The Big Both Ways by John Straley-Taylor Piechocki

The Big Both Ways by John Straley is about a guy name Slip and his life during the depression. Since there were no jobs available for Slip he decided to hitchhike to look for jobs. He was somewhat uncomfortable doing this so instead he decided to walk. While he was walking he met a blonde woman named Ellie Hobbes. Slip was unaware that this little, blonde women would change his life. Ellie’s car broke down on the side of the road and Slip offered to help her fix her car. Since Slip helped Ellie fix her car she gave him a ride to Seattle where he was going. She made a stop at an old house and that’s when Slip found out she had a dead man in the back of her car. Ellie told Slip they had to make one more stop before she took him further. They drove to a cliff and there they pushed the car over with the dead man in the trunk, Ellie gave Slip a gun and papers and said don’t get caught with these and they went there separate ways. Slip and Ellie ended up meeting again on a boat that Slip was trying to escape on and that’s when Slip met her sister. Beth, Ellie's sister, both grew up in Idaho. They both have been through a really hard life. Ellie told Slip she was sorry she brought him into this, but he was the one who asked for a ride. Slip soon found out Ellie was a red union worker, which probably was bad news for Slip.These two got in a lot of trouble together killing Ben Avery, getting tangled up with the police and running away from a crime. As the story comes to and end a police officer makes a trip to see them. He tells them he isn't really a cop anymore, but what still like to know what happened.He asked Ellie why she agreed to get rid of David Kept's body. Ellie said she agreed because she needed the informant list. The cop also asked who killed Ben Avery and Slip told him everything was an accident and he wasn't supposed to shoot him. The cop believed his story because it matched the evidence. After the ex-cop figured out why and how these two did everything they all sat and talked and soon enough their lives would continue on as if nothing ever happened.

This book has many things related to the world. It talks about Hitler and him forbidding race, Amelia Earhart, pearl harbor and Roosevelt's social programs. All of these affected out world today. But the main thing that had an effect on our world today was the Great Depression in general. It allowed us to see how easily things could change from good to bad. It showed us that we needed to work and get systems down in order for our lives to continue on the way we wanted them to. Although people were struggling at this time it made them work hard, earn what they wanted and appreciate what they had. Those three things are something people forget about sometimes and we need to remember them. The new deal and great depression have an influence on the Obama administration with it's attempt to stimulate the economy.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Georgie Doherty

The Grapes of Wrath starts out with the green and luscious fields of plants and crops. Then, almost suddenly, there was no more rain. The plants wilted and the crops browned. This was only the beginning of the Dust Bowl. The reader then meets a man named Joad. At first, he seems very mysterious and the reader is thirsting for more information about him. We finally learn that Joad is on a journey home from prison. On his journey home, he runs into an old friend, Reverend Jim Casy, sitting against a tree trunk. While they reminisce and talk about the things they have discovered in the last few years, we start to learn more and more about the main character Joad. Casy decided to travel to meet Joad’s family since he had wanted to see Joad’s father. When they arrive at the house, everything is gone. The people, their belongings, everything is gone. While sitting and wondering what has happened, they come upon one fellow who knows the family and he tells the two that the family has been living with Joad’s uncle. Joad and Casy then travel to Joad’s uncles home to greet his family. When they got there, the family was just getting ready to pack up and migrate to California. He gets reacquainted with his family and after awhile they get ready for the trip to California to find work. The book then goes on to show the hardships of migrating to find work, and how these people who migrated were treated. The people were no longer farmers. They were now “migrant workers”. Their most famous nickname, however, is “Okies”.

John Steinback uses a great deal of detail and imagery. In fact, in every other chapter, Steinbeck takes some time to forget dialogue for a moment, and describe what is going on. Sometimes he tells the reader exactly what he means, and other times he wants the reader to infer what he means by it. For instance, the book starts out describing things in great detail. Steinbeck describes things as small as the brown lines on corn leaves that widen with time because of how dry it is.

The point of view changes many times during the book. For the majority of the book, the narrator is speaking as an outsider talking about Joad and his family and their hardships. Then in between the chapters speaking about Joad, there are little chapter that describe what is going on outside of Joads life in great detail.

