Jocks vs. The Musical

Jocks vs. the Musical
Brandon Varilek

Why is there such a big emphasis put on sports in today’s society? Are they so important that they rid the importance of the arts? The arts are an important part of human development. Sports are fun to play and can keep a person physically fit, but why do they seem to be the integral part of society? What ever happened to the arts?
In small schools, almost everybody plays at least one sport or more. Sports are physical, making them good for the body. Music, however, gives a person artistic character. It gives one the ability to create something beautiful and memorable to society. In bigger cities, even like Sioux Falls, maybe the custom for a family is to go to the theatre instead of the football game. What’s wrong with that?
Since we are putting such an emphasis on sports, they shove music off to the side and make them unimportant. A perfect example of this is the guide on a TV guide. How many concerts could someone see listed compared to how many sporting events were listed? I’d be surprised to find one concert compared to the eight football games on Sunday; and also the five baseball games I could find on any given day. There are even five channels dedicated just to sports. Even in college, college athletes are treated so much better than the music majors, when in reality, they are probably going to be the one’s who are making the difference in the future. What I believe to be a prime example of this is Leonardo da Vinci. His paintings of the Mona Lisa, Madonna on the Rocks, and the Last Supper still are a conflict of belief. I have still found nothing that even compares to that that has to do with athletics.
Don’t get me wrong, I think sports are a very important of living today. We have been playing sports since the beginning of time. The only question is, are they really that important? I think there should be more of an even balance between the two. In a small school, if a person is just in music and another sport, they might call him or her “gay”. Yet they probably listen to the radio everyday, so what does that make them?
Ronald Regan once said, “Civilizations are most often remembered fro their art and thought…I have always believed in the definition of an educated man or woman as one who could, if necessary, rebound his or her civilization. That means we must teach our students more than hard facts and floppy disks. We must teach them the rich artistic inheritance of our culture and an appreciation of how fine music enriches both the student who studies it, and the society that produces it… The existence of strong music and fine arts curricula are important to keeping the humanities truly humanizing and liberal arts truly liberating.”

Chapters 27-30

In the beginning of Chapter 27, cotton farmers are putting out signs for help for picking cotton. There are some people that don't have a bag for picking cotton and if they want to work, they are forced to pay a dollar for it. They always argue when weighing in their cotton because they workers think that the scale is crooked and they scale operators know there is rocks in the bag. Now we are back to the Joads, who are now living in box cars. They have to share with another family, the Wainwrights. Ma goes to the store to buy some food and supplies for the family, now that they are making some more money. She buys the kids two boxes of Cracker Jacks for Winfield and Ruthie. They are walking around and another girl wants her Cracker Jacks and picks a fight with her. During the fight, she says that her brother could kill her and Ruthie tells her that her brother has killed 2 people. That is probably not the smartest thing to start up around the camp because that puts him in a lot of danger. Ma decides to meet Tom and tell him about what she has said. Tom gives her some advice and she leaves him. Ma returns to the box car and meets a farmer of the way back. He informs her of job openings to pick a 20 acre lot. She hurries back to inform them of the job. Upon her return, she finds out that Al and Agnes Wainwright. The next day when they go to work, there is a huge amount of people there and are done picking by noon.

Chapters 26-27

In the beginning of chapter 26, the Joads are still at the government camp and are planning to leave. They have to leave in order to get money for their hungry family. They are going to try to go to the north. Ma also finds out that Winfiled punched a kin in the nose for calling him an oakie. I thought the government was going to be the turning point for the Joads, but I guess not. When driving to the north, they get a flat tire and a rich man comes up to the truck and offers them work as a peach pickers. The pay is 5 cents a box and all of the family members are invited to work. They go to cabin 63, which is not very nice at all and get to work right away. They make one dollar by the end of the day and Ma sends it to the store for food. She gets the items that she needs but realized she forgot sugar. She needs a dime to get it and convinces the cashier to lend her a dime. She returns to the cabin, but the food does not fill the stomachs of the family.
After eating, Tom goes into the peach orchard and finds Casy there. There is a strike going on and Casy tells him that the strike has been caused because the company droped the wages from 5 cents a box to 2.5 cents a box. Two officers come over and shine a light on the two of them. Casy says something and they kill him with a pick by crushing his head. Tom is PO'ed at this and swings a club at them. Tom ends up with a busted nose and other bruises on his face. He offers to leave so he doesn't cause any more problems for his family, but they insist that he stay. I think they will find work in the cotton fields if they keep looking. I think that is the only way for that family to make it.

Chapters 22-25

We start out chapter 22 with the Joads arriving at Weedpatch, which is a government sponsored place for people to live in what they think is luxury. They meet a man and he directs them to where they can camp out, which is neer sanitary unit 4. They think the sanitary units are amazing because of the running water. Tom is up early the next morning and walks around the camp. He hears metal on metal and searches for the noise and finds Timothy and Wilkie Wallace and joins them for breakfast. They tell them that there is a place about a mile up the road where they are working for 30 cents and hour and invite him to come along with them. He runs back to his camp and tells Ruthie to tell Ma that he found work and that he has eaten breakfast. It is very generous of the Wallaces' to tell him about work, cause it would be just as easy to let them suffer or to tell them there is no work left there. When they arrive, they boss informs them that the pay has been cut from 30 cents to 25 cents an hour. Later, the rest of the Joads try to find work in the orchards. Ma is back at camp still and is visited by the owner, Jim Rawley and chats for a while. Rose of Sharon is just sitting at camp and a very religious lady comes by and warns her about the dances. How not to dance and sin or else her baby will be born dead and bloody.
Later, it is time for the dance and Rose of Sharon is scared for her baby because she does not want to lose her baby and decides not to dance because of this fear. During the dances, they have people constantly watching for fights which is very smart because they can kep the cops out this way. And what do you know, a fight breaks out because some guy broke up another couples dance. How rude! They quickly get to them and kick them out. They confess that they have been paid money to start a riot and get the cops in there.

