Personal Philosophy

Personal Philosophy

There’s one thing I don’t do a lot of and that one thing is thanking my parents for what they have done for me and showing them love. “Showing gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.”- Eileen Caddy.  We say the word thank you almost every day but how many times have you said “Thank You” or I love you to your parents? Our parents gave us life, changed our diapers, listened to us cry, fed us food so we won’t starve, and raised us to become a good person. But as time flies by and there are so many things to do, we the children forget to simply say the special three words. With school and stress, there are times where I need to take a moment and thank my parents for the life they have brought me. However, it’s easier said than done. My parents have done a lot for my sisters and me and to give me the best life they can and I just took that for granted. I am so lucky to be living right now and learned to be grateful to my parents for what they have done for me the sixteen years I have been living. Never once have I told them “I love you” but I know that they know I love them.

Both of my parents came to the United States hoping for a better life for their future children. Coming to the U.S, it was hard to live and make money. Once my sisters and I were born, my whole life they would nag me to get good grades and go to college to be successful and have a better life than what we have right now. When I was younger, I never understood why they would keep nagging my sisters and me but as I got older and matured, I finally understood. Life is difficult to live if you don’t have the money to survive in the future, life becomes harder for you. They don’t want this to happen to my sisters and I which is why they do the best they can.

My parents would work till very late, trying to make enough money to pay the bills, buying food, or buying us new clothes when we need it. It’s funny how whenever I ask my parents money for food or clothes, I can say Thank you so easily. There are times where I can get really mad at my parents for the stupid things they say or do but I know that within a day, I have always forgiven them because I can’t stay mad at them forever.

There will be a day when our parents won’t be here with us anymore so take the time to finally tell them once you love them. Don’t regret never telling them because once you do, you’ll be glad you did it.  It’s good for your parents to know you show appreciation for them. Our parents have sacrificed a lot of their time for us than we can ever understand. The things my parents do, they do it out of love. A few days ago, I told my parents “Thank You” and that I love them and they asked “what for?” There was no reason for saying this; I just wanted to let them know. From buying snacks for us when we get home from school to spending a lot of money on us to go to Chinese School to learn how to read and write Chinese so I could easily communicate with them. Thank you for investing so much money in raising me, the time you helped me with my homework in elementary school, taking me to the mall, to doing my laundry because I don’t know how to. I just wanted to say “Thank You.”  It’s about time more people wake up to reality and give your parents the best gift you can give them, the gift of love. 

Chapters 16-19 (D) Family and Unity

Chapters 16-19 (D)

"In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream." (193)

In Chapter 17, the idea of family and unity is still alive because as they are travelling to the west many families become one family. For example, Jim Casy and Connie are not blood related to the Joads but since they are traveling together Casy has become part of their family. Everyone has the same dream of moving west to start a better life so they became "one". Being together, they can share and learn from each other. Surviving as a group is better than trying to survive individually. 

Everyone from the Dust Bowl states including the Joads all envisioned a better life in California. They heard California is the Promise land and they can find work. Since the beginning of their trip, Ma has always been the one to keep the family unity alive. In Chapter 16 when the car broke down and Tom suggested for the rest of the family to move on without them while they get it fixed, Ma Joad got angry and will beat anyone with the jack handle if she is forced to separate. However as they reach California, the idea of unity changes. Connie decides to leave the rest of the family when they are in California because he wants to do his own thing so he left Rose of Sharon and the other Joads. Instead of looking for him, the Joads decided to travel on without him and possibly he would come back for them. As they travel further, more people are separating from the Joads and the unity starts disappearing. 

Chapters 16-19 (A) Rules for the camping site

Chapters 16-19 (A)


"Rules" of Society

1) Privacy in the tents
2) Right to keep the past black hidden in the heart
3) right to talk and listen
4) right to refuse or accept help, to offer help or decline it
5) right of son to court and daughter to be courted
6) right of the hungry to be fed
7) the right of pregnant and the sick to transcend all other rights
8) unlawful to foul near the camp
9) unlawful to eat good rich food near one who is hungry, unless he is asked to share
10) unlawful to foul the drinking water
11) theft, murder, adultery is not allowed

How the rules may contribute to the function of the camping societies is to keep peace and make life in the camp  bearable to live in. If one person was to break the rules, they are faces with two options of punishment: a quick and murderous fight or ostracism. Privacy of the tent allows people to do their own things and not be disturbed by the other people in the camp site. This rule creates a line between what you can or cannot touch. You must be considerate of people's belongings as there may be something valuable they are planning to sell for money. This rule is similar to the Bill or Right's Fourth Amendment. This amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizures without a warrant.
Sharing food is also important in the camping site. There may be a family who runs out a food and then starves to death. As a community it is important to help other people out. Having this law gives people the idea that when you see someone in hunger, you must give them food or you will face punishment. There is enough food to go around if everyone pitches in. There is no longer the idea of "I" but "We" as a community.

Chapters 11-15 (D) The act of kindness

Chapters 11-15 (D)

When people do kind things for each other, that really stands out for me. In chapter 15, a waitress Mae encounters a father and his son. The father asks Mae if they could get bread for ten cent. At first Mae did not want to give them the bread but then she finds it in her heart to give them the bread for ten cents. Besides the bread, the father sees his son eyeing the candy and asks if the candy is worth a penny. Mae replies,"Oh-them. Well,no-them's two for a penny." Through the kindness of her heart she gives the father candies worth a nickel for just a penny.

However, people working in businesses along highway 66 view the migrant workers as threatening and they loathe them. A possibility why Mae gave them the bread plus the candy is because that is what they want and it is better to give the travelers what they want so they could leave but that may not be the actual case.

