Grapes of Wrath ch. 5-8

In chapter 5, spokesmen for the land came to talk to the families about how they had to get off the land because it wasn't theirs, it was the banks. They kept saying how the "monster" was making this all happen. They were calling the bank the "monster." They were told to leave or their house would just be run over by a machine that was planting cotton. The tenants were kind of mad because the person who was planting the cotton grew up just like all the others have. The Joads' house actually got part of it knocked in by the machine. They were saying how they stole the land from the Indians, and now the bank was taking the land from them, so it is the same thing, but they cared when the bank took their land, but they didn't care when they stole the land from the Native Americans and I think alot of people have had this happen where they don't really care until it happens to them, then it is a horrible thing to do.

In chapter 6, the preacher and Tom went and looked around at the abandoned farm site. Tom thought it was weird that nobody was there, but all the doors, windows, and wood weren't stolen from the house. Then Muley Graves showed up, and he explained that Tom's family had gone to his Uncle John's house, until they had enough money to get to California. Muley told them how he just wanders around because his family left him to go to California and he didn't want to go because the people told him he had to. Why wouldn't he have just went with his family. I understand because he said he would have if they wouldn't have told him he had to, which reminds me of alot of people that I know. But wouldn't he want to keep his family together at a time like this? They were hungry and Muley had some rabbits that he had caught in a trap, so they skinned them and made a fire and cooked them while the sat around and talked. A car came Muley talked them into hiding in the cotton. I don't quite understand why Tom and the preacher went to hide, but I do understand why Muley did because they were after him. Then once the car came and put out the fire and spot lighted in the cotton for them, they decided to go to sleep. Muley showed them where he had been sleeping in a cave that Tom and his brother had made.

In chapter 7, it talked about the cars sales people ripping off ordinary people so they could get more money for their cars, which are bad. I thought that was rude because the ordinary people don't have much right now, and the cars salesmen knew that. So I think, this chapter is meaning they sold the Joads' a bad car. I don't know why the salesmen would try to rip all these people off so badly when they don't have hardly anything to begin with.

In chapter 8, Tom and the preacher took off to John's house. I predicted the family wouldn't be at John's. I thought they would already be gone, on their way to California by now. But they arrived at the house and everyone was glad Tom was back, but they all thought he broke out of prison at first. It sounded like they were going to say that Tom's grandpa or grandma died, but they were both still alive. They reconnected most of the chapter. They had breakfast and the preacher gave grace. Then they went out to get more stuff ready to sell in town. Then his brother Al came home and old Tom Joad told him that he had to haul more stuff to town that day to sell. I wonder why they just let Al run around when all this stuff is happening with their family. And I wonder why Al wouldn't want to stay around to help.