Grapes of Wrath Chapters 8 and 9

Back to Tom Joad's journey. The tale of Tom's Uncle John and his deceased wife was interesting. In the 1930s going to the doctor really wasn't that common, and self-diagnostics was the norm (Wilde). So I understand why Uncle John didn't take his wife to the doctor when she had a "stomickache" (Steinbeck 68). The wife died of a ruptured appendix. I wondered if John could have actually saved her, therefore his remorse and guilt were justified. I didn't know what kind of treatment doctors had for appendicitis patients in the 1930s. After doing some research I found "from about 1900, the publicity surrounding appendicitis fostered the idea that this was a potentially lethal condition, but that it could be cured if it was treated sufficiently early. Many other health problems are now understood in a similar way, including heart disease and cancer, but in the early twentieth century people who suspected they had appendicitis were consulting doctors, while people with symptoms of heart disease more often died without medical intervention." (Wilde) Based off of this statement, if John and his wife knew what type of pain was a symptom of appendicitis, then John should have taken her to the doctor and saved her life. But I don't think that he knew what the symptoms of appendicitis where because after his new bride complained of stomach pain he told her "You et too much" (Steinbeck 68). The reason that I am looking so in depth into this, is because John would be a different person if his wife was still alive or even if he didn't feel responsible for her death. The whole character of Uncle John could be different.

Chapter 9 was a short tale about the farmers getting ready to go to California. It was a very sad little story about the sacrifices the families had to make in order to have enough money to make it to California. Selling away their memories is hard enough, but to sell away the memories to buyers that know that whatever they offer, the farmers have to accept, must have been painful. The families of the Dust Bowl era were very brave to have made the move across the country to a place where they may or may not find a job. They only had one another to rely on and barely made it through.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Wilde, Sally. "The Patients | The History of Surgery." The History of Surgery: Free EBook Download. Australian Research Council, 2008. Web. 29 July 2011.