Personal Philosophy

Kathleen Rivas

Mrs. Fujii

American Literature Honors

10 April 2014

Personal Philosophy

“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” –Charles Bukowski. Self-love is extremely difficult to have in our time, with the pressure of social media, the fashion industry or simply any other business trying to make money off of peoples insecurities. It is far more common to see people focus on the smaller more unimportant things they have or don't have. For example, the birthmark they have on their neck, not being as outgoing as Miley Cyrus, the Victoria's Secret model breasts that they don't have, the bit of arm flab they focus way too much of their attention on rather than appreciating the amazing qualities about themselves that they already posses. I believe self-love is an extremely important thing to have but not the easiest to attain. I believe, carrying insecurities everywhere like a duffle bag will hold you back from so much and keep you from experiencing amazing things and it is a lot easier to hate yourself it is much more challenging to love yourself which is why I believe people should fight for it, appreciate themselves much more. 

 I'm guilty of comparing myself to other women. "I wish my arms were as thin as hers" or "if I had straight long hair I'd be ten times more attractive" it is easier to put yourself down and focus on the things you dislike about yourself rather than the things you love, it really is. I found myself doing this so much, it became a force of habit it. It was ingrained in my mind when I went shopping it restricted me from purchasing clothing items because I didn't look a certain way, when I would eat which was two times (on a good day), everywhere I went I took my self-loath with me. The way I looked and the way I acted became everything to me. I wished to be someone else just as badly if not more than other peoples desire to know if god really existed. The amount of hate I had for myself was immense, I was jealous of people who could walk around with their shoulders back, and their heads held high and I asked myself: why can't I? 

 I wish I could say that I woke up one morning feeling like Cleopatra but of course, that's not what happened. It took time to change my way of thinking before I could do anything. Once I had that down the rest came so naturally, I cut off the people in my life who put me down, I began eating regularly, I could look at people when speaking to them, and I found myself a job. And, I continue to do good things for myself, actually take care of myself. This seems like this happened in a few weeks (and I wish I could say it was) but self-love is a long process. I went from "treat yo self" to "my arms need to like not" for a long period of time. It was battle between myself and I'm glad I went through it because I can learn about myself, love, enjoy life and I'm glad I'm not where I used to be. 

 We live in world where is is more socially acceptable to point out people flaws an insecurities like we do to ourselves than to teach eachother to love ourselves,  and appreciate eachother. We label any sort of confidence "cockiness", put eachother down and then complain about it. There is no other saying better than "be the change you wan to be in the world" because people need to know they're appreciated, you'll never know what that one compliment or telling that one person how amazing they are will change them. 

Family/Unity (D)

The family in the beginning of their journey after Tom had been released out of jail and reunited with his family the family felt whole again. Also, Tom brought Jim Casey with him who had previously been a preacher and their strong faith became even stronger with a "preacher" by their side. The Joads rely on Casey whenever something goes wrong they asked him at their first meal together to say grace and if someone isn't feeling well they ask him to pray. They rely on Jim Casey for religious guidance.

 The idea of the family being unified has changed since embarking on their journey because in the beginning when Tom proposes that half of the family should go on forward to have some sort of money by the time the second half of the family arrives in California and Ma' gets hysterical. She can't imagine the family being separated again. Since the Joads have left California a lot of people have been left behind but in chapter 20 the Joads family is just a continuation of the family losing the need to be together. Toms hits an officer over the head and Casey takes the blame for it and gets arrested, the family loses their sense of religion. Connecting this back to biblical illusions, JC representing Jesus Christ being crucified and then being resurrected, te reader can make the prediction that Casey might come back. The person who seemed the most affected by JC's leaving is Uncle John, he starts drinking heavily to numb himself from losing that religious security, “when I'd get to hurtin’ inside so I got to get drunk” (269). As the Joads get closer to California and farther from Oklahoma, they don't feel as strongly about keeping the family together as they did in the beginning because Connie also is left behind in this chapter and with family and religious security gone the Joads begin to rely on themselves more, turning point for the rest of the Joads journey. 

Okie Community Laws (cont.)