Steinbeck also uses symbolism in this book. For example, in chapter three, he describes a turtle in great detail. This turtle has its mind set on getting to where it wants to be, but is having a hard time. The turtle has to travel across the road, through traffic, and is nearly killed. This turtle is like Joad in a sense. Joad knows where he wants to be, but he is having a very hard time getting there. There are so many obstacles in his way.

In all, this book was very well written. The author had plenty of knowledge about history, of course, to be able to write this book. Not only did he take history into consideration when writing this, but he also used grammar and English very well. The dialogue was also very well written. He was able to put the accents and the way people spoke into words, and that is a skill that not very many people have. Steinbeck’s knowledge and skill made The Grapes of Wrath a must read.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

This book took place during the great depression. It was the dust bowl through the eyes of a little girl. Her dad was very stubborn and would not leave the area he grew wheat and would try and try again to grow the plant even though the seeds just got swept away in the dust. Her mother played the piano and she wanted to follow in her mothers foot steps and learned to play the piano as well. One day there was a bucket of gas burning left next to the stove on accident. Her mother ran to get her father and Billie Joe the girl telling the story took the pale and chucked it out the back door not realizing that her mother was on her way back. She burned her mother so severely that they had to feed her water by getting a sponge wet and dripping the water into her mouth. Her mother was also pregnant and the time and they were all very nervous for the baby. When the mom went into birth she died in labor and her baby died shortly after its birth as well. After this tragedy happened it was very hard on Billie Joe and her father. Her father began to build a pond because her mother had always wanted one. Even though there was a huge dust storm that had been accruing for years her father kept digging the pond even though it could not be filled. This symbolized the dedication and hope that all these people had. he was so dedicated to build this pond for his wife that had passed away he built it in a dust storm in hope that some day it would be filled with water. Just like the people that stayed and lived there had hope for there land and were dedicated to there land so that some day they could farm it once again. Another symbol in the book was when Billie Joe left the dust bowl and lived with her aunt but decided to come back. This symbolizes how important family was, these people choose to live in the dust bowl just to be with there family because the quality of life around them and things was no where near as important as family. Another major symbol in the book was Louise she moved in with Billie Joe and her dad and brought there family back together. She symbolized the regain of faith, some people lost faith for a while but then found it again. Finally the biggest symbol in this book was the dust. Everything they had, ate, and lived in was covered in dust. The dust was a very unfortunate thing and brought a very hard life to many people however the people that lived threw this appreciated there family and things so much more than people do today. The dust symbolized that even in the worst of times a good thing can come out of it and in this situation it was the great appreciation for family, food, and things that these people had.

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison is about an 11 year old little girl named Pecola who is living with the MacTeer family at the end of the great depression. Pecola loves Shirley Temple, and the Little girls that she is living with because she thinks they are the most beautiful girls in the world because they are white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes. Pecola believes that because she is black she is ugly and she believes that the only people who are pretty are white people, so she prays every night that she will have blonde hair and blue eyes so she can be as beautiful as the girls she lives with. When pecola moves back in with her parents her live becomes harder, her mother is distant, and her dad drinks all the time. Her parents often beat eachother, and her Brother Sammy runs away all the time. All of these events push Pecola to wish that she had blonde hair and blue eyes so hat she would be happy and loved. When Pecola gets raped, and impregnated by her father her life goes down hill.

Morrison uses alot of imagery to make the theme of the story more dramatic. the theme of The bluset eye is the struggle of young black girls to get along in soceity. some symbols of this are Shirley Temple who Pecola idolizes and wants to be like her so that she is loved. Another symbol of this is the baby doll that is given to claudia that Pecola thinks is beautiful, and the beliefe that only white women are pretty.

Morrison also uses chatacterization to make the story more touching. she is very descriptive when talking about both the white girls and the black girls so that the reader can get a picture in their mind about the way that Pecola views the world, she uses this characterazation to make the reader feel pain for Pecola when everything is going on, the use of characterization in the blusest eye is to show the difference between the way black people are viewed, and the way black people view white people.