Chapters 19-21

At the beginning of chapter 19, it says that California belonged to Mexico and that a horde of tattered Americans poured in. Is this our greed for land that we have to take the Mexicans? They were weak, and the Americans succeeded. Now, the oakies are coming to California in search of money and ownership of land. The natives know that they are a threat to their land and to their crops. The oakies even try to hide secret gardens in the Jimson weeds. The cops end up finding them and kick up all of the plants.
The family is still cramped in their truck going further into California. The family stumbles across a place where all of the oakies "camp out". I think it is a good place for the oakies to be because the cops don't do checks there. To goes and meets up with a group of men sitting in a circle and says that there are people coming through with handbills to work the crops. They say that every family has seen them though. Tom and Al meet a man named Floyd Knowles. He is fixing his car for the rest of their journey. He tells them that if they meet up with a police officer, to act dumb so they wont think you are a threat. Connie is starting to have doubts about going west and wishes he would have stayed home and learned how to run a tractor. He thought a person could live off 3 dollars a day pretty easily. During their stay at Hooverville, Ma Joad makes a stew for the family. It attracts kids from different tents and they gather around it. She tries to get them to leave and they finally do. A mother of the kid that was sitting next to Ma Joads stew came over and told her not to boast about having food that is better than the others that only have fried bread, which in reality, it was that kid who was bragging because they had better food than the Joads. I thought that was kind of ironic. Later on, a contractor comes to Hooverville to recruit new workers for picking fruit. Floyd had to put his two sense in and demanded that he showed them his lisence and give a set wage before any accepted the job. They get in a fight and Floyd, the one who started it all runs off. The cop shoots at him and shoots a woman's hand instead. Tom kicks him in the neck and knocks him unconsious. Casy takes the blame because Tom is not supposed to be there. I guess this show what a family will do for each other in a tough situation. Now with casy gone, John can't bear his sin any more and gets two silver dollars to go and get drunk. The family is packing up once again because they are going to burn Hooverville.

Chapters 16-18

The Joads are keeping up the pace on their journey to the west coast. They consider they highway as their medium of expression, since they have become so accustom to traveling by now. Connie wants to study at night and live in a town where he can do so. Ma doesn't really like that idea. Then, the car starts to rattle. They find that a con-rod is snapped and needs to be fixed before they can continue. The rest of the family waits as Al and Tom go and get the part. They meet a character, who is missing an eye, has what you could say is a "self pity problem," and he hates his boss so much, he wouldn't care if Tom would burn the place! Tom and him get into an argument on how he likes to feel sorry for himself and that he needs to pull himself together. They get the part and get it fixed and are able to move on and stop at a camp. They already made them pay 50 cents for everyone else but them, and they want another 50 for the extra car! I guess that shows just how desperate they are to get a couple of extra dollars. The man who owns it explains to Pa that there is nothing for them in California. He tells them how they need 800 workers, but they print 5000 handbills and 20000 people see them! It seems unfair for him to tell them that there is nothing in California for them, but it is only fair to give them fair warning. Pa is getting nervous about the trip. Casy tells him to push forward because anything is possible and they could have a different experience then he did.
Chapter 17 just shows how tightly knit that the families traveling need to be in order to survive the trip. I think this is significant in the way that they can all help each other in California if they need it and they wont hesitate to do it.
After traveling a great distance, they come to Arizona. the state officials ask is they have any foreign plants on board and decline. The desert is obviously going to be a great obstacle to the Joads. The desert is the only thing in the way of them to get to the beautiful orchards where they are heading to. They stop to camp and all the men went to the river and bathe. Noah decides to stay behind and live off the fish. A cop comes by and tells them they can't stay there and if they are there in the morning, they will be run out, which is very unfair. I understand that they don't want the "oakies" staying there, but wouldn't they want them there rather than staying in their cities or the nicer part of California? They are stopped for inspection again and are nearly forced to be searched, but they convince them that grandma is very sick and needs a doctor right away. They let them pass without the inspection. The family makes it across the desert, but not without another fatality. Grandma Joad has died in the long trip, and ma notifies them that she was not alive before the inspection. She lied there all night with the dead corpse.

Chapters 11-15

The farmers have now left their homes and are going to leave for California. Their houses shortly after they leave are either damaged or are invaded by animals. They travel along highway 66 which is packed with other farmers making their way to California to find work. They listen closely to the car the entire way to hear even the slightest difference in the motor. If it breaks down where they are, all it is is lost time. When they try to buy some parts for the car, the person selling tries to cheat them again. People at the stations suggest that there is not enough room in California for all the poor people and the rich people.
Al is the guy who is guiding the Joads to California. He asked Ma if she thinks that Cali. will live up to her expectations. She says, "I cannot account for what might be, i can only account for what is. They stop at a gas station and the attendant basically tells them they have no money, which is not true. Al and the attendant argue and the kids and the rest of the family drinks from a hose that only has warm water. The dog is running around and gets on the road. He gets run over on accident and the attendant agrees to bury the dog for them. After a long day of travel, they stop alongside the road next to another family that is camping because their car does not run anymore. Grampa Joad is sick and has a stroke and dies. They bury him near where they are camping and invite the Wilson's, they family they are camping next to, to join them on their way to California.
In chapter 15, we are in a coffee shop type thing. We meet a waitress named Mae and a cook named Al. They often discuss the migration and heard rumors that the farmers were thieves. A man then walks in and wants to buy a loaf of bread for 10 cents. He gets it after a long discussion and also gets two 5 cent pieces of candy for a cent.