Grapes Guide.pdf - Minnesota Opera

act three
3.1: GOVERNMENT CAMP, SANITARY UNIT 4 (The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22)
(1) What is the thematic significance of this scene (pp. 76–77)? Find one sentence spoken by Ma which sums up
what being in the government camp is all about. (NOTE: “I feel like people again” will be reprised throughout. Its source
is a speech Ma makes in Chapter 22 in which she states, “These folks is our folks—is our folks…. Why, I feel like people
again.”)
(2) In men’s shower room, the men of the camp and the Joad men talk as they shower about the upcoming
dance. What are they going to be on the lookout for? Find the line which reprises Ma’s.
3.2: LAUNDRY LINE (The Grapes of Wrath, Chapters 22 and 28)
(1) In this scene, we meet the women of the government camp. Find their reprisal of the theme we’ve been tracing.
How do the actions of the men and the women mirror each other? (NOTE: The focus here is on being clean – clean
bodies, clean clothes – and on fellowship.)
(2) What is Rosasharn unhappy about? What is Ma’s reaction? How do the two women’s losses juxtaposed with the
community scenes in the shower and at the laundry line represent the shift the Joads are making in their
definition of family?
(3) In “People Again,” Ma makes some observations about how men and women see things differently. Summarize
her point of view. Do you agree or disagree? Explain. (NOTE: This section is taken from a conversation Ma has with Pa
and Uncle John in Chapter 28. The two men are arguing that it seems like “our life’s over an’ done,” and Ma responds, “No,
it ain’t…. It ain’t, Pa. An’ that’s one more thing a woman knows. I noticed that. Man, he lives in jerk – baby born an’ a
man dies, an’ that’s a jerk – gets a farm an’ loses his farm, an’ that’s a jerk. Woman, it’s all one flow, like a stream, little
eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it like that. We ain’t gonna die out. People is goin’
on—changin’ a little, maybe, but goin’ right on.”)
3.3: HOEDOWN—SUNSET (The Grapes of Wrath, Chapters 24 and 26)
(1) In “Square Dance,” what is the mood? How does the mood shift with “You Got No Warrant” up through the
left side of p. 85? How does it shift again with Pa’s arrival with the handbill? Why is he willing to believe the
handbill’s promise this time? How does the rest of the crowd and the Joad family react to his news?
(2) In “Fried Dough,” Ma laments the diminishing health of Winfield and Rosasharn. What does she reveal about
her own pregnancy with Noah and foreshadow about the fate of Rosasharn’s baby? Why is their diet increasingly
made up of fried dough? In addition, what does she say about Winfield’s state of mind and how it relates to Tom?
(3) On the left side of p. 87, there is a reprise of Ma’s lullaby at the end of Act Two, “Simple Child.” What
significance does it have here?
(4) At the end of 3.3, the croppers depart “under the stars.” Link the thematic significance of that stage direction to
their song, “Plenty Road/People Again,” which reprises two earlier songs.
3.4: HOOPER RANCH (The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26)
(1) Read the strikers’ song, “Join the Line.” What are they trying to do and why do they think they have a chance
of winning? How does their situation speak to the themes of community and family?
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