In an Instant by Lee and Bob Woodruff-Kristen Field

In an Instant is about a man named Bob Woodruff who is a news anchor for ABC News. He met his wife in college. He was studying to be a lawyer. He was much younger than his future wife Lee, and never even bothered to think twice about her. Quite a few years after college, Bob, by mere coincidence, net Lee at a restaurant, and from there, they started seeing each other. The summer after the coincidental meeting, Bob was offered a job in Beijing, China to teach English. He was torn between taking the job, and staying back with Lee. About two months before he went to China, he went on a vacation to Peru with a few of his friends. Lee stayed back at home, a little disappointed because she was sure he was going to propose to her before he left for Peru. However, when Lee went to pick Bob up from the airport after his Peru trip, he got on one knee in the middle of the airport, and asked her to marry him. Lee of course accepted the offer, had a "quickie wedding", as they called it, and later traveled to China with him and they lived there for a year. When they returned to the United States, Bob was having second thoughts about becoming a lawyer. He halfway considered working in journalism back when he was still in college, and decided to check it out once more, just for kicks. it turns out that ABC News was offering a position, and Bob quickly took it. He did not start out as a news anchor of course, but slowly worked his way up to being anchor. Along with going all over the country to report the news, Bob was also required to travel outside of America. Since the war in the Middle East between Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States was just starting to culminate, Iraq was one of the places Bob would travel to quite often. Bob would often go to Iraq just to report the latest news on what was going on overseas. He would go to Iraq, and never come home with a bump or a bruise. However, one time, he almost did not make it home. He was riding with a group of Iraqi and American soldiers who were working together to preserve the security of Iraq. They all rode on a tank together. Bob and his crew of sound technicians, camera-man, and other assistants. Bob, being the risk taker that he always had been, decided that he wanted to get some film from on top of the tank while it was moving. He was told that it probably was not a good idea since the noise from the tank would be so loud that the camera would not be able to hear anything but the noise from the tank. Bob decided that he would try it anyway, and at least get some footage without him narrating. So he and his camera man went above the tank with the other Iraqi soldier. Suddenly, in the middle of the tape, a huge explosion went off throwing Bob, his camera man, and the other Iraqi soldier off of the tank. The other ABC News employees were down below in the tank and remained uninjured. Bob had gotten numerous large and countless smaller shrapnel lodged into the left side of his back and head. He was seriously injured, along with the other two men. They all wore protective clothing, but it did not do justice in this case. The tank was much to close to the roadside bomb to protect them. Bob and the other men were rushed to a make-shift hospital at an army base. They were in extremely rough condition, and doctors were thinking that Bob especially would not make it. Their families were contacted immediately. Lee Woodruff was in Orlando with their four young children on a family vacation (minus Bob). Bob was flown as safely but quickly as possible to a hospital in Germany where he could get better medical care. Lee went with few family members to Germany to see Bob. When she saw him for the first time after his accident, she was absolutely horrified. She cold not believe her eyes. To her, and everyone else, it looked like Bob should not even be breathing. He was unconscious at the time, and non responsive. The doctors in Germany however, believed that he would survive the injury with little brain damage. They did say that it would probably take years if he was able to fully recover. Bob would undergo countless surgeries before he was able to regain consciousness, and even more to begin the reconstruction of his back, neck and head. Miraculously, Bob's eyesight was unchanged because the shrapnel missed his eye by the smallest measurement. Bob's brain was also unaffected by the luckiest coincidence. His brain was untouched by the shrapnel as well. Lee and Bob would credit their faith in God for this miracle. It was indeed years before Bob was back to his normal physical health, and today he still has little side effects from his incredible disaster.
There was a lot of symbolism in this book, that was mostly displayed by Lee. When she first found out about her husbands incident in Iraq, she kept saying that her "general" came out. Obviously a general didn't literally come out of her, but to her, she needed to get organized, stay firm, strong, and take control before she lost it in front of her kids. She started making plans for her to fly home from Orlando, plans for people to watch the kids, plans for her to fly to Germany to see her bed-ridden husband, and many more small seemingly insignificant plans. She took control fast, and like it was something she was used to doing since the day she was born. Just like that of a general. Another symbol that was given by Lee was that she would always make a reference to putting her "face" on. To most women, this means that they are going into the bathroom to put makeup on. But to Lee, this meant that she needed to put on a strong, and happy face for both Bob, and for the rest of the world. There were news cameras all over the place in Germany and throughout the whole process of Bob recovering from his disaster that tried to interview Lee, Bob, and their whole family, and even neighborhood, that would inquire about an interview. Sometimes they would accept, but usually not. However, when they would accept, Lee would often speak with a confident tone to remind others that she believed that Bob would be just fine. She also admits to doing this for the betterment of her four young children, and for her own sanity. A symbol that both Lee and Bob share throughout the story is their love and devotion to one another. They believed that when those two things mixed together would be the best recipe for Bob's healing. They figured this out before Bob had even regained the ability to communicate. The trait that they shared symbolized the amount of love that they had for each other meant that they should always be together. This journey of love and devotion between the couple essentially made their marriage stronger, despite the weaknesses they both had to suffer.

