Family's Fallin' Apart

"Up the long slope, winding and twisting through dead country, burned white and gray, and no hint of life in it." (pg 302) I think this is one of the most important writings in the chapter. I read this and thought of the Joads. The long slope is like a roller coaster, they are going up the big hill. They are working and struggling to get up the hill but with each mile they are clicking on notch further in the chain to get to the top where they will have a smooth sail down the roller coaster where they don't have to work, just sail. The winding and twisting through dead country, that would be the death of Granpa and Granma and also the loss of Noah and the Wilson's'. Burned white and gray means that there is no color, they are traveling through all these states and cities and not seeing anything. They are only seeing how long the journey is taking, not taking in sites. Finally the part of the quote where it says "no hint of life in it", there is no life in the Joads at the moment. They are all stuck in neutral, especially Ma. She, in my own opinion, is taking this trip the worst. Bit by bit she is watching her family struggle, with death or exhaustion. 

"Was Granma bad?"..."Pa said, "We got to go on now. We got to go on down." (pg 311-12). To me this was one of the event5s in the chapter that really stuck out to me. Ma didn't tell anyone that Granma was dead. She kept it from the for hours and no one even knew it. To me this shows how strong Ma is and how bad she wants her family to make it to California and get a better life. It is shocking that even when they had been stopped for "agricultural inspection" by police Ma had fought it and told them they needed a doctor because Granma was sick but really she was dead. I guess it is just really shocking that Ma would do this. Also I find it shocking that no one really mourns these deaths. No one cries, no one really does anything about it. They don't seem sad or anything like that. 

  I believe wisdom comes with life, you have wisdom because of your experiences in life and I think knowledge is learned, you don't have knowledge unless you learn. I believe these two are both connected because you can't have wisdom without knowledge. We get knowledge from facts and truths but we get wisdom from experiences in our lives. I find wisdom in my grandparents and my great grandma, who lived through the depression. An example of wisdom would be a funny saying that my mom always says but with it comes wisdom. In high school all my team mates and friends would say how funny my dad is and how cool he is but of course my mom, me, my sister, and brother all saw him for being goofy and embarrassing. My mom would always say "choose wisely." I take this in to heart with everything. Every decision I try to think of my mom and her saying "choose wisely." Without this wisdom from her I would not be where I am at and who I am today.