A Clean Start

"Tom said uneasily, "Ma, I got somepin to tell ya. Noah he went on down the river. He ain't a-goin' on." It took a moment for Ma to understand. "Why?" she asked softly. "I don't know. Says he got to. Says he got to stay. Says for me to tell you." "How'll he eat?" she demanded. "I don' know. Says he'll catch fish." Ma was silent a long time. "Family's fallin' apart," she said. "I don' know. Seems like I can't think no more. I jus' can't think. They's too much."" I thought this was one of the most important moments in the chapter because Ma realizes that the family is falling apart. After Noah decided that he wanted to stay by the river, Ma didn't even put up a fight against it as she did before, she just slowly accepted it. I thought that was important because the family sticking together was a big theme. Now Ma, the person that is expected to keep the family together, realized that it just isn’t possible.

Another moment that caught my sight would be when Ma revealed that Granma died. “ Ma raised her eyes and looked over the valley. “Granma’s dead.” They looked at her, all of them, and Pa asked, “When?” “Before they stopped us las’ night.” : I was afraid we wouldn’ get acrost,” she said. “I tol/ Granma we couldn’ he’p her. The fambly had ta get acrost. I tol’ her, tol’ her when she was a-dyin’. We couldn’ stop in the desert. There was the young ones-an’ Rosasharn’s baby. I tol’ her.” She put up her hands and covered her face for a moment. “She can get buried in a nice green place,” Ma said softly. “ Trees aroun’ an’ a nice place. She got to lay her head down in California.”” This was a key moment in the book because it shows the strong desire the Joad’s had to arriving to California. Ma -who puts family over everything- Let a family member die so that the rest could have a better future.  I feel like what Ma went through could have traumatized her and shows how badly she, along with the rest of the Joads, wanted to arrive to California.

I believe that Knowledge and Wisdom are strongly related. Knowledge is knowing facts and useful information while wisdom is knowing facts and useful information through experience over time. I feel like wisdom can be obtained just by living life and taking risks that could teach you something more. The key to wisdom is to continue educating oneself. An experience that I have been through that I like to believe made me wiser would be when learning and helped my sister live with schizophrenia. Having someone in the family with this horrific mental disorder really opened my eyes.