Foos: Chapter 14, Capitalists, Capitalism…
Summarized the chapter, focusing on “The great owners” and the average people.
Change in perception from “this happened to me” to “this happened to us”
Read from the second large paragraph at the start of Chapter 14. Focused on the pronouns (ours, we versus my, mine)
 Very big on “ours”: What is this saying about ownership?
 Can objects be evil by design or only used for evil?
Daniel: Interesting transition, as tractors have been monsters. Who / What is doing the damage?
Lawhorn: Steinbeck takes a Native American approach to land. If you’re not putting it to good use, what good is it.
Gilliland: Interesting transition to a more communist, populist ideology.
Ben: It’s only wrong because they’re not in power. They still want that power (they = Okies)
Harry: Exactly what Ben said…if it was their tractor, they’d be okay with it.
Foos showed a Vachon photograph, “Migrant man looking at billboard.”
 Kevin, Probst: Sense of disbelief…
 Eble: Look more at the contrast that the photographer intended
 Scott: Applicable to today…Mexican immigrants…
 Benza: With Steinbeck in general, he really takes the negative perspective, taking the side of the lower class.
Communism / Capitalism…in any economic system, there will be a perspective from people who are oppressed.
Shared a Winston Churchill quote… “shared misery of Communism.”
 Gilliland: Illusion of the American revolution…no one stands for me! Forming unions…parallel to the sons of
liberty.
Foos had us red a quote from the end of the chapter. Had us read. Said that Steinbeck claims that the proletariat should
band together, would be able to get what they want. Sharing with the one family.
 Eric Scott connected with a later chapter…police keeping people apart.
 Ben Bruggemann: Communism looked at as something that is dangerous. Not something to be afraid of.
 Gilliland:
 Eble: Read from Chapter 14…quote about “bombs”…then questioned if Steinbeck is a Communist.
o Lawhorn: Pride in country…used the bomb quote.
o Harry Wahl: The node (using the quote) is that people are supposed to band together…
o Corey: I don’t see this as a big governmental statement…
o Probst: I agree with Corey…not necessarily encouraging communism. Cited the Hoovervilles.
o Gilliland: Hard to ignore the Communist influences…we know in retrospect that these were the ideas of
Lenin. Facism, Communism,
o Eble: Consider WPA, TVA, CCC…National Parks…our economic system maintained elements of shared
property and such…
o Daniel May: Recapitulated Benza quote…
Dorothea Lange photo… “No PPT is incomplete without her!” Migrants waiting for relief checks.
 Kevin Lynch: Present day, this reminds me of homeless people waiting outside of food banks. Cited The Pursuit
of Happyness…people fighting for the front…
 Daniel May: One woman…men are still looked to as the breadwinners, even if it’s from welfare…
 Foos: Last passage…men talking, everyone ringing around them. Men are still in charge of the house…
 Eric Scott / Lynch: Men take the brunt of the times, you could call it.
 Foos: Have read something about store owners firing single men first.
Foos read a quote dealing with Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, questioning why he alludes to them all.
 Daniel: The problems of the time caused big revolutions… these men were results, not causes.
 Leander: These men did not cause the Communist revolution. What caused it is the “we,” as Steinbeck seems to
be saying. The “we” can be very dangerous. These are “evil” men.
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Lawhorn: Saw the results and causes as “get over it.” Have to get away from hating the tractors, the
people…have to get over a loss in sports, as there will be another game later…
Lynch: The part about the results…to go off of what Leander said…Common Sense was published in
1776…Jefferson, Paine’s writings were a result of the time, people already revolting.
James Gilliland: Lenin / Marx … Lenin actually did, while Marx was the theorist. Addressed Leander.
Benza: The burning question for me is more the connotation of all this. When he’s showing the results of
revolutions, he’s taking the perspective of a migrant family. The revolutions would help the family.
Foos: Paine / Jefferson are good guys…would Napoleon fit here?
Ben: I think so…it’s about the leaders…
Eble: Second-to-last paragraph…numbers game of what’s getting ready to go.
Harry: Paine = pain, Marx = Marks… Jefferson / Paine (president/actor and philosophizer)
Leander: I/We…when we start anything, we begin innocent…as long as we are fighting for that power, as long as
we don’t have any of that ownership, they are innocent, they are good. What you do with that power, what
happens with it, that greed afterwards…look at American values…Jefferson is the “I”…going back to the
billboard here. Look at the “we” there.
Benza: This book reminds me of the opposite of Anthem, “we” to “I”
Eble: Published in 1938; shared idea that Brian could jump onto the shared philosophy of Jim Casy
Foos shared a series of quotes about communism…has to be real communism, not just a dictator.
 Corey: Comment on what Leander said…but we have to think what it would have been without Jefferson. If we
look back, we were still under British rule. We can’t let the Depression ruin hundreds of years of freedom. If
they’d never done that, where would we be right now?
 Leander: Response…Jefferson’s ideals were just, perfect. It was good…in his virtues, he was just. But in the
action of his virtues, it has become flawed.
 Eble: We can’t let the times we’re in sour our democracy.
 Probst: Inherently human values lead us to spoil ideas.
 Gilliland: Opposite…founding fathers, limiting the power of the state.