“Ma was silent a long time. ‘Family’s fallin’ apart,’ she
said. ‘I don’t know. Seems like I can’t think no more. I jus’ can’t think.
They’s too much.’”(pg. 294)
As you can see, I used this passage for the title. It
captures so effectively what is happening to the Joad family this chapter. Noah
leaves and then Grandma dies. The family is so hurt, so confused. They don’t
know where to turn or what to do so they just keep moving. Just like young Tom
Joad said, they keep putting one foot down before the other, trying just to
make it one more step. They feel, for lack of better words, numb. Numb to their
pain and plight and journey.
Another part of this chapter that really struck me was the
gas station attendants. After the Joads stop to refill, one of the workers says
that he can’t believe what they’re doing. The other employee replies, “Well,
you and me got sense. Them goddamn Okies got no sense and no feeling. They
ain’t human. A human being wouldn’t live like they do.” (pg. 301)
This is such a powerful passage. It shows very starkly, an
ignorance of pain. It’s the voice of unmerited judgment. This attendant
denounces those ‘Okies’ as unhuman because of their pain. He never realizes
that they have no choice. He doesn’t know that pain numbs you. He doesn’t know
because he has never know that kind of pain. This passage is a lesson to those
who live in comfort, that we don’t know what real pain is like. We can judge
third-world countries for being more primitive than we are, when we have done
nothing to in comfort, and they have done nothing to be in pain.
Wisom and knowledge are two different things, depending on
how you look at. I heard a funny saying just the other day. It went like,
‘Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put a
tomato in fruit salad.” Wisdom is the necessary extension of knowledge. It is
the application of knowledge. That being said, neither is more important than
the other, and neither is really useful without the other. Without knowledge
you can’t have wisdom, but without wisdom, knowledge is useless.
I agree with what you said about the title. It captures the whole gist of what's happening to the Joad family. Also, the lesson that you talked about in the second paragraph is good. I didn't realize that before.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your saying, I believe it summarizes exactly what i was trying to say in my blog post. Also your title summarizes exactly what happened in to chapter.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said "Without knowledge you can't have wisdom, but without wisdom, knowledge is useless." I know someone who has a Ph.d but they have absolutely no common sense or street smarts and it definitely show.
ReplyDeleteIs wisdom really an extension of knowledge? There can be people who are wise because they have learned from their mistakes, and those people may not have any actual knowledge.
ReplyDelete