American Literature books summary

American Literature books summary

Hemingway returned to his home in Cuba and began to work seriously again.

He also traveled widely, and on a trip to Africa he was injured in a plane

crash. Soon after (in 1953), he received the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for

The Old Man and the Sea (1952), a short, heroic novel about an old Cuban

fisherman who, after an extended struggle, hooks and boats a giant marlin

only to have it eaten by voracious sharks during the long voyage home.

This book, which played a role in gaining for Hemingway the Nobel

Prize for Literature in 1954, was as enthusiastically praised as his

previous novel, Across the River and into the Trees (1950), the story of a

professional army officer who dies while on leave in Venice, had been

damned.By 1960 Fidel Castro's revolution had driven Hemingway from Cuba. He

settled in Ketchum, Idaho, and tried to lead his life and do his work as

before. For a while he succeeded, but, anxiety-ridden and depressed, he was

twice hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he

received electroshock treatments. Two days after his return to the house in

Ketchum, he took his life with a shotgun. Hemingway had married four times

and fathered three sons.He left behind a substantial amount of manuscript,

some which has been published. A Moveable Feast, an entertaining memoir of

his years in Paris (1921-26) before he was famous, was issued in 1964.

Islands in the Stream, three closely related novellas growing directly out

of his peacetime memories of the Caribbean island of Bimini, of Havana

during World War II, and of searching for U-boats off Cuba, appeared in

1970.Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.

The main characters of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For

Whom the Bell Tolls are young men whose strength and self-confidence

nevertheless coexist with a sensitivity that leaves them deeply scarred by

their wartime experiences. War was for Hemingway a potent symbol of the

world, which he viewed as complex, filled with moral ambiguities, and

offering almost unavoidable pain, hurt, and destruction. To survive in such

a world, and perhaps emerge victorious, one must conduct oneself with

honour, courage, endurance, and dignity, a set of principles known as "the

Hemingway code."

To behave well in the lonely, losing battle with life is to show "grace

under pressure" and constitutes in itself a kind of victory, a theme

clearly established in The Old Man and the Sea.Hemingway's prose style was

probably the most widely imitated of any in the 20th century. He wished to

strip his own use of language of inessentials, ridding it of all traces of

verbosity, embellishment, and sentimentality. In striving to be as

objective and honest as possible, Hemingway hit upon the device of

describing a series of actions using short, simple sentences from which all

comment or emotional rhetoric have been eliminated. These sentences are

composed largely of nouns and verbs, have few adjectives and adverbs, and

rely on repetition and rhythm for much of their effect. The resulting

terse, concentrated prose is concrete and unemotional yet is often resonant

and capable of conveying great irony through understatement. Hemingway's

use of dialogue was similarly fresh, simple, and natural-sounding. The

influence of this style was felt worldwide wherever novels were written,

particularly from the 1930s through the '50s.A consummately contradictory

man, Hemingway achieved a fame surpassed by few, if any, American authors

of the 20th century. The virile nature of his writing, which attempted to

re-create the exact physical sensations he experienced in wartime, big-game

hunting, and bullfighting, in fact masked an aesthetic sensibility of great

delicacy. He was a celebrity long before he reached middle age, but his

popularity continues to be validated by serious critical opinion.

Context

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in the summer of 1899.

As a young man, he left home to become a newspaper writer in Kansas City.

Early in 1918, he joined the Italian Red Cross and became an ambulance

driver in Italy, serving in the battlefield in the First World War, in

which the Italians allied with the British, the French, and the Americans,

against Germany and Austria-Hungary. In Italy, he observed the carnage and

the brutality of the Great War firsthand. On July 8, 1918, a trench mortar

shell struck him while he crouched beyond the front lines with three

Italian soldiers.

Though Hemingway embellished the story of his wounding over the years,

this much is certain: he was transferred to a hospital in Milan, where he

fell in love with a Red Cross nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. Scholars are

divided over Agnes' role in Hemingway's life and writing, but there is

little doubt that his affair with her provided the background for A

Farewell to Arms, which many critics consider to be Hemingway's greatest

novel.

Published in 1929, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of Frederic

Henry, a young American ambulance driver and first lieutenant ("Tenente")

in the Italian army. Hit in the leg by a trench mortar shell in the

fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary, Henry is transferred to a

hospital in Milan, where he falls in love with an English Red Cross nurse

named Catherine Barkley. The similarities to Hemingway's own life are

obvious.

After the war, when he had published several novels and become a famous

writer, Hemingway claimed that the account of Henry's wounding in A

Farewell to Arms was the most accurate version of his own wounding he had

ever written. Hemingway's life certainly gave the novel a trenchant

urgency, and its similarity to his own experience no doubt helped him

refine the terse, realistic, descriptive style for which he became famous,

and which made him one of the most influential American writers of the

twentieth century.