The Grapes of Wrath

The book begins with a long narrative by John Steinbeck, the author, with the famous opening lines of "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth..." It takes place in Oklahoma in the midst of the Dust Bowl. The main character, Tom Joad, is released after four years in prison on parole. On his way home, he realizes what kind of shape the town is in, and has to hitch a ride from a trucker in town. After the trucker drops him off, Tom runs into his old preacher, Jim Casey. After talking, Tom realizes that Casey is different now, having given up preaching, and deciding to just "love people." Joad invites Jim to come home with him and eat, and the two men leave on their way. Every other chapter, there is usually a narrative with awesome uses of imagery and symbolism by John Steinbeck, which describes the coming up chapter. On Tom's way home, there's a turtle trying to cross the road. One woman driving see the helpless turtle and swerves out of the way, on the side of the road to avoid it. The turtle continues. Another trucker comes by and intentionally tries to run over the turtle, and succeeds in knocking it off the road. The turtle, beginning it's long journey across the road is picked up by Tom and he carries it to his house. This is very symbolic of the whole story, and Tom's part in it. When Tom and Casey arrive at his house, they realize that it is empty, there is a crushed-in side of the house, and cotton is growing everywhere it could be planted. Tom runs into an old friend, Muley, who explains the situation to the two men. Because of the Dust Bowl, many banks have foreclosed on the farms and force families off of their land. To make money, the banks are planting cotton, which all the farmers know will ruin the soil. The Joads had been kicked off a few weeks ago, and went to live with Tom's uncle, eight miles away. Tom, Muley, and Casey spend the night on the abandoned farm. Tom learns that Muley's family was kicked off their land also, but he refuses to leave, living off of the land and jack rabbits, he hides from the banks. Casey and Tom head to his Uncle's house and arrive by the morning. The entire family is surprised to see Tom there, considering he was supposed to be in prison for seven years for killing a man. He tells them he's on parole, and they let him out early. The family eats, and informs Tom that they are leaving in a few days for California, where there is promise of work and pretty white houses surrounded by orange trees. Al, Tom's brother, takes charge of the car, and they begin to pack up. Although Tom is on parole, he technically cannot leave the state, and holds off on telling that to his family. The family leaves, and when they stop for gas after awhile, they pull over. While they're getting gas, the dog gets run over. At another stop they make, the Grampa dies from a stroke, and a couple the Joads have met up with help them bury him. With a "fartin'" car, and many other troubles, the two families both go together, to their promised land of California. An important thing to note is that Grampa constantly talked about wanting to eat grapes from California, and how he would let the juice drip off his face. While in the car, the daughter, Rose of Sharon, who is also pregnant, reveals to her mother that she and her husband want to live in a town with the baby, and not live on a farm again.

