My Personal Philosophy

My personal philosophy at this stage of my life is that to learn to always give and receive help around you. Always in my life, I was trying to be independent and face every challenge on my own. I was taught early on; that the only person is that can get you where you want to be is you yourself. Taking it literally I thought that I was to never take help from anyone and work everything on my own. After all I have to be the one to get somewhere. However what I failed to realize even after struggling, is that help is meant for a reason, to assist one in reaching their goal, for no one in this world can get through their life without receiving help at least one. There are so many examples of this, coming from my own life and so many other sources.

From just my own life, there are countless examples when I have tried to handle my problems on my own. However those problems were too much for me to handle, however, I could never handle these on my own, and after failing, I had to crawl to help and recover.

My first example of this was when I first began to struggle in my math class. Every test, I was so sure of myself and believed that I could get through life without struggling, that I could pass them. Except each time I took the test, I ended up struggling and never accomplishing what I really wanted. To me it was a real struggle, however, I never thought about coming in to receive help from a teacher whose jobs was to teach me. Until I finally I came to get help, and then I realize, that I could actually achieve the grade I wanted if I decided to get help. This was my first lesson in learning how to actually get help and that I could never get through in life unless I actually decide to go out on my own and find that help. Even with that though I began to get help for school work, at that time, the thought of appreciating help never crossed my mind. I wasn’t grateful for that help.

The second time I realized I needed help was when I went to the hospital for a deflated lung. On the first day, while I was lying on the bed, fresh after surgery, I refused pain medication. I don’t know why I did that, most likely because I believed that I didn’t need that, and that I could handle it. I ended up regretting that choice, because all throughout that night I faced a whole lot of pain, far worse than just failing a test; pain that drives you insane and before long I called the nurse for the medication. At that point it finally crossed my mind, “Hey maybe receiving help is a good thing, it’s not like I can handle everything in life. Why didn’t I take that medicine earlier, would’ve made my life so much easier.” From there I finally realized, help is what brings you back up on your feet after you fall.

From just those two experiences from my life, I learned that help is a required thing this life. That the only way you can get through life is with that push on the back pushing you further. It took me so long to realize, with me almost failing a class and ending up in the hospital before I realized assistance is there for a reason, to bring you back to your feet after falling. Giving help goes both ways too, once you give it to someone else, you bring someone, whose struggling up on their feet. And it’s comfortable to know that if everyone were to do this, you could rely on someone to help you back on your feet.  The saying in which I was taught where, “only you are the one that can get yourself anywhere”, has changed in the way that it is now, “Although you are the one that gets yourself anywhere, it’s impossible without help from those around you”

Ch. 16-19(F)

Tom Joad is a man with 2 key beliefs. One is that he believes California to be his saving grace for him and his family and that his family means very much to him. Because Tom believes so strongly in California, we can see that he is a persistent person. If he firmly believes in his goal, he will do everything he can to achieve it. In this case that means he will traverse 2000 plus miles in order to get his family to a new land in which they can live a better life. The way he single mindlessly goes to California despite all the rumors that people have said also goes to show that he is a person that is not easily dissuaded. He has proof that California needs worker and while others say that they could not find work, he goes ahead and continues to believe that there will be work because of his evidence. Tom is also very determined to make his way across California forgoing his losses in exchange for an increased pace. When Grampa dies, he continues after a short burial and a prayer wasting no tears. When his brother leaves his family, he is confused yet he does not pay it too much thought. He simply accepts and moves ahead. Just by knowing that Tom is a man that firmly believes that California is the place for his family we can induce that he is a man that has determination, and makes decisions not rashly.

What we can learn from how Tom loves and cares for his family show that he is a man with strong leadership skills and that he is also incredibly intelligent. When his mother gets into a fight with tom and his father, Tom realizes that he needs to back down and offer a more intelligent idea before someone ends up getting hurt. Thus he manages to calm down his mother and resolve the situation, showing leadership skills. He displays the care for his family with his leadership of how he quickly calmed down the situation. This situation also shows his intelligence and decision making skills. Here Tom had a choice, he could have kept on arguing with Ma and eventually someone would have gotten hurt. The first example of intelligence was how he recognized that someone would've gotten hurt if they had kept arguing. The second was that he chose to stop the argument thus preventing the damage from being done. This shows that Tom is an intelligent man with good decision making processes.

Ch.11-15 (D)*

The quote that resonated the most with me was when Casy and Tom were speaking about the man that owned a million acres. They were questioning why the man owned so much land and what was he going to do with it. Casy then says how the land is used as compensation for his happiness, "If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself." This quote explains to us what it means to be happy.  The unnamed man uses money and land to make himself feel happy. However, if one goes past that surface level of satisfaction, deep down, that man is discontent with his life, as Casy has noticed. The quote teaches us that money and land isn’t everything and that we should always be looking for something that can make us happy. If one would compare this man to the Joad family, the Joads are much happier not because they have land but because they have each other and that seem to be enough for them. The quote goes to show that people are much more important than materials, and happiness often comes in forms of time well spent with others. There are many examples of this nowadays, of how wealth often does not lead to happiness. There are many new stories of the wealthy abusing substances and ending up in very pitiful states. This is caused because those that are wealthy are not happy and have to find a release from their life, which leads them to drugs. The man in this quote does not have a good out look in his life, not realizing that he has many more blessings than others. It reminds me that as a person living in the United states, that I have many more opportunities than those living in Africa or Asia.