SUMMARY

Book I, Chapters 1-6

Frederic Henry begins his story by describing his situation: he is an

American in the Italian army near the front with Austria-Hungary, a mile

from the fighting. Every day he sees troops marching and hears gunfire;

often the King rides through the town. A cholera epidemic has spread

through the army, he says, but only seven thousand die of it.

His unit moves to a town in Gorizia, further from the fighting, which

continues in the mountains beyond. His situation is relatively enjoyable;

the town is not badly damaged, with nice cafes and two brothels--one for

the officers and one for the enlisted men. One day Henry sits in the mess

hall with a group of fellow officers taunting the military priest. A

captain accuses the priest of cavorting with women, and the priest blushes;

though he is not religious, Henry treats the priest kindly. After teasing

the priest, the Italians argue over where Henry should take his leave;

because the winter is approaching, the fighting will ease, and Henry, an

ambulance driver, will be able to spend some time away from the front. The

priest encourages him to visit the cold, clear country of Abruzzo, but the

other men have other suggestions.

When he returns from his leave, Henry discusses his trip with his

roommate, the surgeon Rinaldi. Henry claims to have traveled throughout

Italy, and Rinaldi, who is obsessed with beautiful girls, tells him about a

group of new English women and claims to be in love with a Miss Barkley.

Henry loans him fifty lire (Italian money). At dinner that night, the

priest is hurt that Henry failed to visit Abruzzi. Henry feels guilty, and

tells him that he wanted to visit Abruzzi.

The next morning, Henry examines the gun batteries and quizzes the

mechanics; then he travels to visit Miss Barkley and the English nurses

with Rinaldi. He is immediately struck by Miss Barkley's beauty, and

especially by her long blonde hair. Miss Barkley tells Henry that her

fiancee was killed in the battle of the Somme, and Henry tells her he has

never loved anyone. On the way back, Rinaldi observes that Miss Barkley

liked Henry more than she liked Rinaldi, but that her friend, Helen

Ferguson, was nice too.

The next day, Henry calls on Miss Barkley again. The head nurse

expresses surprise that an American would want to join the Italian army,

and tells him that Miss Barkley is gone-- but says that Henry may come back

to see her at seven o'clock that night. Henry drives back along the

trenches, eats dinner, then returns to see Miss Barkley. He finds her

waiting with Helen Ferguson; Helen excuses herself, and Henry tries to put

his arm around her. She refuses, but allows him to kiss her. Then she

begins to cry, and Henry is annoyed. When Henry goes home, Rinaldi is

amused.

Three nights later, Henry sees Miss Barkley again; she tells him to

call her Catherine. They walk through the garden, and Henry tells Catherine

he loves her, though he knows he does not. They kiss again, and he thinks

of their relationship as an elaborate game. To his surprise, she suddenly

tells him that he plays the game very well, but that it is a rotten game.

Henry sees Rinaldi later that evening, and Rinaldi, observing Henry's

romantic confusion, feel glad that he did not become involved with a

British nurse.

Book I, Chapters 7-12

Driving back from his post, Henry picks up a soldier with a hernia;

they discuss the War, and Henry arranges a way to get the man to a

hospital. Henry thinks about the War, and realizes that he feels no danger

from it. At dinner that night, the men drink and tease the priest; Henry

nearly forgets he had promised to go see Catherine, and before he rushes

over, Rinaldi gives him some coffee to sober him up. At the nurses' villa,

Helen Ferguson tells Henry that Catherine is sick and will not see him.

Henry feels guilty and surprisingly lonely.

The next day an attack is scheduled. Henry goes to see Catherine, and

she gives him a Saint Anthony medal. He spends the day driving to the spot

where the fighting will take place.Henry and his men wait in the trenches

as the shelling begins. They are hungry, and Henry risks being shot to

fetch some cheese. As he sits down to eat it, he hears a loud noise and

sees a flash and believes he has died. A trench mortar shell has struck him

in the leg. Wounded men fall all around him.

Henry's surviving men carry him to safety; a British doctor treats him

on the field, then sends him in an ambulance to the field hospital. Henry

lies in intense pain. Rinaldi comes to visit him at the field hospital, and

tells Henry that he will get a medal. Henry shows no interest in medals.

Rinaldi leaves him a bottle of cognac and promises to send Miss Barkley to

see him soon.

At dusk, the priest comes to visit. They discuss the war, then God.

Henry tells the priest he does not love God--he says he does not love

anything much. The priest tells him he will find love, and it will make him

happy. Henry claims to have always been happy, but the priest says Henry

will know another kind of happiness when he finds it. Half delirious, Henry

thinks about Italian towns, then falls asleep.

