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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree that it was pretty selfish of Floyd to run off when he started the fight in the first place. Yet, he is also the only one to stand up for "Okies" in demanding that they give a set wage before they come to work for them. Ma actually gave the kids the stew that was left over though, and then the other mom got mad, which is kind of weird, because Ma was just trying to do the right thing.
I agree with you and Kimmy about Floyd running off, but I probably would have run too because the deputy started shooting him.
Ma told all of the children to get a stick so that they could get some of the stew. She went into the tent, and the children fought over what little there was.
I also agree that the government camp seems like a good place to be that I know of so far because there are no cops, and they have control of themselves with no one really telling them what to do.
You said that it was greed that made the Americans which I somewhat agree with. Or is it just the smart thing to do, I mean I know the land wasnt ours but I think it was a good idea to take it right when our country was becoming one of the most powerful countries in the world. By the way, good job line judging tonight.
I wouldn't say the kids were "bragging" when they told their moms about the stew, I think they were kind of sad that their family didn't get that great of a thing. Also, when the fight broke out between the cop and Floyd, Tom tripped the cop and Casy kicked him in the neck, not Tom. But Tom tripped him, which he could have got into trouble for so he ran. I also agree it was selfish of Floyd to run off, but I think anyone at that time would have done that.
Post a Comment