Mr. Turtle goes on an adventure
Chapter 3 - turtle chapter - The Grapes of Wrath
Was it just me or did anyone else think of Tom Joad when they read about the turtle? When the turtle is crossing the street the first car swirves to miss him and runs into the ditch and then drives away. The driver is obviously afraid of hitting him. The trucker who gives Tom a ride seems to fear Tom (or was that just me?) He wants to swirve away from him, get him out of his truck as soon as he realizes that Tom just got out of prison.
The second driver intentionally tries to hit the turtle or even try to kill it. Before Tom goes to prison another main comes after him with a knife, endangering his life. Tom defends himself by using a shovel against the other man. The turtle tucks inside his shell to defend himself. Both of these things are an internal instinct, people reach within themselves to protect themselves.
Later the turtle is traped inside Tom's coat for what seems like quite a long time. Tom is stuck in prison for four years. Eventually the turtle and Tom regain their freedom. Maybe I am looking too far into this or I'm missing the point. Did anyone else notice this or see any other parallels?
So once again I'm using Aja's blog, because I really liked it. I thought of the turtle as Tom himself, but she makes a great point that the turtle represents the people, the tenants in this story.
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