However, I think there is room for hope at the end of The Grapes of Wrath.  Tom is going to fight to help improve the lot of the migrant workers, and Rose of Sharon’s tremendous gift at the very end seems to say that things will get better if we help each other.  It seems like Steinbeck ended the book the way he did to pose the question to the reader, “so what are you going to do to help these people?” Remember, these migrants were not in the cities but rather the countryside, and it is likely that a good portion of the eastern United States was not aware of how bad things were for the migrants.  This book opened eyes and hopefully got these hard-working people the help they needed.

I really loved rereading this book along with you, and I hope that this was as great an experience for you as it was for me.  To continue the experience, I recommend that you go to Freegal (go to our website, click Online Resources, and then Download Music) and download the Bruce Springsteen song The Ghost of Tom Joad for free (and/or the Rage Against the Machine cover if you enjoy hard rock/heavy metal).  It is a powerful song that has resonance after reading The Grapes of Wrath.  Thank you to all who followed my journey through this great classic!

I also found the Joad family’s dynamics deeply moving.  From Ma Joad’s unshakable conviction that the family cannot split up to the generosity of the Joads to the Wilsons and vice versa, there was a lot to get emotional about in this section of the book.  The loss of Grandpa was almost expected as he was in such poor health, but the scene where we find out that Ma Joad had ridden hours next to Grandma Joad after she had passed was truely heartbreaking.  I felt the family’s frustration with Connie, who needed to balance his dreams with the reality of their situation, and I was relieved that he ran off because he would have likely been a hindrance to the family.  Noah may or may not have been a burden on the family, but it was sad to see him go either way.  Casy’s courage in the Hooverville was admirable, and I am on the edge of my seat as the Joads leave the Hooverville and try to find a better place.

I will admit that I was a little trepidatious about diving into The Grapes of Wrath again because I remembered the end vividly and was not sure about reliving the journey.  However, Steinbeck’s masterful prose immediately gripped me, and I had finished ten chapters before I knew it.  Steinbeck captured a living, breathing landscape, not just living, breathing characters.  The dust and a wandering turtle almost become characters themselves, and, while some see them as unnecessary distractions, they serve to connect me deeper with the story.  As I walk with Tom and Casy, I not only hear their distinct speech but even feel the hot dust between my toes.  I feel like a confidant walking alongside them and not some voyeur from the future.  We spend a lot of time with these flawed men, much more than we do with the extended Joad family.  However, through masterful writing, I feel just as connected to these distinct characters after the limited introduction I have received.  The Joads are on their way to California, and I am, once again, enthralled by this book.

Tonight Roy Ballard-”Farming Then and Now.” Learn what changes came about in farming because of the 1930′s. You will be surprised! Thursday be sure and join us 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at the Kenneth Butler Soup Kitchen to hear our local storytellers from the library and to discuss “The Grapes of Wrath.” Be sure to bring a donation of canned food or any kind of pasta.

Thursday evening come to the New Palestine Lions Club to talk about life in this area during the 1930′s. Please feel free to join in this discussion and let us know any stories you might have.

I remember when I first watched The Wizard of Oz. It was fascinating… and terrifying! The Wicked Witch of the West was the scariest thing I’d ever seen, and her winged monkeys were the things that nightmares were made of as a little kid. But I loved it when Dorothy (Judy Garland) tapped her heels together and said “There’s no place like home,” and when she sang “Over the Rainbow.” My dad would sometimes sing “Over the Rainbow” to me and my siblings when he was trying to get us to fall asleep at night. For those going through the Great Depression, the song expressed the dreams and wishes for better times. That is what good dreams are made of, both then and now: family close by and a time where “skies are blue… and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”

What’s your favorite part of The Wizard of Oz? Do you have a favorite actor or a movie that you really like from the Great Depression?

Our Winter Reading program is in full swing, and I am challenging myself to read 5-7 books pertaining to the Great Depression in some way before Valentine’s Day as a warm-up for The Grapes of Wrath!  Without further ado, here are the chosen books categorized by how they relate to the Great Depression:

Memoir about the Depression

Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

Books published during the Depression

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Modern Books Set During the Depression

Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant

The Wizard’s Tide, by Frederick Buechner

The Bottoms, by Joe R. Lansdale

I am really looking forward to diving into as many of these books as I can and sharing my thoughts on them here on the Big Read Blog!

Reading a book that pertains to the Depression in some way?  Please share what you are reading in the comments!

As soon as Benton had his contract he started planning the mural. He traveled the state drawing Hoosiers and the state’s scenery, and set up the huge canvases required for the mural. Finally, with less than three months before the exhibition was supposed to open in Chicago, Benton started painting.

The Indiana Murals ran down both sides of the Indiana Hall at the World’s Fair. “The series [of paintings in the Indiana mural] is a people’s history, an account of the more recent developments easily shared and confirmed by the public, and, as Benton had intended in the American Historical Epic, it shows how their restless energies changed the land. “It is a work in praise of the anonymous American” (Baigell, 129). On one side of the hall was the “Industrial Panel,” depicting Indiana’s history from Native American hunting and gathering to pioneers farming to “modern” 1930s manufacturing. On the other side of the hall was the “Cultural Panel.” This wall showed Indiana’s history through its everyday activities from frontier church meetings to schools and colleges, from poets and writers to
basketball.

Not everyone liked Benton’s mural. “In Indiana, the mural was much discussed. Zora Askew, president of the Lawrence County Historical Society, was particularly incensed by Benton’s treatment of Indiana’s early settlers. He declared that the work ‘should offend the sensibilities of every Hoosier who has respect for the hardy pioneers from the East, West, North, and South that came to form the melting pot now known as Indiana’” (Adams, 207). Others didn’t like that Benton included images of KKK members in full regalia burning a cross. They thought that it was offensive and didn’t accurately represent Indiana.

When the World’s Fair ended there was a lot of discussion about what to do with the Indiana Murals. Eventually Indiana University offered to display the mural. The State accepted.

After the Indiana Murals, Thomas Hart Benton continued painting. According to the book Thomas Hart Benton and the Indiana Murals, “He never participated in any of the New Deal programs, but his example inspired the employment of hundreds of artists throughout the Depression, bringing debates about style, content, and the role of public art into communities across the country” (Foster, 24).

Reference:

Adams, Henry. (1989). Thomas Hart Benton : an American Original. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Baigell, Matthew. Thomas Hart Benton. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Foster, Kathleen, et al. (2000). Thomas Hart Benton and the Indiana Murals. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/baltimore_200701A33.html (Antique Road Show article on “Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press”)