The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

Even in the worst times, people need a little fun. You know what happens when you work all the time and never play. It's almost an instinct to seek out amusement of some kind in the midst of turmoil. In this interchapter, we're told how the migrants amused themselves on the road and in the camps.

They told jokes and stories- stories of home and stories of fighting Indians and what happened in the army.

Some evenings, instead of eating dinner with their 20 cents, they'd go to a movie in town and come back later and tell the folks all about it.

Some drank to escape their sorrows.

And some played music. There's nothing like the harmonica, fiddle, and guitar to bring people together, get them to tap their feet, whistle, and dance.

Religion was a form of amusement, too. Talking to God lifted the spirits. A good preacher helped the time pass very nicely.

Steinbeck says, "The migrant people looked humbly for pleasures on the roads."  

NEXT
BACK

© Copyright 1984 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
Electronically Enhanced Text © Copyright 1993, World Library, Inc. Electronically Enhanced Text © Copyright 1993, World Library, Inc.
Further distribution without the written consent of PinkMonkey.com is prohibited.