Rinaldi and a Major from their group come to visit Henry the night

before he moves to a better hospital in Milan. Henry is still half-

delirious, and they drink profusely. After a confused conversation, Henry

falls into a drunken sleep. The next day, he is taken on a train to Milan.

Book II, Chapters 13-17

At Milan, Frederic Henry is taken to the American hospital. A young,

pretty nurse named Miss Gage makes his bed and takes his temperature. The

head nurse, Miss Van Campen, irritates Henry by not allowing him to have

wine. Henry pays some Italians to sneak wine into his room with the evening

papers.

In the morning, Miss Gage tells Henry that Miss Barkley has come to

work at the hospital--she claims not to like her, but Henry tells her she

will learn to like her. The porter brings a barber to shave Henry, but the

barber mistakes Henry for an Austrian soldier and threatens to cut his

throat. After the barber and the porter leave, Miss Barkley comes in, and

Henry realizes he is in love with her. He pulls her down into the bed with

him, and they make love for the first time.

Henry goes through a round of doctors who remove some of the shrapnel

from his leg. The doctors seem incompetent, and tell Henry he will have to

wait six months for an operation if he wants to keep his leg. He cannot

stand the thought of spending six months in bed, and asks for another

opinion; the house doctor says he will send for Dr. Valentini. When Dr.

Valentini comes, he is cheerful, energetic, and competent and says he will

perform the operation in the morning.Catherine spends the night in Henry's

room, and they see a bat. Catherine prepares him for the operation, and

warns him not to talk about their affair while under the anaesthetic.

After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three other

patients come to the hospital--a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy from

New York with malaria and jaundice, and a boy who tried to unscrew the fuse

cap from an explosive shell for a souvenir. Henry develops an appreciation

for Helen Ferguson, who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on

duty. Catherine continues to stay with Henry every night, but Henry and

Miss Gage finally convince her to take three nights off of night duty--Miss

Van Campen has commented that Henry always sleeps till noon.

Book II, Chapters 18-24

That summer Henry learns to walk on crutches, and he and Catherine

enjoy Milan. They befriend the headwaiter at a restaurant called the Gran

Italia, and Catherine continues to see Henry every night. They discuss

marriage, but Catherine remains opposed to the idea for the time being.

They pretend to be married instead. Catherine tells Henry that her love for

him has become her religion.

When not with Catherine, Henry spends time with a soldier named Ettore

Moretti, an Italian from San Francisco who is very proud of his war medals.

Ettore is extremely boastful about his military prowess, and Catherine

finds him annoying and dull. One night Henry and Catherine lie in bed

listening to the rain, and Catherine asks Henry if he will always love her.

She says she is afraid of the rain, and begins to cry.

Henry and Catherine go to the races with Helen Ferguson, whom Henry now

calls "Fergie," and the boy who tried to unscrew the nose cap on the

shrapnel shell. They bet on a horse backed by a racing expert and former

criminal named Mr. Myers; they win, but Catherine feels dissatisfied, so

they pick a horse for the next race on their own. Even though they lose,

Catherine feels much better.

By September, Henry's leg is nearly healed. He receives some leave time

from the hospital, and Catherine tells him she will arrange to go with him.

She then gives him a piece of startling news: she is six months pregnant.

Catherine worries that Henry feels trapped, and promises not to make

trouble for him, but he tells her he feels cheerful and thinks she is

wonderful. Catherine talks about the obstacles they will face, and mentions

the old quote about how the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but

one. She says that, in reality, the brave man dies perhaps two thousand

deaths in his imagination--he simply does not mention them.

The next morning it begins to rain, and Henry is diagnosed with

jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds empty liquor bottles in Henry's room, and

accuses him of producing jaundice through alcoholism to avoid being sent

back to the front. Miss Gage helps Henry clear things up, but in the end he

loses his leave time.

Henry prepares to travel back to the front. He buys a new pistol, and

takes Catherine to a hotel. The hotel makes Catherine feel like a

prostitute, but before the night is over they feel at home there. Before

midnight, they walk downstairs and Henry calls a carriage for Catherine.

They have a brief good-bye, and Henry boards the crowded train that will

take him back to the war.

Book III, Chapters 25-28

After returning to Gorizia, Henry has a talk with the major about the

war--it was a bad year, the major says; Henry was lucky to get hit when he

did. Henry then goes to find Rinaldi; while he waits for his friend, he

thinks about Catherine. Rinaldi comes into the room and is glad to see

Henry; concerned, he examines Henry's wounded knee. He says that he has

become a skilled surgeon from the constant work with the wounded, but now

that the fighting has died down temporarily he has a frustrating lack of

work. They talk about Catherine, and at dinner the officers tease the

priest.