Ch. 16-19 (C)

This poem comes from the perspective of a Californian who doesn't want people migrating to his state.  This poem explores the hatred and where it stems from and also of what they will do to the Oklahomans.

Why is it that they come?

So many of them

Some have stayed and others leave

Why are they here,

Did they come for the Jobs?

They must know there are none left

I barely have one and i need it

My neighbors need it

My kin need it

They don't need it

Those Oklahomans, those Okies

They don't belong here

We can't have them taking our jobs

We gotta get rid of those Okies

And so my Kin

My Neighbor

Come to me so as we can rid our land of these people

The Oklahomans

Ch. 11-15 (B)

Highway 66 was important to many immigrants traveling from the central of America to California for they had only that main route.  This road would pass through eight states and traversed two thirds of america.

The significance of the road lies in how many important stops there were to travelers. Those migrating did not have long lasting cars, and thus to replace parts, they had to make sure there were places where one could buy spares. Another important stops were called service stations, where one could buy food and have lodging. Those are incredibly important if one is to undergo a 2000+ mile trip.

An example of a camping trip is seen here where a traveler would stay during the night after a long day journeying. Although it seems barren and not useful, it becomes important to have a designated place to rest, providing a good stopping point for the day and if others stop there, a hub for trade and advice to get through the trip.

Sources: Map, Station Picture, Lodge Picture

Ch.1-10(F)*

In the 1930's machines were still being introduced. Cars and tractors were relatively new and were met with different opinions. Some people like them, others didn't. The Grapes of Wrath explores the opinion of machines in the 1930's through two different viewpoints. One is of a man driving a tractor and another of a man selling cars.

The tractor driver is a man who admires the power that comes with driving the machine. However that power consumes the man who drives the tractor, which is described by Steinbeck,

         "The driver could not control--it straight across the country it went, cutting through a dozen farms and             straight back. A twitch at the controls could swerve the cat', but the driver's hands could not twitch               because the monster that built the tractor, the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow got into           the driver's hands, into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him"(35) 

The idea that is being pointed out by Steinbeck is that while man has made the machines, they are too much for us and that they abuse us. The man who drives the tractor cannot move and not only that, he cannot control the tractor. The tractor had gotten into the man's head and now he can't do anything. This goes to demonstrate the effects of the machines on us, that we cannot handle the appliances we made to help us. 

On the other hand, there is man who adores machines and is instead in control of it, using them to make his money. He would buy used car and sell new ones to others. He is the opposite of the tractor drivers, controlling it instead of having it control him. He appraises cars while thinking to himself, "We aint' sellin' cars--rolling junk. Goddamn it, I got to get jalopies. I don't want nothing for more'n twenty-five, thirty bucks. Sell 'em for fifty,seventy-five" The dealer, uses the machines to his advantage to make profits off of it. This shows that while there are those that are controlled by the new inventions, there are others that can use them to their fullest.

The Grapes of Wrath makes comparisons from new to old when it concerns a new idea. With the introduction of the machine, it compares how people react to it and how they, both use it and are used by it. Both of the examples used describe how men are using the machines to make money, however one is used by it and the other uses it. 

Ch. 1-10(F)

In the Grapes of Wrath, pride is a very important aspect of life. It is rare for one to back down and accept their situation. However, in Tom's case, he is one of the few people who has come to accept his life and swallow his pride. While in jail he states that "I ain't proud like some fellas. I let stuff run off'n me." While Tom is in jail, he learns to accept his time in there. He is not mad at being in jail as he had come to terms with it. He also compares himself to the others, showing how rare it was for someone to swallow their pride and that he was able to. In doing so, he takes pride in that he can swallow his own while others cannot. This in itself is dignity as well, however there are those that cannot back down.

Boy Floyd is someone who had gone to jail as well. However, unlike Tom, Floyd comes back angry, with Ma describing the experience as "An'he was mad. He wasn't no boy or no no man no more, he was jus' a walkin' chunk a mean-mad." Floyd could not accept how he had gone to jail and thus once he had come back he was resentful of the experience. This shows how his pride had been damaged and because he could not accept that damage, it led him going to jail again for he kept fighting the jail in order to regain his pride. The pride shown here is the traditional pride of the 1930's.

 The Grapes of Wrath highlights the how people's standard for pride changes. One shows a man who has learned to accept what had happened to him and the other, a man who continues to challenge what had happened to him to regain his pride. The man who continues to challenge a lost prospect in order to regain his lost pride is the traditional dignity, but that pride develops into a new one, a modern aspect of a man who has accepted his position and takes pride in being able to recognize that.