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February 23, 2009
The Concrete Highway
Chapter 3, The Grapes of Wrath:
This chapter is wrought with Steinbeck's use of symbolism. Readers get a very poignant description of the terrain from the unique perspective of a turtle. The turtle itself is representative of people, for both species must survive the environment and, as we make the connection later in the book, both species are on the move to somewhere else--somewhere concievably better, albeit unknown and foreign. A turtle is equipped with a shell for protection, and for Steinbeck's turtle: thank God for that! An ant--a nusance--finds its way into the shell of the turtle. The turtle deals with the ant by squezzing back into its shell and crushing the ant. An ant--a minor nusance--represents a problem which is considerably easy to deal with for the turtle. The ant is, I think, symbolic to a small problem which might befall a human, or a family, and one which can be taken care of with considerably little effort or outside assistance. However, within chapter 3, Steinbeck's turtle attempts to cross the concrete highway--a far more dangerous and foreign environment than what it is used to--which is also of significance to many humans within the book since both must traverse the road to get to their destination. The connection between turtle and human becomes all the more apparent as two vehicles come down the road as it attempts to cross. One of the vehicles swerves to avoid crushing the creature, while the other swerves to destroy it. This is very symbolic of human nature, and how people react differently to one another.
Posted by QuinnKerno at February 23, 2009 4:42 PM