After dinner, Henry goes to talk with the priest. The priest thinks the

war will end soon, but Henry remains skeptical. After the priest leaves,

Henry goes to sleep; he wakes when Rinaldi comes back, but quickly falls

asleep again.

The next morning, he travels to the Bainsizza area, and sees the damage

caused by the war: the whole village is destroyed. Henry meets a man named

Gino, and they discuss the fighting. Gino says the summer's losses were not

in vain, and Henry falls silent--he says words like those embarrass him. He

says that the names of villages and the numbers of streets have more

meaning than words like sacred and glorious.That night, the rain comes down

hard, and the Croatians begin a bombardment. In the morning, the Italians

learn that the attacking forces include Germans, and they become very

afraid--they have had little contact with the Germans in the war so far,

and prefer to keep it that way. The next night, the Italian line has been

broken, and the Italian forces begin a large-scale retreat.

As the forces slowly move out, Henry returns to the villa, but finds it

empty; Rinaldi is gone with the hospital. Henry finds the drivers under his

command, including Piani, Bonello, and Aymo. Before leaving in the morning,

Henry gets a good night's sleep.

They drive out slowly through the town, in an endless line of soldiers

and vehicles. Henry takes a turn sleeping, and shortly after he wakes, the

column stalls. He finds that Bonello has given two engineer sergeants a

ride, and Aymo has two girls in his car. Exhausted, Henry falls asleep

again, and dreams of Catherine.That night, columns of peasants join the

retreating army. In the early morning Henry and his men stop briefly at a

farmhouse, eating a large breakfast. Soon, they continue slowly on their

way, rejoining the line of trucks and soldiers.

Book III, Chapters 29-32

Aymo's car gets stuck in the soft ground; the men are forced to cut

brush hurriedly to place under the tires for traction. Henry orders the two

engineer sergeants riding with Bonello to help; afraid of being overtaken

by the enemy, they refuse, and try to leave. Henry draws his gun and shoots

one of them, but the other escapes. Bonello takes Henry's pistol and kills

the wounded sergeant.

They begin to cut branches and twigs; in the end, they are unable to

save the car. Henry gives some money to the two girls travelling with Aymo

and encourages them to go down to a nearby village, Aymo gets in Henry's

vehicle, and they set out, now cut off from the main column.

Crossing a bridge, Henry sees a nearby car full of German soldiers. As

they travel, they begin to notice more and more signs of German occupation,

and they worry that they have been completely cut off from Italian-

controlled land. They proceed with caution; a sudden burst of gunfire kills

Aymo. They realize he was shot by the Italian rear guard--the Italians are

ahead, but because the rear guard is afraid, they are almost as dangerous

as the Germans.

Fearing death, Bonello leaves in hopes of being taken prisoner. The men

hide in a barn that night, and in the morning they rejoin the Italians. The

enlisted men become furious with the officers, and Piani is afraid they

will try to kill Henry. Suddenly, two men (battle police) seize hold of

Henry. They seize Henry because he is a foreigner, and in the chaos of the

retreat they intend to shoot him for a spy. When they look away for a

moment, Henry dives into the river and swims away.

After floating in the river for what seems like a very long time, Henry

climbs out, removes the stars from his shirt, and counts his money. He

crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train

that evening, hiding under a canvas with guns.

Lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the war, and

about Catherine. He realizes that he will be pronounced dead, and assumes

he will never see Rinaldi again. Rinaldi has been concerned he will die of

syphilis, and Henry worries for him. Exhausted and hungry, he imagines

finding Catherine and going away with her to a safe place.

Book V, Chapters 38-41

That fall, Henry and Catherine live in a brown wooden house on the side

of a mountain. They enjoy the company of Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen, who live

downstairs, and they remain very happy together; sometimes they walk down

the mountain path in Montreux. One day Catherine gets her hair done in

Montreux, and afterwards they go to have a beer--Catherine thinks beer is

good for the baby, because it will keep it small; she is worried about the

baby's size because the doctor has said she has a narrow pelvis. They talk

again about getting married, but Catherine wants to wait until after the

baby is born when she will be thin again.

Three days before Christmas, the snow comes. Catherine asks Henry if he

feels restless, and he says no, though he does wonder about his friends on

the front, such as Rinaldi and the priest.

Henry decides to grow a beard and by mid-January, he has one. Through

January and February he and Catherine remain very happy; in March they move

into town to be near the hospital. They stay in a hotel there for three

weeks; Catherine buys baby clothes, Henry works out in the gym, and they

both feel that the baby will arrive soon.

Finally, around three o'clock one morning, Catherine goes into labor.

They go to the hospital, where Catherine is given a nightgown and a room.

