GOW+Ch17+Passages

=**Chapter 17 Passages**=


 * 1.** "In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream. And it might be that a sick child threw despair into the hearts of twenty families, of a hundred people; that a birth there in a tent kept a hundred people quiet and awestruck through the night and filled a hundred people with the birth-joy in the morning. A family which the night before had been lost and fearful might serach its goods to find a pressent for a new baby. In the evening, sitting about the fires, the tewnty were one...and the songs which were all of the people, were sung in the nights. Men sang the words, and women hummed the tunes."


 * Analysis:


 * This passage describes the environment that migrant families lived in while traveling across the United States together. Even though each family came from a different territory of the Mid-West, they were all in the same general state and all knew what it was like to be forced off of the land that they had lived on for many generations. This gave complete strangers an incredible bond, such as could be seen when the families camped on the side of the highway together. Like Steinbeck says in this passage, all of the parents became parents to every child, and everyone made sure that nobody went hungry. He goes on to say that these people went on to form miniature governments with rules, and rights that applied directly to their situation and experience. Through this passage, Steinbeck is proving his point that people are happier and better off when they stick together and help each other. The importance of family structure can even be seen in this passage near the end when Steinbeck talks about the music that the camps participate in. He says that the men sung the words, and that the women hummed the tunes. This symbolizes how the men were expected to be the leaders for the families, and give the commands necessary to make sure that the family survives. The women "humming the tunes" symbolizes how the women were the rocks of the family giving the family a solid foundation and being the one who is always strong and supportive. After all, how can you have a good song without a tune? The formation of these little "worlds" shows how the migrants dealt with the hostility directed at them by the rest of the United States that did not understand their plight and chose to act in fear instead of compassion.