In chapter three, Steinbeck describes the movement of the turtle. The turtle slowly progresses along dragging his shell. He approaches the embankment of the road and moseys on up. ¨As the embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle¨ (p. 21.) Like the Okies, the turtle is determined and consistent in his motion.
At the end of this chapter, Steinbeck describes the near death experience of the turtle. In the first instance, ¨a sedan driven by a forty-year old woman¨ approaches and swerves away from the turtle as to not hit him. Shortly after, a truck advances and intentionally swerves to hit the turtle.
I found it interesting that Steinbeck chose to describe the driver of the first car and leaves the second car anonymous. He allows us to imagine the forty-year old woman in her car making the conscious decision to avoid killing the turtle. While, in the case of the truck it is the reverse, we are left with no image of the driver. The truck is simply an inhuman and ruthless object, actively trying to destroy the life of the turtle. I think the passage about the turtle is preparing the reader for the chapters to come. Steinbeck is presenting the dichotomy between the bank and the farmers through this passage with the cars.
In Chapter five, it says ¨A bank isn´t like a man. Or an owner with fifty thousand acres, he isn´t like a man either. That´s the monster (p.45.)¨ The woman represents mankind. Humans watch out for each other; they share food and they give each other a hand, they don´t kill. Whereas, trucks and banks are monsters, heartless machines that work for profit, intentionally swerving to destroy the lives of the determined and slow moving Okie.
To expand upon what Nina has said here about the turtle, the forty year old woman, and the truck driver, I would also like to comment on Steinbeck’s choice to briefly describe the woman but not the truck driver. I believe that these small chapters expand much farther than just foreshadowing a few chapters ahead, but that (especially this one) they may be able to foreshadow or give hints to chapters and issues far ahead in the novel. As Nina said, when the truck hits the turtle we are left with no image of it, which I believe was a conscious decision made by Steinbeck so that he could make a metaphor about the dust bowl situation.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the turtle is the migrants and the bus could be just the weather and how it is not faring for them, it could be bad luck, or as Nina proposed, (with the woman being the people) the truck could be the bank-a ruthless monster. I am proposing that the truck is not the bank, but rather just another human being. Steinbeck points to not only the weather causing problems, but that the migrants’ problems are caused by other human beings.
The forty year old woman is on a level that the turtle can see, a level that we all can see, where we can clearly tell that she is forty and that she is female. She is down on our level, possibly another migrant or another human who does not want to cause harm, where as the truck is large and overbearing. It is so big that we cannot see what or who is inside. This huge hunk of metal on wheels is blocking and distracting us, the turtle, like the weather might distract one from seeing that the real issue is just another person who is higher up on the food chain.
It is the separation of poor and rich that create this cannibalistic food chain. Those in more dominant positions feel threatened by the migrants because of the history of the land, and so to keep past from repeating itself, they treat their fellow human beings like animals.
Excellent--I think this exchange is a model of what I would like to see happening in this blg, an exchange of ideas. Nina's and Ashley's two readings prove how evocative even little details are in the novel--something I wanted to demonstrate last week when I talked about Connie and Rose of Sharon's reaction to the man in the white suit.
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