THE GRAPES OF WRATH
What's New? For Teachers For Students Steinbeck and the book The Play
Study guide for a collaborative project
of the Alabama School of Fine Arts and
the University of Alabama at Birmingham
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17
18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30
DISCUSSION PROMPTS
for Chapter 20:


 ·  A term used to describe the way the California landowners hire and pay laborers is "California mathematics". Explain the numbers game they're using to reap the most profit possible. How, ultimately, do these numbers end up sacrificing human life?

 ·  Jim Casy can be interpreted as a Christ figure. JC makes a sacrifice in this chapter that bears out this symbolism. Explore this idea by discussing various ways JC parallels Christ. Include material from earlier chapters where the reader first gets to know him.

Some related images:
camp
Lange, Dorothea. “Hooverville of Bakersfield, California.” 1936. America from the Great Depression to WWII Photographs from the FSA-OWL, 1935-1945