Blog #6

Choose one character from The Grapes of Wrath and list four important quotes said by or written by this character. Explain what you believe these quotes reveal about the character.

The preacher
"Every kid got a turtle in some time or other. Nobody can't keep a turtle though. They work at it and work at it, and at last one day they get out and away they go-off somewheres. It's like me. I wouldn't take the good ol' gospel that was just layin' there in my hand. I got to be pickin' at it an' workin' at it until I got it all tore down. Here I got the sperit sometimes an' nothin' to preach about. I got the call to lead the people, an' no place to lead em'."
I think this was a really good quote because it shows a lot of things about the actions the preacher does. I think having the whole comparison with the turtle at first made you go, "Uhh.. what?" but in a way, you respect the preacher a little more for at least noticing the trends he was following. Instead of blindly following something, he turned his whole life around by thinking about it and going, "I was pickin' and workin' at it, but didn't know what to preach about." In this sense, I like that he observed that about himself and changed that to better fit his need.

"Goin' someplace. That's right, he's goin' someplace. Me-I don't know where I'm goin'. Tell you what-I use ta get the people jumpin' an' talkin' in tongues, an' glory-shoutin' till they just fell down an' passed out."
I thought this was a short segment about the direction that he wanted to go. This is more of a future thought or like an insight on the future because it seemed like the preacher had a new idea and he was in the middle of testing that idea. I'm not quite sure how to say this, but it kind of gives me a message that he wants to go in a direction, he just doesn't know what direction yet.

"I was thinking' about ol' Tom Joad when you come along. Thinkin' I'd call in on him. I used to this he was a godless man. How is Tom?"
This was sort of a small detail of the preacher. I was running out of quotes, but this when sort of made you think, "Does he know Tom Joad's dad?" I think it was interesting that he picked "godless" to describe Joad's dad. It stood out to me because I believe that the preacher was really big on the whole God and church thing, but he just wasn't cut out for what he did. Even so, deep down, pulling out that adjective of all things was a little different to me.

"Nobody seen me. I went off a line, an' I sat and figured. The sperit's strong in me, on'y it ain't the same. I ain't so sure of a lot of things."
I think it's cool that he knows about himself. He knows that the "Holy Spirit" is in him but he knows he's not sure of a lot of things. It's like telling people about what he knows, what he's not sure of, and what he wants to find out. I thought this was an interesting aspect of himself. One of the things I've noticed about some people and myself is that we don't often observe our own actions.