She encourages Henry to go out for breakfast, and he does, talking to the

old man who serves him. When he returns to the hospital, he finds that

Catherine has been taken to the delivery room. He goes in to see her; the

doctor stands by, and Catherine takes an anaesthetic gas when her

contractions become very painful. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Henry

goes out for lunch.

He goes back to the hospital; Catherine is now intoxicated from the

gas. The doctor thinks her pelvis is too narrow to allow the baby to pass

through, and advises a Caesarian section. Catherine suffers unbearable pain

and pleads for more gas. Finally they wheel her out on a stretcher to

perform the operation. Henry watches the rain outside.

Soon the doctor comes out and takes Henry to see the baby, a boy. Henry

has no feeling for the child. He then goes to see Catherine, and at first

worries that she is dead. When she asks him about their son, he tells her

he was fine, and the nurse gives him a quizzical look. Ushering him

outside, the nurse tells him that the boy is not fine--he strangled on the

umbilical cord, and never began to breathe.

He goes out for dinner, and when he returns the nurse tells him that

Catherine is hemorrhaging. He is filled with terror that she will die. When

he is allowed to see her, she tells him she will die, and asks him not to

say the same things to other girls. Henry goes into the hallway while they

try to treat Catherine, but nothing works; finally, he goes back into the

room and stays with her until she dies.

The doctor offers to drive him back to the hotel, but Henry declines.

He goes back into the room and tries to say good-bye to Catherine, but says

that it was like saying good-bye to a statue. He leaves the hospital and

walks back to his hotel in the rain

CHARACTERS’ PROFILE

Frederic Henry - The novel's protagonist. A young American ambulance

driver in the Italian army during the First World War, Henry is disciplined

and courageous, but feels detached from life. When introduced to Catherine

Barkley, Henry discovers a capacity for love he had not known he possessed,

and begins a process of development that culminates with his desertion of

the Italian army. Throughout the novel, the Italian soldiers under Henry's

command call him "Tenente"--the Italian word for "lieutenant."

Catherine Barkley - An English nurse who falls in love with Frederic Henry.

Catherine's fiancee was killed in the battle of the Somme before she met

Henry. Catherine has cast aside conventional social values, and lives

according to her own values, devoting herself wholly to her love for Henry.

Her long, beautiful hair is her most distinctive physical feature.

Rinaldi - Frederic's friend, an Italian surgeon. Mischievous and wry,

Rinaldi is nevertheless a passionate and skilled doctor. Rinaldi makes a

practice of always being in love with a beautiful woman, and at the

beginning of the novel is attracted to Catherine Barkley; Rinaldi's

infatuation causes him to introduce Frederic and Catherine to one another.

Helen Ferguson - A friend of Catherine's. Though she remains fond of the

lovers and helps them, Helen is much more committed to social convention

than Henry and Catherine; she vocally disapproves of their "immoral" love

affair.

Miss Gage - An American nurse. Miss Gage becomes a friend to both Catherine

and Henry--in fact, she may be in love with Henry. Unlike Helen Ferguson,

she sets aside conventional social values to support their love affair.

Miss Van Campen - The superintendent of nurses at the American hospital

where Catherine works. Miss Van Campen is strict, cold, and unlikable; she

is obsessed with rules and regulations and has no patience for or interest

in individual feelings.

Dr. Valentini - An Italian surgeon who comes to the American hospital. Self-

assured and confident, Dr. Valentini is also a highly talented surgeon.

Frederic Henry takes an immediate liking to him.

Count Greffi - A spry ninety-four year old nobleman. Henry knows Count

Greffi from his time in Stresa, and the two play billiards together toward

the end of the novel. Despite his advanced age, the count is intelligent,

disciplined, and fully committed to life.

The Grapes of Wrath

Full Summary

Chapter One: Steinbeck begins the novel with a description of the dust bowl

climate of Oklahoma. The dust was so thick that men and women had to remain

in their houses, and when they had to leave they tied handkerchiefs over

their faces and wore goggles to protect their eyes. After the wind had

stopped, an even blanket of dust covered the earth. The corn crop was

ruined. Everybody wondered what they would do. The women and children knew

that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole, but the

men had not yet figured out what to do.

Chapter Two: A man approaches a small diner where a large red transport

truck is parked. The man is under thirty, with dark brown eyes and high

cheekbones. He wore new clothes that don't quite fit. The truck driver

exits from the diner and the man asks him for a ride, despite the "No

Riders" sticker on the truck. The man claims that sometimes a guy will do a

good thing even when a rich bastard makes him carry a sticker, and the

driver, feeling trapped by the statement, lets the man have a ride. While

driving, the truck driver asks questions, and the man finally gives his

name, Tom Joad. The truck driver claims that guys do strange things when

they drive trucks, such as make up poetry, because of the loneliness of the

job. The truck driver claims that his experience driving has trained his

memory and that he can remember everything about a person he passes.

