During the summers before 11th and 12th grades, I had to read numerous books and keep a reflective journal focused on my readings. Some of these journal entries are provided below.
A Night in a Tent [entry dated July 28, 1996]
In order to see firsthand the hardships that the Joads would have faced, I convinced my brother to come with me on a short, one night camping trip to the backyard.
After that night, I have found new respect for the perseverance of the Joads. Al-though I was bundled in a sweatshirt and long underwear, and snoozing away in a sleeping bag, at times I was chilly on that summer night. To think what the Joads must have gone through, certainly without down sleeping bags and presumably without many clothes to layer, traveling through the Rocky Mountains, is almost beyond me; it could not have been pleasant.
Not only their tolerance for the cold weather amazed me, but their tolerance for each other must have been great, also. In close quarters, much like the Joads, my brother and I quickly grew tired of each other's company. At first, neither of us could go to sleep, for the other was making too much noise. No sooner would I finally doze off than my brother would wake me, complaining that I was breathing to loud for him to fall asleep. Now awake, I in turn would have to listen to him toss and turn and make a large ruckus before he finally found the perfect position to sleep. After he settled down, I would drowse for a bit until the whole cycle would repeat itself. Now, I can imagine it multiplied ten times over and an admiration that no one Joad has taken it upon himself to kill Uncle John, who snores terribly, or Tom, who talks in his sleep, comes over me.
Now, add in the fact that no good food is to be had on the road, and the Joad family trip takes on a special significance. I could at least, in the morning, come inside and have my bowl of Cheerios with milk and sugar. The Joads, who on more than one occasion probably had only dry biscuits for their breakfast, did not have the luxury of brand name cereals or fresh milk.
Certainly, the Joads are to be held in a special light because they managed to make it to California. However, I wonder if my feeling in that tent last night would have been quite as strong against ever sleeping outside again if I knew, like the Joads did, that I were going to face many more weeks in the tent, and that traveling by car and sleeping by tent was the only way I would live.
Is It Justified? [entry dated July 29, 1996]
Although I realize that the John Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath has been considered a classic for many decades now, I do not yet realize what all of the acclaim is for.
True, the book, at times, was an interesting literary work. However, Steinbeck seemed intent to deliver a philosophical message at the expense of an otherwise decent book. The grinding halt that the plot came to as Steinbeck delivered his reflective parables every third chapter seriously detracted from a story line that was already in trouble. Nothing turned me off from this book more than just getting in to the thick of the action, and then having to read as Steinbeck fumbled his way through a few pages of meaningless nonsense. The plot would start to take off, and then, suddenly, boom! All action stops. The rhythm of the story was jerky at best, an that was one of the main detractions from the book.
Another detraction was simply the passage of time. When the story was written, all of the issues were current and important. While some of the issues, like labor strife, will never go away, others have passed. If the same story were written today, with today's problems, the effect on teenagers reading it would be not only of a greater magnitude but of a greater understanding. Because of the significance of the Great Depression as impressed upon Steinbeck, who lived through it, as compared to its effect on us, who have perhaps only heard about it from our grandparents, is not analogous, the story loses some of its allure. A starving boy to Steinbeck was one on his deathbed, but a starving boy to our generation is a wrestler who skips lunch to lose a pound before the big match. It's just not imaginable to our generation the horrors of having nothing.
Because of the combination of these shortcomings, the book as a whole suffers. The idea of including the book on a reading list is admirable; that is, learning to understand another time. However, there are, in my opinion, other books that can impress the relationship of time better. Two of these books would be Brave New World by Aldous Huxley or The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.
New Edition [entry dated August 4, 1996]
In research about the author, I came across the following article in Time magazine (April 24, 1989; Page 88):
WORKING DAYS: THE JOURNALS OF THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck edited by Robert DeMott; Viking; 180 pages; $18.95
Published 50 years ago, The Grapes of Wrath has taken its place among the handful of American novels (Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Jungle) that changed public attitudes and policy. To mark its golden anniversary, the book's original publisher has issued a new edition (Viking; $25) and also the journals Steinbeck kept during the five months (five months!) it took him to complete the 200,000-word manuscript.
The author, then 36, used these private notes as warm-up exercises for the day's work. He gave himself pep talks: "This must be a good book. It simply must. I haven't any choice." To readers today, the fascination of this document rests in its portrait of an artist at the peak of his skills. Steinbeck's outrage at the mistreatment of Dust Bowl migrants in California, which he had witnessed firsthand, fused with his storytelling abilities to produce the most powerful book he would ever write. It won him the Pulitzer Prize and contributed mightily to his Nobel Prize in 1962. Both exhilarated and exhausted after finishing the book, Steinbeck wondered whether he would ever write so well again: "That part of my life that made the Grapes is over."
I found it interesting that a novel published 50 years ago would not only have necessitated a new edition but also arouse an interest in the author's state of mind at the time that he wrote the book such that his journals would also be published.