GoW.Chapter7

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=1.)Summary=



This is an intercalary chapter that is narrated by a used car salesman and the setting is suitably set at a used car lot. The salesman explains to his employees the system of how to swindle the farmers who are in great demand for cars to get to California. The salesman understands that they can sell the cars for soaring prices and the families will buy. He also gives details on ways to cheat the farmers by any signs of weaknesses (if they are helping a couple, persuade the woman __first__ because she will move the man to her choice), giving the allusion that the cars are more valuable then they are (putting sawdust in the exhaust system to muffle the sound), and taking out important body parts of the car once they have made a sale (so when the families get far enough the car breaks down (yard batteries).The section basically foreshadows the situation of the Joad family and the events that happen to them later in the novel. This is one of the cases of how the migrating farmers as a whole were taken advantaged of by crooks and lies.

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 =2.)Passages=


 * “God almighty! I wisht I had five hundred jalopies.” (62)**


 * “God, if I could only get a hundred jalopies” (63)**


 * “Christ, if I could only get five hundred jalopies!” (65)**


 * “Jesus, I wisht I had a thousand jalopies!” (66)**

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 =3.)Discussion Questions=


 * What is the effect of foreshowing what happens to the Joads later on in the book?**

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 =4.)Song=




 * "This Devil's Workday"**
 * -Modest Mouse**

Lyrics Theme Song Analysis Hear the Theme Song Back to top



4-1.)Lyrics
All those people that you know. All those people that you know. All those people that you know, floatin' in the river are logs.

I could buy myself a reason. I could sell myself a job. I could hang myself on treason. All the folks I know are gone.

All the people that you know. All the people that you know. All the people that you know floatin' in the river are logs.

So I ate the wedding cake 'til the whole damn thing was gone. And I'm gonna drown the ocean. Now ain't none o' that so wrong?

All the people that you know. All those people that you know. All those people that you know floatin' in the river are gone.

Gonna take this sack of puppies. Gonna set it out to freeze. Gonna climb around on all fours 'til all the blood falls out my knees.

All the people that you know. All the people that you know. All those people that you know floatin' in the river are logs.

Well let's take this potted plant to the woods and set it free. I'm gonna tell the owners just how nice that was of me.

I could buy myself a reason. I could sell myself a job. I could hang myself on treason. Oh I am my own damn god. HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA

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4-2.)Theme Song Analysis:
//“All those people that you know, floatin' in the river are logs.”//

-All farmers are not human; they are merely logs, “things” to be used, like getting money out of.

//“I could buy myself a reason. I could sell myself a job. I could hang myself on treason.// //All the folks I know are gone.”//

-Money gives the crooks this feeling of unlimited power and what they believe to be happiness.

//“So I ate the wedding cake 'til the whole damn thing was gone. And I'm gonna drown the ocean. Now ain't none o' that so wrong?// //…// //Well let's take this potted plant to the woods and set it free. I'm gonna tell the owners just how nice that was of me.”//

-This represents the defense of the car salesman that they are looking out for themselves and that if they are good to themselves, why should they care for others?

//“Oh I am my own damn god. HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA”//

-The basic motto of the car salesman.


 * This song was chosen not only for its relations to the text, but it also set the general tone of the period with the slight hint of folk music. The devil and the car salesmen are obviously the same inhuman beings who only care about profit, which is why the theme is also seen in this song.

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4-3.)Hear The Theme Song
[|This Devi's Work]

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//**Passages Answers**//


 * Every time the car salesman says this he becomes increasing greedy. He also shows how much he dislike his customers because he says this after he deals with one. The motivation of the salesman is simple, get money and easy and as quick as possible.

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//**Discussion Questions Answers**//

The reader is aware of the history behind the mottos of the car salesmen of the time. Therefore, they have a better understanding of how the Joads were just one of the many families to be cheated. This effect better amplifies the corruption in man, a theme that is introduced in this chapter. How man in inhumane to man. This also goes against Casy’s ideal’s earlier on how humans should carry out acts for the betterment of one another (win/win) but in the section the only thinking of many of the character the Joad soon encounters are only thinking of themselves (win/lose).

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