In using John Steinbeck’s
The Grapes of Wrath
students can examine a fictional story of events that were a reality to many migrant families during the Dust Bowl migration. Before reading students will be expected to do independent research in order to become familiar with Dust Bowl migration. This will include what was the Dust Bowl migration, whom did it affect and how were they affected. Students will be expected to come to class prepared to share their findings with the class and take notes on any information that they didn’t find in their own research that was shared in class. This gives students some background knowledge before they begin reading the novel.
As a pre-reading exercise I will show students photos from Walker Evans and James Agee’s text,
Let us now praise famous men.
Students will be asked to choose two to three photos which they found the most compelling and write an initial reaction to them. Then in pairs I will have students share their choices and reactions. For homework, I want students to find photos on the internet of the Dust Bowl migration. They will share their photos in class and explain their choices. I want students to be able to make a visual connection to actual tenant farmers and the poverty they faced before they begin reading. This will allow students to have a visual for the characters and setting in
The Grapes of Wrath
.
As students are reading, they are to consider and eventually answer the following essential questions when analyzing the text:
-
· How was democracy represented during the Dust Bowl migration?
-
· How does the role of the majority impact the ability to be an individual?
-
· How has America changed over the course of its short history?
In answering the first essential question, students will consider they way the tenant farmers were treated by the land owners. Students will be able to use different instances when the families were manipulated into harsh labor for low wages and were mistreated by a group of people not much different from themselves. I will model to students what this looks like in chapter 5. In this chapter, land owners come to the tenants to inform them that they are going to be replaced by tractors. There is little sympathy on the part of the land owner for the tenant. The land owners blame the banks and the helpless tenants are told they are to leave the land they have lived on for generations.
4
I will ask students to point out other examples of abuses and injustices and how they contradict early democratic ideology America in Paine and Tocqueville’s writings.
In answering the second essential question, students need to analyze the differences between natural rights vs. civil rights as well as the importance of the family structure in the novel. Students have become familiar with Thomas Paine’s
The Rights of Man
, where natural rights vs. civil rights are examined. Students will be expected to re-examine Paine as they read
The Grapes of Wrath
in order to make a connection between both men’s positions on democracy
.
Additionally, as the characters begin migrating, the family begins to fall apart. Some members of the Joad family decide to leave, even though it is considered a disregard for the family structure. This includes Tom Joad, who decides to leave the family to organize tenant farmers against land owner’s injustices.
As students read the text, I will give them specific passages that they will be expected to close read and annotate in order to reveal Steinbeck’s ideologies about American democracy. After students have annotated the passage, they will be expected to make an inference on what the passage means and write commentary on why the passage is significant to the overall meaning of the text. These include, but are not limited to, passages found in Chapters 14, 15, and 17.
The Grapes of Wrath
(film version) directed by John Ford
After students have read the novel, they will watch John Ford’s cinematic version of Steinbeck’s
The Grapes of Wrath
. As students watch, they are to pay special attention to the changes made in film. This includes the ending, which is completely different from Steinbeck’s ending in the novel. I will ask students: what was gained from the changes, what was lost? Students will have to compare the contrast the characters, setting and themes of the film with that of the novel. Students will hand in a written response of the film. The following day there will be a Socratic Seminar, where students discuss the film amongst each other. Students will be graded on participation in the conversation.