Chapter 23 & 24

Chapter 23:
Cast of Characters- Migrant People; Parents, children, and a preacher

Main Events- The people who were now migrants made their own fun and good times even though life for them was at it's hardest at this time. In the camps, the people are worried about what their lives have come to and a preacher tries to save them.

Themes-
Perseverance; Even though times were hard, they kept pushing on and making their own fun to try and stay happy.
Worry; This theme describes the part of the chapter when he is talking about how the preacher is saving the migrants in the camp.

1. Do you think the preacher the chapter was referring to could have been Jim Casy?
2. Do you think the men who got drunk to ease the pain did it very often during this time?

-The passage with the Texas boy and Cherokee girl dancing is interesting because it shows us what a wide variety of people from so many different states had the same issues going in their lives and all show up here together and still try to make the best out of what they have.
-The passage where those who are trying to be saved by the preacher in the camp is sad because we see how worried these families are about their lives that they would randomly do this.

Compare- This chapter describes a general group of migrants who drank, sang, and danced to forget about the hard times they were going through. This is just like the Joad's in the camp when they attend the dance on Saturday night. The chapter describes migrant men who drank to try and forget about what their families are going through, many people still drink today to try and ease pain and hard times in family life.
Contrast- The book has never before described families being so worried that they result to being "saved" by a migrant preacher. This chapter said that men would buy alcohol to drink when they had a couple extra dollars or change. The prices of alcohol today are so much more than just a few bucks or just a few cents.


Chapter 24:
Cast of Characters- Migrant men, women and children, Ezra Huston, Willie Eaton, Jeremy, Ruthie, Winfield, Al, Pa, Ma, Uncle John, Rose of Sharon, Tom, Black Hat, Jule, Jackson, caller, guard, deputy sheriffs.

Main Events- The camp held it's dance on Saturday night and all of the Joad's attended. It was heard there was going to be a fight at the dance and when the boys arrived who were going to try and start the  fight, some of the men from the camp stopped them and the dance continued as planned. The men get worried talking about slim work options towards the end of the chapter.

Themes-
Opening up; The migrants come out of their shells to have a good time and try and forget about the pain they are going through. Even Rose of Sharon, who has been depressed about Connie, also opens up attends the dance.
Repetition; The way the end of the chapter describes what the men look like while they sit, worried, talking about where they can work sounds very similar to the beginning of the novel when Steinbeck was describing the way they looked while they sat and worried about what to do with their crops and families.

1. Do you think Rose of Sharon would have fully opened up and danced with one of the boys who asked her if she were not pregnant but still missing Connie?
2. Do you think planned fights like the one described in this chapter happened often at dances in the camps?

-The passage where boys are coming up to Rose of Sharon and asking her to dance shows us that even though Ma talked her into coming to the dance, she is still protective of her feelings and does not force her to go any further than she feels comfortable as she tells the boys no for Rose of Sharon when they ask.
-The passage at the end of the chapter where the men sit and discuss jobs really interested me how it was so similar to chapter one in describing the men while they sit and worry about jobs the way they sat and worried about their farms in chapter one.

Compare- The way the chapter described the men's faces, posture, and gestures at the end of the chapter sounds extremely similar to the way he described these same men, or same kind of men, in the very first chapter of the novel while they were back on the Plains. The way he describes them also sounds similar to the way men still worry today in our economy about finding a good job to support their families.
Contrast- The way the men are worrying differs, however, from the first chapter because they do have some hope of finding shabby jobs in California. Whereas, in the first chapter there was no hope for their crops on the Plains and that is why Steinbeck described them and their wives the way he did in Chapter one. It is sad how people do not use dancing as often now as they did then for entertainment or to escape hard feelings.