Final Poem

Title:     Life Is What We Make It
Author: Edgar A. Guest

Life is a jest;
Take the delight of it.
Laughter is best;
Sing through the night of it.
Swiftly the tear
And the hurt and the ache of it
Find us down here;
Life must be what we make of it.

Life is a song;
Dance to the thrill of it.
Grief's hours are long,
And cold is the chill of it.
Joy is man's need;
Let us smile for the sake of it.
This be our creed:
Life must be what we make of it.

Life is a soul;
The virtue and vice of it,
Strife for a goal,
And man's strength is the price of it.
Your life and mine,
The bare bread and the cake of it
End in this line:
Life must be what we make of it.

Chapters 25-30

The Joads face power problems and experience a bit of a force upheaval as there is a transfer of force of sorts. Ma Joad chooses to take action after they have used a month in the administration camp and Pa Joad is not making any choices to leave. She says to Pa Joad that he " ain't a-doin' [his] work. . . . In the event that [he] was, the reason, [he] could utilize [his] stick, a' ladies folks'd sneeze their nose and downer mouse aroun'"(453), to basically tell make him angry and embarrassed so he tries his hardest to show her up and get them out of the chaos they are in. This also indicates that by and by that Ma Joad is the dominant person who is keeping this family together and afloat.  Later on in the novel when Ruthie accidentally, in the heat existing apart from everything else, spills Tom's mystery about slaughtering two individuals and Ma is talking to him Tom says that he was considering what Jim Casy said about souls. Casy said that " he foun' he jus'  got a little piece of a great big soul" (535). This shows that Jim Casy had faith in the Human family and now Tom has confidence in it as well. Everybody being a little yet integral part of a greater human family is one of the many thing this novel taught individuals about themselves.

Chapters 19-24

Opposed to the first ten chapters, the Joads don't appear to use the land or interact with it nearly to the extent that they had before. Steinbeck tries to hint at the idea that traveling the land has been very hard on not only the Joad family, but the rest of the migrant families and others that are travelling and trekkin gthe long distance as the land has been so distant from them, the land has become almost their enemy. They cannot use the land as they had before because they are traveling and the long and fatiguing distance that they have to travel is literally the land. The land is almost in the way of them getting to California and is now a sort of burden that they are forced to travel over. The people on the land that they passed had similar hardships and even others befriending and welcoming the Joad family when they got to California did not seem to wipe away the fatigue and the turmoil from the travel.  "On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment" (Steinbeck 365). Here the people that were out of work were mostly farmers who got run off the land or tried to escape the hardships of the dust bowl, and so they were more disconnected from the land. Not only this, but they became mad at their situation and their situation started from the decline of the fertility of the land and they all feel little in the big picture and their quest for work and food is difficult because of the extent of everything. Even through this hardship, the Joads are determined to get to California and that doing so will greatly improve their quality of life. "'We still go where we want, even if we got to crawl for the right" (Steinbeck 361). Their 'only' option is to get to California, 'California or Bust' so to speak. They are putting all of their money and lots of their personal health on the line to do so. Running from the dusty land they once were deeply connected to.

Nuclear Families

Steinbeck portrays how migrant families need to be dependent within themselves as well as with other families in chapter 11-18. Joad and his family interact with other migrant families along their journey which demonstrates Steinbeck's claim.The migrant families and the Joad family were able to keep pushing on in their journey and through their adversity by creating a sense of community. Steinbeck uses the interactions between the Joad family and the Wilson family to support his claim, and display the importance of support from other migrant families. The families were able to help each other out along the trek to California. Steinbeck writes about how both families help each other out both situationally and emotionally as well, such as when Sairy asks, "'How'd you like ta come in our tent?...You kin lay down on our mattress an' rest...We'll he'p you over'" (173). This type of neighborly love helped to get both families on their way to California.For example, the Joad family returns the favor by returning to aid the Wilson family by repairing their car. There two families continue on towards their destination together, continuing Steinbecks claim of the families being able to make it through tough times with the aid of each other, both with the mental aspect of having another family helping you and the other families actually helping you along the way. The families are also nuclear in the way that they are structured within themselves, like a father, mother, and kids and so they can be dependent on one another within the families. In a marriage, the souses should share the same goals. " A constant partner, leading them to what they desire most (156). Steinbeck portrays a common occurrence that should be present in a nuclear family, for the Joad family it is going to California.