Pa Joad talks with a man while they are migrating about jobs in California and finds out that the man's entire family died of starvation and that there are no open jobs in California. Pa, doubting this to be true, continues on with the family. Noah, another one of Tom's brothers, decides to stay behind, claiming his parents don't really love him, and leaves the family. After the grampa died, Granma now is sick also. She has hallucinations and sleeps on a mattress most of the time. Police also come and tell the Joads that they have to leave, and can't sleep there. The Joads are forced to leave the couple they helped behind, due to the wife's ill health. The police pull them over to do an agricultural exam on the car, while Ma Joad begs the police to let them go get medical attention for the Granma. Afterwards, they find that Granma is dead, and Ma lays with her in the back of the truck. Lacking the money to pay for a burial, the Joads are forced to leave Granma at a Coroner's office, and continue on their journey.

After being warned many times by returning migrants, the ideas of California life begin to cloud with doubt in the Joads' minds, as the family falls apart. They meet back at a Hooverville, full of starving people, and learn how things really are in California. Without any jobs, Tom asks why there aren't any people rebelling against the farmers, and is told that he could become blacklisted.

A farmer comes to the Hooverville looking for workers, and a man demands that the farmer give the families contracts and certain wages. The police are called, for a bogus charge, and shoot the man, and hurt a woman. Tom joins in the scuffle and hits a policeman to stop him, and Casey knocks him unconscious. The police arrest Casey and he is sent to prison. The sheriff declares that the Hooverville is going to be burned down. Uncle John, who believes his wife's death of appendicitis is his fault, is upset that Casey dies, and insists the family give him money for alcohol. After he leaves, the men wonder where Connie, Rose of Sharon's husband is, and some say they saw him walking south by the river. To keep out of trouble the family must continue on, and Tom has to knock his Uncle out to get him to come along, and they head for work. The Joads are turned down by some organized farmers with shotguns, are told to leave, and called "Oakies." Large property owners are afraid of the Oakies, and try to put them in their place. They also run the smaller farms out of business, making people unable to provide for their families.

Tom comes across a migrant-run camp where there are no police officers, and it is kept clean. The family moves there and tries to find work. We learn about the Farmer's Association that tries enforcing a minimum wage of 25 cents, and the man that tries to hire Tom tells him about it. Meanwhile, in the camp Rose of Sharon is told by a lady that she needs to be aware of the dancing at the camps, and that babies of sinners are born dead and bloody. Also, to escape the downs of a migrant life, the camp plays music and when they have money, buys alcohol, so that they can distract themselves from the lifestyle they are living. Many preachers give sermons that move people to grovel on the ground, and mass baptisms, which helps the migrants find escape.

The grapes of wrath begins to have an even more symbolic meaning, when the author talks about the vineyards of small farmers going bad and them being angry at the bigger producers. The Joads find work at a peach farm, and head out to work there. When they arrive, they find that they will only get paid 5 cents per crate of peaches, and end up making a dollar in a day. Tom sneaks into the peach orchard and comes across Jim Casey in a tent. Casey explains how prison was and that the farmers cut the wages to 2.5 cents, and that the people went on strike. Tom and Jim are caught by police, and one policeman recognizes Casey, calls him a communist, and ends up killing him. Tom is so mad, he kills the policeman that killed Jim, and runs off with a few bruises. The family decides to leave again and find work on a cotton farm and Tom has to hide from the police because his injuries would bring up questions. The Joads find good work on this farm, however they have to buy their own picking bags, and are cheated by the farmer's weighted scales.

The family makes enough money, and are able to live in a boxcar sharing it with the Wainwrights. One of the younger Wainwrights gets into an argument with Ruthie, a young Joad, and Ruthie reveals that Tom has killed to men. Ma Joad runs to tell him that his cover is blown and Tom tells her that he's going to organize the people like Casey. He wants to be part of "the big soul." Al, Tom's brother, also announces to the 2 families, that he and one of the Wainwright girls are getting married.

