Pap is an alcoholic, a dead beat and a racist. ... 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. Problems transpire contiguously as Grandma and Grandpa Joad die, their vehic...

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

In Of Mice and Men the land becomes a talisman, a hope of better things." ... America was seen as the land of opportunity, a chance to get a piece of land and earn a living. ... George deems that Lennie would be better off dead rather than caged up like and animal. ... He contributes three hundred dollars towards the land. Moreover George has all ready found a piece of land with a cottage that is for sale: "Candy went on excitedly: How much they want for a place like that? ...

• Word Count: 1337
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

He takes her out to the country and nearly beats her to death, leaving her for dead. ... Adam buys some land and it is at this point where the semi-fictional character Samuel Hamilton finally enters the story. ... The boys grow up, not knowing what really happened to their mother, as Adam had told them she was dead. ...

• Word Count: 1364
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

For Los Gatos, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here for the large land owners and bankers is pretty bad. ... And it won't be until I am dead. ... After I had written the Grapes of Wrath and it had been to a large extent read and sometimes burned, the librarians at the Salinas Public Library, who had known my folks remarked that is was lucky my parents were dead so that they did not have to suffer this shame." ...

• Word Count: 1322
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• 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". ... The implication here is that man without hope and love, without a dream, is perhaps better off dead. ... If he would have been watching Lennie and taking care of him as he promised to do, none of this would have happened and nobody would be dead. ...

• Word Count: 1752
• 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. ... We do not find out whether George achieves this dream, but it is unlikely now Lennie is dead. ...

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

The Joad family was one of the families forced off their land. ... The family, like many other families, buried dead family members illegally and kept moving west, but it seemed they buried their hope of a better life when they buried Grandpa Joad. ...

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

Consequently, Ma decides to not tell anybody that Granma has died in the back of the truck and stays with the dead body for an entire night: I was afraid we wouldn" get acrost. ... It is through Ma's extraordinary strength and resilience that carry the family across the country into the promised land of California. ...

• Word Count: 1488
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

When the men come home, they find Rosasharn's baby was born blue and dead. When all of the boxcar inhabitants take Ma's advice to find higher land, everyone rushes into an old barn, only to find a boy who tells Ma that his father is starving. ...

• Word Count: 1730
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School