Kevin


 * What I'm Reading Now:**

I chose this novel because I've heard in many occasions that it is a very good book, and since it was just laying around in my house, I decided to pick it up.
 * 1.**The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck


 * 2.**So far I have read the first 3 chapters of my book. The first chapter was very dificult to read for me because it was really descriptive and with a couple of words that I didn't understand. However, I managed to understand mostly everything in the end. I am confused about the third chapter because the entire chapter is about a turtle crossing a road. I understand it must be symbolism, but I still don't get why it had to take up a chapter of its own.

__Jim Casey-__ Casey is an interesting character because he used to be a reverend. He always talks his days as a preacher and how he was full of the spirit. However he is a confused character also. He doesn't know if to believe in God or not anymore and ponders about going back to preaching or not because he doesn't know what to believe anymore.
 * 3.**__Tom Joad__- Joad is the main character of the book. He just got out of jail where he spent the last four years of his life because he killed a guy in a fight. He seems to have a cool calmed down nature despite a having killed someone. He doesn't say it be one knows he cares about his family a lot because he talks about them a lot.


 * 4**.So as it turns out, I am having a bit of a hard time with the reading. Steinbeck is an incredibly descriptive writer and sometimes he'll just lose me. The other thing i haven't gotten used to is the chapter setup of the book. In one chapter he is following the story of the the main character Tommy Joad and in the next chapter he is writing about something completely different.Every other chapter is like this and I feel like i don't care about that other stuff i just want to follow what is going on with Joad because that's what interests me. But, I guess by doing this, Steinbeck is giving us the bigger picture of what was going on during those times so we can then understand Joads situation better.


 * 5.**So i decided to look up and read a bit about the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939. As it turns out, i learned that the depression not only hit the USA as i once thought, but it also hit the other countries in the western world as well as Europe. Basically, everything went crazy during the depression and banks went bankrupt and the one that didn't sought to foreclose the lands of farmers who were suffering from years of drought and did not produce enough to sell or even feed themselves as what happens in //The Grapes of Wrath.// I also didn't know that the depression brought about the rise to power of powerful military rulers which in turn led to the second world war. This is the link to the website. [|The Great Depression]


 * 10/30/10**- //Vocabulary//:
 * emulsion-** (N) 1.milklike mixture of liquids; 2. photosensitive coating on film
 * bemused-** (adj) 1.bewildered; 2. lost in thought
 * proboscis-** (N) flexible snout
 * anlage-** (N) inherited predisposition to certain traits or to a particular character development.
 * prodigal-** (adj) 1. wastefully extravagant; 2.lavishly abundant
 * cantankerous-** (adj) ill-natured
 * assail-** (v) to attack violently
 * faltering-** (v) 1.to hesitate or waver; 2.to speak hesitantly; 3.to move unsteadily
 * accouterment-** (N) 1.personal clothing, accessories etc. 2. the equipment, excluding weapons and clothing, of a soldier
 * modulate-** (v) 1.to adjust to a proper measure or proportion; 2.to vary the amplitude, frequency, or intensity of.


 * 10/30/10-** So Tommy Joad has embarked on the journey toward California with his family. They have a tough time while on the road there, but it got me to thinking that at least he is going through all this with his family. Then i got to remembering that my family has been through this exact situation and i started comparing it with the Joads situation.Unlike the Joads, we didn't all immigrate at the same time. My family was divided. First it was my father that moved away from us, then my mother joined him, and finally it was me and my brothers. It is not easy for a whole family to cross all the way from Honduras to the states and each individual has to endure pain on his own. However, my family and the Joads are alike because as we moved along, we are sort of different from the people of the new land we traveled through and arrived in. We experienced discrimination and social prejudices.Finally the hardest thing is the adaptation to a new society. I don't think any family really wishes to go through a migration because in my opinion it is one of the harshest circumstances a family has to go through.


 * 10/30/10-** So as i read the book, I wondered about why people from the midwest only decided to go to California during the Great Depression. The recount I read called [|The Migrant Experience], talks about why people chose California and how things were for the migrants when they arrived there. As it turns out, California wasn't at all the place everyone thought it was. It was a harsh place and it was still incredibly hard for migrants to find work because so many other migrants were competing for jobs. Because of this wages were extremely low and even with all members of a family working they still had trouble getting by. Finally it talks about how the great depression was resolved with the coming of World War 2, which i found very interesting.


 * 11/12/10-** So far I am in chapter 25 of my book but I am surprised that i seriously have no hint or clue of what the ending of this story will be. In most books I usually predict what the ending will be but I'm having trouble on this one. Anyhow, as I read these last five chapters, I will pick up a new book to start reading TODAY!!!


 * 11/27/10-** FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY DONE WITH "GRAPES OF WRATH"!!! I thought I would never finish it but I did! However, stopping my celebration for a moment, the ending was a great ending, but it wasn't what I expected. I wasn't expecting a happy ending but at least a moderate one. This ending left me with too many questions such as: What happened to Tom? Why did it seem as though Ma Joad gave up trying to keep the family together at the very end? Why did Casey have to die? Why doesn't Steinbeck give me a hint of what might happened to the remainder of the family? These are all questions I have that I wish to get answered. Therefore I decided to read the sparknotes analysis on the last chapters and it was basicly what I already knew. It did however help me out in pointing out some of the symbols that I missed. I knew there were many symbols at the end but I missed some and had idea how they tied together. However, now I know that once those symbols came together they represented a hope for a better future and that things would turn out better. Over all this was a pretty good book. A bit too slow in the turn of events and hard to read the style of writting but I got used to it quite a bit toward the end. I recomended to whoever has a lot of time in their hands because it took me way to long to read it. However, back to my celebration. I KEVIN EUCEDA AM FINISHED WITH "THE GRAPES OF WRATH"!


 * What I've Read**
 * What I'm Thinking About**

for me. Now my new reading plan will be to read at least 1 chapter every night.
 * 2.**I'm thinking about changing my ready plan because so far reading over the weekend isn't working