one even better was how they used the bad verses evil, human verses nature, and mental strength verses physical strength all together made the book a knockout.

Old Man and the Sea- Symbols

There were many different uses of symbols in the book. What is a symbol? A symbol is "something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign. ("symbol.") Through out the book Hemingway used this writing skill to expand the depth of the words by giving them something to symbolize. Having something symbolize something else makes each word have even more invisible words or phrases attached to them. By invisible I mean they have many not actually written out meanings to them. This makes a book more interesting to the reader. One symbol in the book is Joe DiMaggio, who used to be a Yankees baseball player. Joe DiMaggio symbolizes the human strength even through injury because he went his entire baseball career (pretty much) with a foot spur. Santiago, the protagonist in the story, used the strength that DiMaggio had as a reference to how he can't give up because of the injuries he has. The next symbol used was the lost harpoon. In the story when he was fighting the sharks he lost his harpoon which at this point was all he had left weapon wise to fight them. (Hemingway) The harpoon symbolized his strength and sense of power at the time he was using it. When is was lost it represented a sense of loss of the little strength he had left. The next symbol was the mast on the boat. The mast symbolized the cross of Christ, known as the cross Christ carried and was ultimately crucified on. The scene of walking the cross up the hill was sort of reenacted when Santiago carried his mast all the way up the hill to his home. (Hemingway) This was not his death but it was very closing to being so. Symbolizing became a huge part of the story Old Man and the Sea because it was the only thing showing how this old man got his courage and strength. He acted on how the great Joe DiMaggio would have, how Christ himself would have, and ultimately won the struggle



Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.



"symbol." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 15 Aug. 2011. .

Old Man and the Sea-Character Analysis of towns people

I am going to do a character analysis of the townspeople. In the book they live in a small fishing community in Cuba. (Hemingway) The majority of the men and boys are fishermen. This is something that is taught at a very young age because its the villages way of life. The women and girls keep the home and help the men when they are needed. This way of life makes it very easy to pass judgment onto others because when someone is not only different from you, but also half the town then there is defiantly more of a chance of passing judgement. There wasn't to much said about the town passing judgment on store owners though, but this is probably because store owners are needed for them to make their living make sense. Not much point in catching fish if there is no one to sell it to. Here is where the judgment comes in, and it has to do with catching the fish. When you are a fisherman in the village there is little bit of competitions to where who can catch the most or the biggest. This is normal for the town. (Hemingway) It is not normal though for people to not be catching any fish at all. This kind of reputation is unwanted because then you will be known as "unlucky". This is exactly what the old man of the town, otherwise known as Santiago El Cameon was deemed to be. Have this kind of blemish makes it very hard to have any respect for the person because they are doing nothing. Well this is how the towns people of the fishing village saw it. They didn't know why he couldn't just catch a fish when they all were. This is why they deemed him so unlucky and why Santiago became even more sad/frustrated because his entire town was against him. The towns people all in all were just characters who passed judgment and made Santiago push even harder to get the big fish.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.