Realizing that the truck driver is pressing for information, Tom finally

admits that he had just been released from McAlester prison for homicide.

He had been sentenced to seven years and was released after only four, for

good behavior.

Chapter Three: At the side of the roadside, a turtle crawled, dragging his

shell over the grass. He came to the embankment at the road and, with great

effort, climbed onto the road. As the turtle attempts to cross the road, it

is nearby hit by a sedan. A truck swerves to hit the turtle, but its wheel

only strikes the edge of its shell and spins it back off the highway. The

turtle lays on its back, but finally pulls itself over.

Chapter Four: After getting out of the truck, Tom Joad begins walking home.

He sees the turtle of the previous chapter and picks it up. He stops in the

shade of a tree to rest and meets a man who sits there, singing "Jesus is

My Savior." The man, Jim Casy, had a long, bony frame and sharp features. A

former minister, he recognizes Tom immediately. He was a "Burning Busher"

who used to "howl out the name of Jesus to glory," but he lost the calling

because he has too many sinful ideas that seem sensible. Tom tells Casy

that he took the turtle for his little brother, and he replies that nobody

can keep a turtle, for they eventually just go off on their own. Casy

claims that he doesn't know where he's going now, and Tom tells him to lead

people, even if he doesn't know where to lead them. Casy tells Tom that

part of the reason he quit preaching was that he too often succumbed to

temptation, having sex with many of the girls he Њsaved.' Finally he

realized that perhaps what he was doing wasn't a sin, and there isn't

really sin or virtue there are simply things people do.

He realized he didn't Њknow Jesus,' he merely knew the stories of the

Bible. Tom tells Casy why he was in jail: he was at a dance drunk, and got

in a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the

head with a shovel. Tom tells him that he was treated relatively well in

McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. He even tells

about how someone broke his parole to go back. Tom tells how his father

Њstole' their house. There was a family living there that moved away, so

his father, uncle and grandfather cut the house in two and dragged part of

it first, only to find that Wink Manley took the other half. They get to

the boundary fence of their property, and Tom tells him that they didn't

need a fence, but it gave Pa a feeling that their forty acres was forty

acres. Tom and Casy get to the house: something has happened nobody is

there.

Chapter Five: This chapter describes the coming of the bank representatives

to evict the farmers. Some of the men were kind because they knew how cruel

their job was, while some were angry because they hated to be cruel, and

others were merely cold and hardened by their job. They are mostly pawns of

a system that they can merely obey. The tenant system has become untenable

for the banks, for one man on a tractor can take the place of a dozen

families. The farmers raise the possibility of armed insurrection, but what

would they fight against? They will be murderers if they stay, fighting

against the wrong targets.

Steinbeck describes the arrival of the tractors. They crawled over the

ground, cutting the earth like surgery and violating it like rape. The

tractor driver does his job simply out of necessity: he has to feed his

kids, even if it comes at the expense of dozens of families. Steinbeck

dramatizes a conversation between a truck driver and an evicted tenant

farmer. The farmer threatens to kill the driver, but even if he does so, he

will not stop the bank. Another driver will come. Even if the farmer

murders the president of the bank and board of directors, the bank is

controlled by the East. There is no effective target which could prevent

the evictions.

Chapter Six: Casy and Tom approached the Joad home. The house was mashed at

one corner and appeared deserted. Casy says that it looks like the arm of

the Lord had struck. Tom can tell that Ma isn't there, for she would have

never left the gate unhooked. They only see one resident (the cat), but Tom

wonders why the cat didn't go to find another family if his family had

moved, or why the neighbors hadn't taken the rest of the belongings in the

house. Muley Graves approaches, a short, lean old man with the truculent

look of an ornery child. Muley tells Tom that his mother was worrying about

him. His family was evicted, and had to move in with his Uncle John. They

were forced to chop cotton to make enough money to go west. Casy suggests

going west to pick grapes in California. Muley tells Tom and Casy that the

loss of the farm broke up his family his wife and kids went off to

California, while Muley chose to stay. He has been forced to eat wild game.

He muses about how angry he was when he was told he had to get off the

land. First he wanted to kill people, but then his family left and Muley

was left alone and wandering. He realized that he is used to the place,

even if he has to wander the land like a ghost. Tom tells them that he

can't go to California, for it would mean breaking parole. According to

Tom, prison has not changed him significantly. He thinks that if he saw

Herb Turnbull, the man he killed, coming after him with a knife again, he

would still hit him with the shovel. Tom tells them that there was a man in

McAlester that read a great deal about prisons and told him that they

started a long time ago and now cannot be stopped, despite the fact that

they do not actually rehabilitate people. Muley tells them that they have

to hide, for they are trespassing on the land. They have to hide in a cave

for the night.