After days of rain and no work, Rose of Sharon goes into labor. Everything is beginning to flood, and her she is giving birth. Sadly she gives birth to a stillborn baby, and Uncle John is sent into the rain to bury it. After another day of non-stop rain, the family is forced to seek dry land, and comes across a barn. Inside the barn is a little boy and his father. The boy explains to them that his father is starving and needs food. Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon look at eachother, as Rose of Sharon makes everyone leave, and despite the man's protests feeds him her breast milk.

Throughout this entire book, Steinbeck uses a lot of symbolism and irony. He uses symbolism in the chapters of narration. For example, with the turtle. The lady that swerves out of the way could be the people not helping the migrants, but not trying to hurt them either, maybe the police. Also, the trucker represents the corporations and bigger farmers that are kicking out the little farms and migrants, intentionally hurting them by giving them smaller wages. He also uses a lot of irony in the book. The first lines begin with "the last rains came gently, and did not cut the scarred earth..." There was a HUGE drought and famine, people were out of work, and no one knew what to do. They hear about California and travel there, and the irony is, is that the end finishes with a flood. This whole journey has brought the Joads nothing but separation and loss, and the only positive thing that happens is rain comes. He also used irony to represent Rose of Sharon, nursing someone to health with the milk for her stillborn baby. It fit so perfectly with Ma Joad's ideals of poor people are the only ones that will help. A poor person, Rose of Sharon, is needed to help the dying man. No one else could have because he wasn't able to eat solid food. Overall, Steinbeck used a lot of symbolism and irony throughout his book, and these are only a few examples.

Al Capone by Allyson Nemior

Al Capone is one of the most famous "American Criminals" of all time. His name is associated with violence, corruption, and wealth. Throughout this book it clarifies the myths about Al Capone and the truth. Not only does it clearly explain about Al Capone and his life experiences it also clarifies terms such as Organized Crime and Mafia which were extremely important words during the early 1900's when Al Capone himself was the most popular. Not only did the book tell about important people during this time period it also told about the corruption in the American society as well as about the whole Progressive Era. Because of the way of life that Al Capone chose he encountered many different obstacles with the law, but this never stopped him until he eventually reached his final years during a jail sentence.

Al Capone was born in 1899 to two immigrants as Alphonse Capone, born in Brooklyn. He had six brothers and sisters. Al Capone's hectic and crazy life started when he had a son, Albert Francis. During the next few years some very important things happened. The 18Th Amendment was passed. This amendment was The Prohibition Amendment that banded all manufacturing, sales, and transportation of alcohol. Also the Volstead Act took effect. In 1921 Capone moved to Chicago where he worked for a man named Johnny Torrio. While working for Torrio, Capone got into some trouble. He was arrested for a DWI, carrying a concealed weapon, and assault with an automobile, but the charges were dropped. Also a man named Joe Howard was killed allegedly by Al Capone. Another man, Eddie Tancl, was killed presumably by the orders of Capone. After the murders Torrio went to jail for nine months and Capone took charge of the Organized Crime business, which included bootlegging, corruption, and murders. After nine months Torrio was released but wanted out of the business so he turned it over to Capone completely. Throughout the time Capone was in charge 5 more people were killed. Other members of different crime groups started to see the path that Capone was on and they tried to take his life in 1927, but failed. In 1929 a very historical event happened. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre was when 6 men were shot and killed allegedly by the orders of Al Capone. Al Capone was then arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to a year in jail. 1933 the Prohibition Amendment was repealed. After being sentenced to 11 years of prison for tax evasions he was transferred to Alcatraz Prison and then transferred to 3 different other prisons before his parole. During the times in jail Al Capone contracted syphilis. He was one of the very first people to ever be treated for syphilis with penicillin. January 25, 1947 Al Capone dies.

Al Capone's legend lives on for many different reasons. Ever since the death of Capone people have written books, articles, made movies and television shows about him. The reason that Al Capone is so interesting to so many people is because the stories just continue to be fabricated. No one knows the real truth about Al Capone and the crimes he all committed except Al Capone himself. Whenever the words Chicago, Prohibition, and the Roaring Twenties are mentioned Organized Crime and the Mafia are associated and with those two words the name Al Capone comes to mind. He is a legend that will never be forgotten.