Questions for Chapters 1-4 of The Grapes of Wrath
Name: ______________________________
Chapter 1
1. How has the land changed? What blankets everything?
2. How does Steinbeck use Impressionism in this chapter?
3. How has the weather affected the children, the women, and the men?
Chapter 2
1. In the chapter’s second paragraph, what does the description of the man’s hands reveal?
2. Why does the driver accept the hitch-hiker?
3. When speaking to the hitch-hiker, the driver feels lonely. Why?
4. What is the purpose of diners along the highways?
5. How do the two men in the truck treat insects? What does this reveal about both?
6. What three adjectives best describe Tom Joad’s personality? Provide evidence for each.
Questions for Chapters 1-4 of The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 3
1. How is the description of the turtle also a description of the people of the Dust Bowl?
2. What three adjectives describe the turtle’s efforts? Provide evidence for each.
Chapter 4
1. The turtle is completely at the mercy of Tom. How is the turtle’s situation like that of the
1930s farmer?
2. Why does Jim Casy say he is no longer a preacher?
3. Why is not wiping the bottle before drinking considered polite? What does this reveal?
4. Why does Jim Casy say he was a hypocrite?
5. What is Jim Casy’s new philosophy? Record two lines proving your theory.
6. What line reveals that Jim Casy may (partly) be a transcendentalist?
7. What is frightening about freedom? (Think about Tom’s prison story and about Tom.)
8. What does Tom’s story about the pig reveal about his uncle and his father?
9. Which two characters would be considered men of action who live in the moment? Which two
characters would be considered men of ideas?