Objectives
- Students will understand the motives of the characters and decide if their actions betrayed or were detrimental to the family.
Overview
“All we got is the family unbroke. Like a bunch a cows, when the lobos are ranging, stick all together. I ain’t scared while we’re all here, all that’s alive, but I ain’t gonna see us bust up” (Ma, 169-170)
From the moment the reader meets Ma Joad, it is clear that her mission is to keep the family together. Throughout the novel she inspires, urges, bullies, threatens, and even begs for her family to stay together until they have found some security. Working together they can fend off the world, can pool their earnings, and can reestablish themselves in California. But along the way family members leave or abandon the family.
In this exercise, students will examine the characters who left the family, their motivations, the results of their departure, and determine if these characters betrayed the family.
Relevant Sections
- Note: This is not an exhaustive list.
- Noah leaves the family: chapter 18 (208-209)
- Casy is arrested: chapter 20 (264-267)
- Connie leaves the family: chapter 20 (272-273)
- Hooper Ranch, after Tom kills a man: chapter 26 (388-394)
- Ma says goodbye to Tom: chapter 28 (415-420)
- Al and Aggie announce they are going to get married: chapter 28 (423-424)
- Leaving the boxcar: chapter 30 (450-452)
Materials Needed/Preparation
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Student notebooks
- Optional: Betrayal Organizer
Estimated Time
Ongoing: 15 minutes per class session
Cumulative: 1 class period
Procedures
Warm-up
- Journal: Why was it so important to Ma that the family stick together? Do you think she was correct? Why/why not?
Ongoing
- Consider assigning students partners or small groups.
- Re-read the relevant section.
- ~Who left the family?
- ~~Why?
- ~~How did the family react?
- ~~Is the situation better or worse afterward?
- ~Pair-share
- ~Do you think the character betrayed the family?
- ~~Why/why not?
- ~Record your thoughts in your notes or in the Betrayal Organizer.
Cumulative
- Consider assigning students partners or small groups.
- Re-read the relevant sections (and any others that apply)
- ~Who left the family?
- ~~Why?
- ~~How did the family react?
- ~~Is the situation better or worse afterward?
- ~Pair-share
- ~Do you think any of these characters betrayed the family?
- ~~Why? Why not?
- ~Record your thoughts in your notes or in the Betrayal Organizer.
Options
- Assign students a short essay.
- ~Choose a scene to examine. Did that character betray the family?
- ~~Students should use the context of the novel to prove their thesis.
- ~~Students should consider the scene in the context of that given moment as well retrospectively (from the point of view of the end of the novel).
- ~Compose a letter as Ma to one of the characters who left the family.
- ~~What would Ma say?
- ~~Consider writing multiple letters penned at different times (e.g. before the end of the novel, right after the final scene, six months after the novel ends).
- ~~Consider having groups exchange letters and write responses back to Ma.
- ~Hold a 4 Corners debate
- ~~Whose departure was the biggest betrayal to the family?
Post Activity/Takeaways/Follow-up
Takeaways
- Students will see the departure of different characters in a new light. Not just from the perspective of the moment that they left, but from the perspective of Ma and of the broader goals of the family.
Follow-up
- Ongoing: use this exercise each time a character leaves the family.
Post Activity
- Use the cumulative activity options once the students have finished reading the novel.
- See Letters Home for a similar activity
Assessment
Ongoing
- Monitor student notes. What evidence do they use to prove their points?
Cumulative
- Essay
- ~What evidence from the text do students use to support their thesis?
- ~Did the essay stay on topic?
- ~How well was the thesis supported?
- Letters
- ~Was the letter(s) from Ma believable?
- ~Was the letter(s) from Ma appropriate to what her character would have said and felt?
- ~What textual evidence is used to support how Ma feels in the latter(s)?
- 4 Corners
- ~Assess student arguments based on the evidence they utilize from the text and how convincing they are.
Common Core State Standards Met
- Reading Standards for Literature 6-12
- ~Key Ideas and Details: 1, 2, 3
- ~Craft and Structure: 4, 5, 6
- ~Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: 7, 9
- ~Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: 10
- Reading Standards for Informational Text 6-12
- ~Key Ideas and Details: 1, 2, 3
- ~Craft and Structure: 4, 5, 6
- ~Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: 7, 8
- ~Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: 10
- Writing Standards 6-12
- ~Text Types and Purposes: 2, 3, 4
- ~Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- ~Range of Writing: 10
- Speaking and Listening Standards 6-12
- ~Comprehension and Collaboration: 1, 2, 3, 4
- ~Presentation and Knowledge of Ideas: 4
- Language Standards 6-12
- ~Conventions of Standard English: 1, 2, 3
- ~Knowledge of Language: 3
- ~Vocabulary Acquisition and Use: 6
- Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12
- ~Key Ideas and Details: 1, 2, 3
- ~Craft and Structure: 4, 6
- ~Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: 8, 9
- ~Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: 10
- Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 6-12
- ~Text Types and Purposes: 2
- ~Production and Distribution of Writing: 4, 5