Chapter Seven: The car dealership owners look at their customers. They

watch for weaknesses, such as a woman who wants an expensive car and can

push her husband into buying one. They attempt to make the customers feel

obliged. The proffts come from selling jalopies, not from new and

dependable cars. There are no guarantees, hidden costs and obvious flaws.

Chapter Eight: Tom and Casy reach Uncle John's farm. They remark that

Muley's lonely and covert lifestyle has obviously driven him insane.

According to Tom, his Uncle John is equally crazy, and wasn't expected to

live long, yet is older than his father. Still, he is tougher and meaner

than even Grampa, hardened by losing his young wife years ago. They see Pa

Joad fixing the truck. When he sees Tom, he assumes that he broke out of

jail. They go in the house and see Ma Joad, a heavy woman thick with child-

bearing and work. Her face was controlled and kindly. She worries that Tom

went mad in prison. This chapter also introduces Grampa and Granma Joad.

She is as tough as he is, once shooting her husband while she was speaking

in tongues. Noah Joad, Tom's older brother, is a strange man, slow and

withdrawn, with little pride and few urges. He may have been brain damaged

at childbirth. The family has dinner, and Casy says grace. He talks about

how Jesus went off into the wilderness alone, and how he did the same. Yet

what Casy concluded was that mankind was holy. Pa tells Tom about Al, his

sixteen-year old brother, who is concerned with little more than girls and

cars. He hasn't been at home at night for a week. His sister Rosasharn has

married Connie Rivers, and is several months pregnant. They have two

hundred dollars for their journey.

Chapter Nine: This chapter describes the process of selling belongings. The

items pile up in the yard, selling for ridiculously low prices. Whatever is

not sold must be burned, even items of sentimental value that simply cannot

be taken on the journey for lack of space.

Chapter Ten: Ma Joad tells Tom that she is concerned about going to

California, worried that it won't turn out well, for the only information

they have is from flyers they read. Casy asks to accompany them to

California. He wants to work in the fields, where he can listen to people

rather than preach to them. Tom says that preaching is a tone of voice and

a style, being good to people when they don't respond to it. Pa and Uncle

John return with the truck, and prepare to leave. The two children, twelve-

year old Ruthie and ten-year old Winfield are there with their older

sister, Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) and her husband. They discuss how Tom

can't leave the state because of his parole. They have a family conference

that night and discuss a number of issues: they decide to allow Casy to go

with them, since it's the only right thing for them to do. They continue

with preparations, killing the pigs to have food to take with them. While

Casy helps out Ma Joad with food preparation, he remarks to Tom that she

looks tired, as if she is sick. Ma Joad looks through her belongings, going

through old letters and clippings she had saved. She has to place them in

the fire. Before they leave, Muley Graves stops to say goodbye. Noah tells

him that he's going to die out in the field if he stays, but Muley accepts

his fate. Grampa refuses to leave, so they decide to give him medicine that

will knock him out and take him with them.

Chapter Eleven: The houses were left vacant. Only the tractor sheds of

gleaming iron and silver were alive. Yet when the tractors are at rest the

life goes out of them. The work is easy and efficient, so easy that the

wonder goes out of the work and so efficient that the wonder goes out of

the land and the working of it. In the tractor man there grows the contempt

that comes to a stranger who has little understanding and no relation to

the land. The abandoned houses slowly fall apart.

Chapter Twelve: Highway 66 is the main migrant road stretching from the

Mississippi to Bakersfield, California. It is a road of flight for refugees

from the dust and shrinking land. The people streamed out on 66, possibly

breaking down in their undependable cars on the way. Yet the travelers face

obstacles. California is a big state, but not big enough to support all of

the workers who are coming. The border patrol can turn people back. The

high wages that are promised may be false.

Chapter Thirteen: The Joads continue on their travels. Al remarks that they

may have trouble getting over mountains in their car, which can barely

support its weight. Grampa Joad wakes up and insists that he's not going

with them. They stop at a gas station where the owner automatically assumes

they are broke, and tells them that people often stop, begging for gas. The

owner claims that fifty cars per day go west, but wonders what they expect

when they reach their destination. He tells how one family traded their

daughter's doll for some gas. Casy wonders what the nation is coming to,

since people seem unable to make a decent living. Casy says that he used to

use his energy to fight against the devil, believing that the devil was the

enemy. However, now he believes that there's something worse. The Joad's

dog wanders from the car and is run over in the road. They continue on

their journey and begin to worry when they reach the state line. However,

Tom reassures them that he is only in danger if he commits a crime.

