Alive and Dead

Was anyone else particularly impressed with Steibeck's descriptions of alive and dead? How the farms are dead now that they are empty, about the man working the fields that are not his land, and how the grandpa was dead as soon as he left the land.

"There is a warmth of life in the barn, and the heat and the smell of life. But when the motor of a tractor stops, it is as dead as the ore it came from. The heat goes out of it like the living heat that leaves a corpse" (157).

"But the machine man, driving a dead tractor on land he does not know and love, understands only chemistry... When the corrugated iron doors are shut, he goes home, and his home is not the land" (158).

"He died the minute you took 'im off the place... He was breathin'... but he was dead. He was that place, an' he knowed it" (199).

Is it foreshadowing of more death to come or simply description in relation of the death of the grandpa?

Car Salesman

Does the car salesman have anything to do with the actual story line. I am confused. Please help.

Family Government

so how does everyone feel about the family government? i don't know, i think it's pretty crap that the grandpa still sits at the head of the "counsil" even though he is insane. also, the thing about old Tom and uncle Jon (i think thats his name...) sitting in the front while the pregnant girl stand on the bed of the truck...that is stupid. skrew tradition or whatever that is.

The car

Do you think that they'll make it all the way? The car is all falling apart, and it seems like something steinbeck would do (to make the car break down, I mean). What do you think?

The Family and things...

So in chapter eight Tom goes home and talks to his parents about being paroled from prison, his mother feels that he could be insane because she once knew someone with a child who went insane in prison. They also fear that he had broken out illegally and he had to reassure them that was not the case. So after that explanation...the point remains that when he came to the house no one recognized him...What does that mean exactly? How could someone not recognize their own son? Have they moved on and completely forgotten him? How would that make Tom feel?

Car salesman

So does the used car salesman have any significance other than to sell the farmers crappy cars?

Will Tom get to go to California? Or will he stay?

In the book, around...I believe Chapter 9 our characters find out that Tom might not be able to go with them because Al overheard people talking about Tom and how his parole wouldn't allow him to leave the state.
How many think that Tom will be able to go with the family with California? How many thing the latter and if so, what did you think Tom will do if he stays?