Listen to this song by Chris Knight called "Broken Plow" as it tells the story of the migrant farmer who has been forced to leave his home. How does the song make you feel? What does it make you think of from The Grapes of Wrath as you listen to the lyrics and to the melody?
Load up the old Dodge truck
We’ll leave what we can’t sell
Nobody needs a sharecropper’s tools
or a dust filled well
Take you one last look around
shed you one last tear
For the broken plow, the broken dreams
And the life we’re leaving here
Pull the lines down tight
The kids can ride on top of the load
In the cool of the night
They can crawl underneath the tarp
To stay out of the cold
Eleven hundred miles of mountain and sand
We’ll cross ‘em tired and torn
If this beat up truck can carry us
Far enough away from the storm
We’re going to California
There’s work there for a man
Too proud to beg for charity
Too poor to make a stand
Pray it’s just the land we’re losing
Not my life’s blood that I leave
On the handles of that broken plow
That haunts me in my dreams
A man at a roadside station
Don’t like dealing with my kind
He’d beat me out of my last dollar
And never look me in the eye
I heard ‘em call us Okies
Hell I don’t know what that means
But something tells me the promised land
Ain’t as promising as it seems
We’re going to California
There’s work there for a man
Too proud to beg for charity
Too poor to make a stand
Pray it’s just the land we’re losing
Not my life’s blood that I leave
On the handles of that broken plow
That haunts me in my dreams
This restless road is full of strangers
They ain’t no stranger than I am
Hardened faces damn the dust and curse the wind
That drove us from this life and home
We’ll never know again
We’re going to California
There’s work there for a man
Too proud to beg for charity
Too poor to make a stand
Pray it’s just the land we’re losing
Not my life’s blood that I leave
On the handles of that broken plow
That haunts me in my dreams
11 February 2010
08 February 2010
This land is your land...or is it?
Woody Guthrie is known for the songs he wrote about the same time that the Joads and many other families were experiencing what we see in the story.....
Before singing it recently at a concert , Bruce said that he is not sure if this song is true anymore, but that it "oughta be"...
Listen and reflect on the words Woody Guthrie wrote as Springsteen sings....
Do you hear promise? or despair?
Do you hear hope? or disappointment?
04 February 2010
Ghost of Tom Joad- Group Project
Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about The Grapes of Wrath protagonist, Tom Joad. In fact, it was the title track for his album in 1995.
For most song writers this might be a strange topic for a song or for an album, but Springsteen tends to write lyrics that are about real life in America....about the working man...about the struggles that people go through in their everyday lives.
After you put these together to tell your story, you will tell it to the class as an electronic story book.....(using PPT or another format). Each piece (from each song) should have its own slide. AS you present it to us, one person will read the text as it cycles through the slideshow but with no commentary or explanation.....just the lyrics as they tell the story.
For most song writers this might be a strange topic for a song or for an album, but Springsteen tends to write lyrics that are about real life in America....about the working man...about the struggles that people go through in their everyday lives.
Your group's task is to analyze the music of the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. His WEBSITE has a comprehensive list of all of his albums, songs, and lyrics. You must find between 7 and 10 Springsteen songs that tell the story of the American dream.....(either the realized or unrealized dream)
You should not use the full lyrics from all the songs you choose, but you must choose 7-10 pieces (one piece from each song you choose) that you can put together to tell the story from beginning to end... where the dream begins, what man experiences in life, and what those experiences do to his dreams. You are actually DEVELOPING A PLOT that builds as you add one more element........ You should:
1. Create the setting
2. and introduce the character(s)
3. Then you will create actions/conflicts/situations for the character to experience
4. as you build up the rising action to the climax (highpoint) of the story
5....which leads to the falling action
6. ....and finally the denouement (resolution)... The Denouement is derived from the term in French and Latin for "untying the knot".... It may not be an ending that your character wanted, but it is a resolution from the events/struggles.
(Note: There is a "search the lyrics" feature that will help you find key words or phrases to get started.)
After you put these together to tell your story, you will tell it to the class as an electronic story book.....(using PPT or another format). Each piece (from each song) should have its own slide. AS you present it to us, one person will read the text as it cycles through the slideshow but with no commentary or explanation.....just the lyrics as they tell the story.
The GOW "Family"
What is your definition of "family"? Is a family made up of only relatives or are there others that could be included? What keeps a family together? And of what importance is family today as compared to the time of the Joads?
25 January 2010
Surviving the Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was not like any other natural disaster. It was not a hurricane that lasted for a few hours....or a tornado that lasted for few minutes. Rather it was a disaster that went on for days....months....years....
This was the situation in which the Joads found themselves. The home, the land, and the work that they had known for so long had drastically changed to the point that it was replaced with dispair, disappointment, and destitution.
Watch this video called "The American Experience- Surviving the Dust Bowl" and make notes about what this natural disaster did to the farms, the communities, and the families across the southern US states.
This was the situation in which the Joads found themselves. The home, the land, and the work that they had known for so long had drastically changed to the point that it was replaced with dispair, disappointment, and destitution.
Watch this video called "The American Experience- Surviving the Dust Bowl" and make notes about what this natural disaster did to the farms, the communities, and the families across the southern US states.
21 January 2010
Meaning of the Title
John Steinbeck took the name for his novel from a very well-known song in US History "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
First read through the lyrics and talk with your group about where the title came from. Then lsten to the song as you read the lyrics again and see if the tone of the music helps you decide why he chose a line from THIS SONG to represent 570+ pages....
First read through the lyrics and talk with your group about where the title came from. Then lsten to the song as you read the lyrics again and see if the tone of the music helps you decide why he chose a line from THIS SONG to represent 570+ pages....
20 January 2010
An Intro to the Grapes of Wrath
The situation:
Due to a situation beyond your control,your family is being forced to leave the only home you have ever known; the home where you and your siblings have all grown up; the home where you come to at the end of a long day when you just need a place where you feel safe; home....
The dilemma:
You cannot take everything with you. There is very limited space in the truck that will move your family, so you have to prioritize what you will take and what you will leave.
The questions:
What do you take with you and why?
And what things would be the hardest to leave behind?
Due to a situation beyond your control,your family is being forced to leave the only home you have ever known; the home where you and your siblings have all grown up; the home where you come to at the end of a long day when you just need a place where you feel safe; home....
The dilemma:
You cannot take everything with you. There is very limited space in the truck that will move your family, so you have to prioritize what you will take and what you will leave.
The questions:
What do you take with you and why?
And what things would be the hardest to leave behind?
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