Otherwise, nobody will know that he has broken his parole by leaving the

state. On their next stop for the night, the Joads meet the Wilsons, a

family from Kansas that is going to California. Grampa complains of

illness, and weeps. The family thinks that he may suffer a stroke. Granma

tells Casy to pray for Grampa, even if he is no longer a preacher. Suddenly

Grampa starts twitching and slumps. He dies. The Joads face a choice: they

can pay fifty dollars for a proper burial for him or have him buried a

pauper. They decide to bury Grampa themselves and leave a note so that

people don't assume he was murdered. The Wilsons help them bury Grampa.

They write a verse from scripture on the note on his grave. After burying

Grampa, they have Casy say a few words. The reactions to the death are

varied. Rose of Sharon comforts Granma, while Uncle John is curiously

unmoved by the turn of events. Casy admits that he knew Grampa was dying,

but didn't say anything because he couldn't have helped. He blames the

separation from the land for Grampa's death. The Joads and the Sairy Wilson

decide to help each other on the journey by spreading out the load between

their two cars so that both families will make it to California.

Chapter Fourteen: The Western States are nervous about the impending

changes, including the widening government, growing labor unity, and

strikes. However, they do not realize that these are results of change and

not causes of it. The cause is the hunger of the multitude. The danger that

they face is that the people's problems have moved from "I" to "we."

Chapter Fifteen: This chapter begins with a description of the hamburger

stands and diners on Route 66. The typical diner is run by a usually

irritated woman who nevertheless becomes friendly when truck drivers

consistent customers who can always pay enter. The more wealthy travelers

drop names and buy vanity products. The owners of the diners complain about

the migrating workers, who can't pay and often steal. A family comes in,

wanting to buy a loaf of bread. The one owner, Mae, tells them that they're

not a grocery store, but Al, the other, tells them to just sell the bread.

Mae sells the family candy for reduced prices. Mae and Al wonder what such

families will do once they reach California.

Chapter Sixteen: The Joads and the Wilsons continue on their travels. Rose

of Sharon discusses with her mother what they will do when they reach

California. She and Connie want to live in a town, where he can get a job

in a store or a factory. He wants to study at home, possibly taking a radio

correspondence course. There is a rattling in the Wilson's car, so Al is

forced to pull over. There are problems with the motor. Sairy Wilson tells

them that they should go on ahead without them, but Ma Joad refuses,

telling them that they are like family now and they won't desert them. Tom

says that he and Casy will stay with the truck if everyone goes on ahead.

They'll fix the car and then move on. Only Ma objects. She refuses to go,

for the only thing that they have left is each other and she will not break

up the family even momentarily. When everyone else objects to her, she even

picks up a jack handle and threatens them. Tom and Casy try to fix the car,

and Casy remarks about how he has seen so many cars moving west, but no

cars going east. Casy predicts that all of the movement and collection of

people in California will change the country. The two of them stay with the

car while the family goes ahead. Before they leave, Al tells Tom that Ma is

worried that he will do something that might break his parole. Granma has

been going crazy, yelling and talking to herself.

Al asks Tom about what he felt when he killed a man. Tom admits that prison

has a tendency to drive a man insane. Tom and Al find a junkyard where they

find a part to replace the broken con-rod in the Wilson's car. The one-eyed

man working at the junkyard complains about his boss, and says that he

might kill him. Tom tells off the one-eyed man for blaming all of his

problems on his eye, and then criticizes Al for his constant worry that

people will blame him for the car breaking down. Tom, Casy and Al rejoin

the rest of the family at a campground not far away. To stay at the

campground, the three would have to pay an additional charge, for they

would be charged with vagrancy if they slept out in the open. Tom, Casy and

Uncle John eventually decide to go on ahead and meet up with everyone else

in the morning. A ragged man at the camp, when he hears that the Joads are

going to pick oranges in California, laughs. The man, who is returning from

California, tells how the handbills are a fraud. They ask for eight hundred

people, but get several thousand people who want to work. This drives down

wages. The proprietor of the campground suspects that the ragged man is

trying to stir up trouble for labor.

Chapter Seventeen: A strange thing happened for the migrant laborers.

During the day, as they traveled, the cars were separate and lonely, yet in

the evening a strange thing happened: at the campgrounds where they stayed

the twenty or so families became one. Their losses and their concerns

became communal. The families were at first timid, but they gradually built

small societies within the campgrounds, with codes of behavior and rights

that must be observed. For transgressions, there were only two punishments:

violence or ostracism. Leaders emerged, generally the wise elders. The

various families found connections to one another

Chapter Eighteen: When the Joads reach Arizona, a border guard stops them

and nearly turns them back, but does let them continue. They eventually

reach the desert of California. The terrain is barren and desolate. While

washing themselves during a stop, the Joads encounter migrant workers who

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