The Turtle Chapter

The third chapter of The Grapes of Wrath is the turtle chapter. I didn't know about it the first time I read the book. It was another school reading assignment, we all had used copies of the Viking Critical Library edition, and I was the fourth student to carry my copy around. It was nicely battered, yet inside the pages were suspiciously pristine. We were supposed to read the book one chapter at a time, which was impossible for me, so I read on, going back to check the assigned chapter before the class discussions. I knew not to offer much in the discussions, so as not to be bullied later by kids who loathed "goody two shoes reader types." I mostly listened in every class anyway because I was shy and whenever I had to stand and answer a question in class my voice would quaver or I'd stammer or forget what I was going to say. Forgetting what you were going to say was horrible. My mind would simply go blank as I stood to speak (we were required to stand.) And there was always the chance of somebody behind you softly whispering reee-TarrHd (followed by muffled giggling.)

The first time I read the turtle chapter I was in awe. I went back and carefully re-read it. It was unusual. Hmmmm... I wondered what kind of class discussion would follow. Not good, as it turned out. Not many kids liked the chapter. Dull, hard to get through--endlessly boring. I was sitting there, thinking it isn't even three pages long, and they act like it's a hardship to read.

Steinbeck's book was not just a social history of the dust bowl and migration to California, we were told. The turtle symbolized the struggle of the migrants and the environment they were fleeing. Our teacher reminded us that the turtle's shell is a house or home and protects the turtle. Home is where Tom Joad returns, only to find his family huddled in the dusty shell of their home. When the home is lost, security, comfort and healthy conditions are lost.

A few powerful individuals are able to withhold security and comfort from the much larger group. The turtle keeps going, through the dry dust because there's nothing else to do, giving up is not an option.

My high school copy of the book had an interview with Steinbeck in it and letters he'd written concerning the story. This bit was my favorite: Steinbeck answering a question about the migrants.

I admire them intensely. Because they are brave, because although the technique of their life is difficult and complicated, they meet it with increasing strength, because they are kind, humorous, wise, because their speech has the metaphor and flavor and imagery of poetry, because they can resist and fight back and because I believe that out of those qualities will grow a new system and a new life which will be better than anything we have had before.
~ John Steinbeck

I fell in love with Steinbeck after reading that.

Steinbeck said he created four layers in the book, and that readers could take from it whatever they wanted, (the mythic, the social history, the symbolism, and whatever else the reader could find in it.) What a genius.