Wow! I can’t believe we finally made it to Tulsa. It’s a lot different from what I expected. All my friends told me that there wouldn’t be anything here when I arrived, even Grapes of Wrath made it out to be just a whole lot of dust and farm land. I’m surprised to find green trees in the suburbs and impressive, modern buildings in the city. It really blew my mind that things were so different after I just finished an almost 500 page book where everything about the area was different. I found this really cool Lit Trip while I was trying to find more information on the book, and I really think that other people might like it as well. If anyone is interested I’m going to post the link here because it really helped me to understand all of the different themes of the book, as well as the culture of the West South Central region during the Great Depression.
As I stepped out of the car, the sun beat down on my head and I stretched. It felt good to be out of the car for good now and I was looking forward to taking a hot shower after the lukewarm ones on the trip. The last leg of the trip I spent looking up facts about Oklahoma in my book. I didn’t feel as dumb reading about Oklahoma as I did about other states because my parents had already told me some things about the state. For example; I already knew that Oklahoma had a large oil industry because my dad worked in the oil industry and that’s the whole reason we had to move. I also knew that Oklahoma contained the World’s Largest Praying Hands because my mom’s mom (the grandma who didn’t pass away) is very religious and told me that I had better visit those hands. I’ll make sure to tell her that we stopped by, even though we really only drove by. On the final leg of our journey we also stopped to look at the Ozark Mountains. The Ozark Mountains are the most extensive mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians. I thought it was really cool that while they are often referred to as mountains, they are actually a high plateau. Another interesting thing is that a lot of books take place in these mountains, like Where the Red Fern Grows and Shepherd of the Hill. The first people to settle in the Ozark Mountains were of German, English, Scots-Irish, and some Native American descent. I would have liked to take some time to hike through them, but my parents told me that there would be plenty of time to return and visit them another day.
The new neighbors were very friendly and brought us chocolate chip cookies. I had a flashback to the beginning of the Grapes of Wrath where Muley Graves shared what little food he had with Tom Joad and Jim Casy. For once I thought about how some things, like good Southern hospitality, never change. Others, like what happens when a loved one dies, have changed for the better, and some have changed for the worse. Overall, the South West Central region has changed drastically in the years since the Great Depression, and I’ll be the first to admit that The Grapes of Wrath was a pretty good book. I enjoyed reading about a different time period than my own and I really think that I might enjoy living here after all.
-wow, I apologize for all the comments but I'm having technical troubles.
ReplyDeleteThis particular blog post was very content heavy, although I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. To me, it seems as though all the content standards from this project accumulated in this one blog post. I did appreciate how this blog post was worded, because this post does a great job on getting through imagery for the region and what is happening to the main character. I'm referring to how the main character gets out of the car, stretches, and talks about life from the narrator's point of view, as if the narrator is looking back on this. If anything, though I did like how I managed to learn a lot about Oklahoma state and the south-central region, for how it is now and a good amount about how life was during the great depression. Life and culture in the Great Depression shifted over to what it is now, and still although that was a long time ago that era still has a big effect on how life is today, culturally. It is also interesting to see how books can capture the essence of a time, a place and a people even though they are fiction. I feel like this is what the entire point of this project was, as far as literature goes. The way the 'Grapes of Wrath' explains life in the region, during the time is very realistic and might as well have been a memoir of someone's actual life. This is the power of characterization and imagery, taking something that happened so long ago as the Great Depression and in a place like Oklahoma, and making it real and relevant to people of all generations and cultures. On the other hand, this blog tells to story of how life is today, giving a great view of the area overall. Personally, I do like how this blog post adds little pieces to personalize the character, as if that person is real and the events that took place actually happened. This project seems to have been very successful for your group.
I think that it would be worth checking out one of my group's posts to see how the way of life from the past greatly effects what life is like today in the Mid-Atlantic region (division 2): http://tvhsroadtrip.blogspot.com/2010/11/agriculture-where.html
I felt like I actually learned something from this blog, I learned that Oklahoma is a very in industrial state when it comes to oil just like Chicago is an industrial state when it comes to railroad.
ReplyDeleteoh yeah and heres our blog:http://eastnorthcentral.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI really like how all of your blog entries followed the story of the book, instead of skipping around to different literature pieces. I also loved how much your character actually got involved, and her character grew through reading the book. The information was even stated in a way that made it interesting to read! It was also intriguing to learn that the same people who settled the Ozark Mountains also settled in New England! Nice job :)
ReplyDeleteThis post has a lot to absorb, there is a load of information thrown in, but even though there is a lot of information, it is integrated with the story very nicely. It appears the state has changed vastly over the years and for the better. " made it out to be just a whole lot of dust and farm land. I’m surprised to find green trees in the suburbs and impressive, modern buildings in the city" the transformation over time is incredible and you did a great job describing the differences from then to now. Agriculture and geography seem to be important in your area, it is also important in the mid-Atlantic region, you should check out an article from our blog similar through the commonality of agriculture http://tvhsroadtrip.blogspot.com/2010/11/agriculture-where.html . Great job!
ReplyDelete