Men walking along the railroad tracks
Going someplace, there's no going back
Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretching around the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleeping in the cars in the southwest
No home, no job, no peace, no rest
Well, the highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes
I'm sitting down here in the campfire light
Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad
He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and he takes a drag
Waiting for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box beneath the underpass
You got a one-way ticket to the promised land
You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
Bathing in the city's aqueduct
Well the highway is alive tonight
Where it's headed, everybody knows
I'm sitting down here in the campfire light
Waiting on the ghost of Tom Joad
Now Tom said, "Mom, wherever there's a cop beating a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me, Mom, I'll be there
Wherever somebody's fighting for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helping hand
Wherever somebody's struggling to be free
Look in their eyes, Ma, and you'll see me"
Well the highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes
I'm sitting down here in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad
Have you heard this song before?
Can you explain what’s all about?
Can you summarize its meaning=
Now, read the following passage from “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck (1939)
Tom Joad : I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled...
Ma Joad : Oh, Tommy, they'd drag you out and cut you down just like they done to Casy.
Tom Joad : They'd drag me anyways. Sooner or later they'd get me for one thing if not for another. Until then...
Ma Joad : Tommy, you're not aimin' to kill nobody.
Tom Joad : No, Ma, not that. That ain't it. It's just, well as long as I'm an outlaw anyways... maybe I can do somethin'... maybe I can just find out somethin', just scrounge around and maybe find out what it is that's wrong and see if they ain't somethin' that can be done about it. I ain't thought it out all clear, Ma. I can't. I don't know enough.
Ma Joad : How am I gonna know about ya, Tommy? Why they could kill ya and I'd never know. They could hurt ya. How am I gonna know?
Tom Joad : Well, maybe it's like Casy says. A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody, then...
Ma Joad : Then what, Tom?
Tom Joad : Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.
Ma Joad : I don't understand it, Tom.
Tom Joad : Me, neither, Ma, but - just somethin' I been thinkin' about.
Published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath vividly portrays life during the Great Depression in America as it follows a family of Oklahoma tenant farmers traveling westward. It explores the strength and goodness of the human spirit.
When first published, Americans had a love/hate relationship to this novel. Some people applauded Steinbeck for capturing so honestly the lives of migrant farm workers during the Depression. Other accused him of being a socialist and of championing communist beliefs.
The Grapes of Wrath has been banned, burned, and bought over and over again. And that's why we love it. That's why it's still around. It struck a nerve. It upset people deeply. It literally changed the face of American labor.
SYMBOLISM IN “THE GRAPES OF WRATH”. What represents what?
THE SUN - BLOOD - THE ROAD
THE TURTLE AND THE DOG - BUGS - MUSIC
Inspired by the book and John Ford’s 1940 film adaptation, as well as by Woody Guthrie’s The Ballad Of Tom Joad, Springsteen wrote The Ghost Of Tom Joad in 1995
SINALOA COWBOYS
Miguel came from a small town in northern ___________.
He came north with his brother Louis to ________ three years ago
They crossed at the river levee, when Louis was just sixteen
And found work together in the _________ of the San Joaquin
They left their _______ and family
Their father said, "My sons one thing you will learn,
For everything the north gives, it exacts a price in return."
They worked side by side in the ____________
From morning till the day was through
Doing the work the hueros wouldn't do.
Word was out some men in from Sinaloa were looking for some hands
Well, deep in Fresno county there was a deserted chicken ranch
And there in a small tin shack on the edge of a ravine
Miguel and Luis stood cooking methamphetamine
You could spend a year in the orchards
Or make half as much in one ten hour shift
Working for the men from Sinaloa
But if you slipped the hydriodic acid
Could burn right through your ________
They'd leave you spittin' up blood in the ________
If you breathed those fumes in
It was early one winter evening as Miguel stood watch outside
When the shack exploded, lighting up the valley night
Miguel carried Louis' body over his shoulder down a swale
To the creekside and there in the tall grass, Louis Rosales __________
Miguel lifted Louis' body into his truck and then he _______
To where the morning sunlight fell on a eucalyptus grove
There in the dirt he dug up ten-thousand dollars. all that they'd saved
Kissed his brothers lips and placed him in his grave
CHARACTERS | |
SETTING | |
MAIN THEME(S) | |
PLOT | |
ENDING | |
MORAL |
ACROSS THE BORDER
Tonight my bag is packed Tomorrow I'll walk these tracks That will lead me across the border Tomorrow my love and I Will sleep beneath auburn skies Somewhere across the border | And sweet blossoms fill the air Pastures of gold and green Roll down into cool clear waters And in your arms beneath open skies I'll kiss the sorrow from your eyes There, across the border |
We'll leave behind my dear The pain and sadness we found here And we'll drink from the Bravo's muddy water Where the sky grows gray and wide We'll meet on the other side There, across the border | Tonight we'll sing the songs I'll dream of you, my corazón And tomorrow my heart will be strong And may the saints blessing and grace Carry me safely into your arms There, across the border |
For you I'll build a house High upon a grassy hill Somewhere across the border Where pain and memory Pain and memory have been stilled There, across the border | For what are we Without hope in our hearts That someday we'll drink from God's blessed waters And eat the fruit from the vine I know love and fortune will be mine Somewhere across the border |
CHARACTERS | |
SETTING | |
MAIN THEME(S) | |
KEY LINES | |
MORAL |
BACK TO THE BEGINNING WITH TOM JOAD'S SPEECH
Riccardo Zambon, 25th May 2024
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