The tractors (cats) that plow over the farmers' land and the actual animal are used a few times in the novel to represent the merciless banks. ... The good, fresh grapes that they dream of soon turn into bad, rotten grapes of wrath and bitterness since their journey turns into more of an obstacle course full of deaths and saddness. ... In the novel, banks send tractors, called cats, to destroy homes of the faremers who cannot afford to live on the land any longer. ... The real animal may also be a representation of how hard it is for the farmers to leave the land they have worked so hard ...

• Word Count: 1267
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

This was called the Dust Bowl, in where farmers were not able to produce any more crops due to the dust that occupied the land. ... The drought was bad and hard to deal with but the dust was worse and even harder to deal with since there were so many around them. ... Nobody had any money and the farmers did not have land. The dust filled up all of the land and ruined the previous harvests. ... Farmers had no land to farm and people died of illnesses. ...

• Word Count: 1392
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

A closer view unveils an empty, dried up well, an emaciated cat limping past the caved in porch, a tree with "leaves tattered and scraggly as a molting chicken", a stack of rotting untouched lumber and cracked, jagged window panes reflecting the desolate land abroad. ... The Joad family prepares for the difficult journey across the country to the "promised" land where ignorance leads the Joad family to search for the American dream in the long lost land of California. ...

• Word Count: 1717
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

A combination of drought, improper crop rotation, and dust storms were the major causes of the "Dust Bowl" because all the land was ruined and all the crops were ruined. Unable to produce crops, the farmers were forced off their land by banks that foreclosed on their loans. ... The Joads were one of the families that were forced off there land; this is the reason they headed west to California. ... This book did not get a favorable reception in California because it showed the real way people were treated and it made the people of California look bad. ... Rose of Sharon saved the life of...

• Word Count: 1851
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

George would like to buy a small ranch and live with Lennie off "the fat of the land." He has allsorts of ideas about what he would use the land for. ... George would want to work on the land for just six or seven hours a day and sell his produce. ... Curley's wife is married to Curley who is "a nasty, bad-tempered and angry little man." ...

• Word Count: 1750
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

But they dream of saving up enough money to someday get a place of their own where they "won't have to answer to no one" and "live off the land". ... BAD POINT IN THE BOOK The bad point in the book is Georges personality that gives the book a tragic and sad ending. ...

• Word Count: 1752
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The latter novel, however, a mystical story of self-sacrifice, is one of Steinbeck's strongest statements about the relationship between people and the land. ... My quotation from the book The Pearl All things are in gods hands In my understanding all things good or bad , Happen to a variaty of people for all kinds of reasons. ...

• Word Count: 1312
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The Joad family was one of the families forced off their land. ... Steinbeck does a great job of showing how goodness prevails and doing the right thing is never a bad decision, even if it does not turn out the way we want it to. ...

• Word Count: 1294
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

John Steinbeck is an author that most people are familiar with. In almost every high school across America, one of his books is on a required reading list that students are supposed to read. But who is the man behind the stories? What was it like for his when he was a kid and why did he write what ...

• Word Count: 1322
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School