CRule #2: 

This rule played a huge role in these communities because although the rules were never stated on a document they were common sense and it is obvious that if people and entire families are willing to leave what they have always known and the comfort of their home and  travel thousands of miles to sustain their family then it is rude to bring up the sad truth/past. Their goal was to encourage people to move forward and it would be easy to see as to why bringing up the past while noving forward would cause problems 

Rule #9:

This rule plays a huge role in if someone is extremely sick and org any that can overrule and other rule and have their needs taken care of and this also goes over the right to be heard and to speak. This could also potentially play a huge role and it could just be Steinbeck forshadowig Rose or Sharon's baby "needs"

Okie Community Laws (A)

1. The right of privacy in the tent 

2. The right to keep the past black hidden in the heart

3. The right to talk and to listen 

4. The right to refuse help 

5. The right to accept help 

6. The right to offer help or accept it  

7. The right of the hungry to be fed

8. the right of son to court and the daughter to be courted 

9. The rights if the pregnant and the sick to overrule all other rights 

10. The right (if any laws be broken) to fight and/or be punished with ostracism 

the feels

"And because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a new mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared their lives, their food, and the things they hoped for in the new country" (193)

I chose chose this quote because I can relate to this pretty well and it stands out to me form te other passages I have read in The Grape of Wrath this far. In chapter 17 narrator is describing how families have left everything behind and they all have nothing and completely changed their way of living, try became migrants for now, not farmers. I don't have any family in the US, which is why I really liked this because in the US people don't trust eachother so easily, it is not as common for people to know their neighbors and if someone Is hitchhiking, somone dropped their grocers on the sidewalk, or someone needs any kind of help the first thing people think is "should i help them? Am I going to be safe?" It's about themselves. Always looking out for yourself. 

Where my family is from everyone knows eachother, it's comfortable my grandma will let me walk to the grocery a couple blocks away. Parents aren't scared to let their children go out at night. The few blocks are like a small community like the community the people migrating to California are doing. It is scary being in a country alone and your family is only four people big, it is difficult, but you learn to appreciate what you have. Like, the people making their way to California if someone is low on something then another family will gladly share what they have because they are in the same situation. It is important to help one another and I've seen this far The Grapes of Wrath shows how being compassionate towards others is important, many of te things Joads have overcome were by the helpin hand of someone actually willing to help. The importance of the kindness of strangers is huge in this book. 

Highway 66 (amac.us)

Highway 66, also known as “The Mother Road” began in Illinois, cut across eight states and ended in California. This route symbolized hope and freedom especially during the 1930’s when dust storms began ruining farmers houses and crops. The Joads began along Route 66 which during the early 1930’s was fairly new and did not have as many stops for food or gas. But, by the end if the 1930’s the road was paved and had many stops like places to get snacks, or just to sit down and relax for a little bit or for longer periods for time there were motels.

There were a few other stops like restaurants very couple miles and te most stops you would see were ga stations because of course there were many cars comif out a few years prior to everyone heading West and people needed cars to make this trip and gas stations. 

This route is significant to the Joads because where they had been living their entire lives had been struck by a horrible drought and it is repeated throughout the eleven chapters this far that even though this family has been thrown all these misforturnes their way they chose to move forward and have hope that they will find better “where it never gets cold.” Route 66 is significant to all immigrants for the same reason it is important to the Joads family, it has history and it takes everything out of them to travel across right states for work so there absolutely has to be work there, they have to believe that there's work there. People died on the way to California and fought battles to make it all the way across the 2,400 miles.

 

“Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves.” (31)

I chose this quote because the religion here is between the farmer as the land, it goes back and forth. I like this quote because it can be connected to many things that have been introduced in the novel thus far, but this is more of the way the farmers react to the land as it can be connected to in  ch 2. the turtle being hit by the two obstacles in its way trying to cross the road. The angry upset farmers not willing to quit although the land is no good would have to be the driver acknowledging the fact that the turtle is in the middle of the road but not slowing down or stopping continuing to ram into it knowing it may or may not live, it does not matter it has to go somewhere, careless of how the turtle will be thinking about themselves. The farmer knows the land has given all it can but will not jive up. The farmer swerving in order to keep the turtle alive is the one ho does not think about only themselves, even if it is just a “random” animal. Regardless of way both people decide to do, the land is dried up and worn out, the one willing to leave knowing that the land will do nothing but get worse is in the right and the one unwilling to leave because it is their land, their work will be the one who loses everything in reality. It is stubbornness and the way people react to the land.