This quote impacted me because this section may foreshadow the Joads receiving or acting kind along the highway. I strongly believe people helping others make them feel better about themselves and good things can come out of it too.

*Assignment 11-15 Highway 66

Assignment 11-15





Stops along Highway 66

 Chain of Rocks Bridge. St. Louis, Missouri


 Meramec Caverns. Stanton, Missouri

 Blue Swallow Motel. Tucumcari, New Mexico

Highway 66 is the route families used to get to California. John Steinbeck called this route the "Mother Road." This route was established on November 11, 1926. The road ran from Chicago, Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at California, stretching 2,400 miles across two-thirds of the continent. However it was officially removed from the U.S Highway system on June 27, 1985.
Families would travel in cars or whatever vehicle they have to get to California.

How this road is significant to the Joads and all migrants is this road led them to California, seeking a better life. The narrator describes the road as "the mother road, the road of flight" which allows people to pursue their dreams. While traveling on the road, families begin to bond and trust one another. On this highway, migrant workers face cruelty and discrimination but kindness from the same social class. The experience in the highway foreshadows what will occur to them in California such as the bad living conditions in California. 

Pictures
Route 66 U.S states
Route 66 stops pictures

Assignment 1-10 (G) Man vs. Machine

Assignment 1-10 (G)

A conflict that came up in the novel is man vs. machine a.k.a the tractor.



"One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families." (33).
A single man on a tractor can replace the work of several people working in the fields. The tractor is seen as more efficient and faster.

"He loved the land no more than the bank loved the land. He could admire the tractor-its machined surfaces, its surge of power, the roar of its detonating cylinders; but it was not his tractor." (36).
The bank uses the tractor to replace a farming family to make money. The farmer can earn money by driving the tractor because the government pays them $3 a day.  Although the farmers love their land, they decide to betray their community for working for society. The only reason they take up this job is to provide for their family even though he could admire the tractor as he expresses the tractor as " its machined surfaces, its surge of power, the roar of its detonating cylinders,"  the driver admires his land more.

Tractor
Source

Chapters 1-10 (E) Examples of Personification

Chapters 1-10 (E)



"Banks breathe profits; they eat interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat." (Chapter 5)
The banks are not human but they are described like carnivores that cannot survive without eating meat (profit). How this contributes to the text is the banks kick out the tenant farmers which makes them move to places such as California. Like other families, the Joads were kicked out of their home and forced to move.

"You know what cotton does to the land; robs it, sucks all the blood out of it." (Chapter 5)
Cotton cannot suck blood from land but it can suck the nutrients from the soil. This makes the other plants on the field difficult to grow because they have no nutrients so the farmers cannot make profit. This may force them to relocate to an area where the land is rich so they can make money and grow better produce.

"In the middle of the night the wind passed on and left the land quiet. The dust-filled air muffled sound more completely than fog does." (Chapter 1).

This is saying the dust storms are more effective than the fog and the wind.. The dust storms are another factor to why people in the dust bowl move out because it ruined their crops resulting in unemployment. With the plants and crops are covered with dust, many families decided to move away from the dust and head west.

Picture

*Assignment 1-10 (C) Letter to land

Assignment 1-10 (C)

To the land that I love,

I am writing this letter as a token of gratitude for all the happiness you have brought me but I have failed you because my family and I will be forced out in a couple of days. By the time you read this, we will already be gone. I won't forget the time "Grampa killed Indians, Pa killed snakes for [you] (34)." Doesn't that make you rightfully ours? "We were born on it, and we got killed on it, died on it (33)."  But "it's not us, it's the bank (33)." Those monsters and how they actually own the land, I hate them so much. They said ownership is based on what a piece of paper says.  But what can I do about it? "We can't take less share of the crop-we're half starved now[...] we got no clothes, torn an' ragged [...]we'd be ashamed to go to meeting (33)." We didn't know where to go until a few days ago. Someone asked us "Why don't you go west to California?There's work there, and it never gets cold (34)." I don't know what else to say but that's where we will be in a couple of days. I'm sad to say we won't be able to grow old together because I may never have the chance to come back and see you. "We got no money (34)." Going to California, we hope to find a job and make more money. I hope that one day when we make enough, we can come back and buy you back.


-Tom

*Chapters 1-10 (A) Traveling back to the 1930's

Chapters 1-10 (A)


 The Great Depression created a huge loss for the economy. After the stock market crashing, 13 Millions of Americans lost their jobs and unemployment rose 24.1%. Americans faced poverty because jobs were lost and no work available. People were not making money so they stopped spending too. The economy could not survive without consumers.Franklin D. Roosevelt pledged to make American lives better through his New Deal. The New Deal created work relief programs which gave people jobs to work on building bridges or dams. He also stabilized the banks to get them running again. Roosevelt hoped when the money starts to get pumped in, people will be able to make and spend their money.


During the time of the Great Depression, the 1930's was a bad time for farmers in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas (Dust bowl states). When the dust storms occur in the book, the men and women had to stay in their homes because the dust were so thick and farming was difficult because the lands were covered with dust.People needed to wear goggles to protect their eyes.  Many people living in the Dust Bowl area had a hard time surviving the dust storms because there was no food and water for them to eat since there was a drought. When the dust storm occurred in the book, the crops were ruined so there was no food to eat or drink. The weather resulted to unemployment for the farmers and their family. Families moved out of the Plain states and traveled to California but some families just moved to the next town. However for the families seeking land in California, the lands were already owned by others.40% of migrant farmers in the San Joaquin Valley picked grapes and cotton for a living.