family when everything has blown over. As she left, Ma Joad did not cry,
but rain began to fall. When she returned to the boxcar, she meets Mr. and
Mrs. Wainwright, who have come to talk to the Joads about their daughter,
Aggie, who has been spending time with Al. They're worried that the two
families will part and then find out that Aggie is pregnant. Ma tells them
that she found Tom and that he is gone. Pa laments leaving Oklahoma, while
Ma says that women can deal with change better than a man, because women
have their lives in their arms, and men have it in their heads. For women,
change is more acceptable because it seems inevitable. Al and Aggie return
to the boxcar, and they announce that they are getting married. They go out
before dawn to pick cotton before everyone else can get the rest, and Rose
of Sharon vows to go with them, even though she can barely move. When they
get to the place where the cotton is being picked, there are already a
number of families. While picking cotton, it suddenly starts to rain,
causing Rose of Sharon to fall ill. Everybody assumes that she is about to
deliver, but she instead suffers from a chill. They take her back to the
boxcar and start a fire to get her warm.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: The migrant families wondered how long the rain would
last. The rain damaged cars and penetrated tents. During the rain storms
some people went to relief offices, but there were rules: one had to live
in California a year before he could collect relief. The greatest terror
had arrived no work would be available for three months. Hungry men
crowded the alleys to beg for bread; a number of people died. Anger
festered, causing sheriffs to swear in new deputies. There would be no work
and no food.
Chapter Thirty: After three days of rain, the Wainwrights decide that they
have to keep on going. They fear that the creek will flood. Rose of Sharon
goes into labor, and the Joads cannot leave. Pa Joad and the rest of the
man at the camp build up the embankment to prevent flooding, but the water
breaks through. Pa, Al and Uncle John rush toward the car, but it cannot
start. They reach the boxcar and find that Rose of Sharon delivered a
stillborn baby. They realize that the car will eventually flood, and Mr.
Wainwright blames Pa Joad for asking them to stay and help, but Mrs.
Wainwright offers them help. She tells Ma Joad that it once was the case
that family came first. Now they have greater concerns. Uncle John places
the dead baby in an apple box and floats it down the flooded stream as Al
and build a platform on the top of the car. As the flood waters rise, the
family remains on the platform. The family finds a barn for refuge until
the rain stops. In the corner of the barn there are a starving man and a
boy. Ma and Rose of Sharon realize what she must do. Ma makes everybody
leave the barn, while Rose of Sharon gives the dying man her breast milk.
The Great Gatsby
Summary
Chapter One: The novel begins with a personal note by the narrator, Nick
Carraway. He relates that he has a tendency to reserve all judgments
against people and that he has been conditioned to be understanding toward
those who haven't had his advantages. Carraway came from a prominent family
from the Midwest, graduated from Yale and fought in the Great War. After
the war and a period of restlessness, he decided to go East to learn the
bond business. At the book's beginning, Carraway has just arrived in New
York, living in West Egg village. He was going to have dinner with Tom
Buchanan and his wife Daisy. Tom was an enormously wealthy man and a noted
football player at Yale, and Daisy was Carraway's second cousin. Jordan
mentions that, since Carraway lives in West Egg, he must know Gatsby.
Another woman, Jordan Baker, is also there. She tells Nick that Tom is
having an affair with some woman in New York. Tom discusses the book "The
Rise of the Colored Empires," which claims that the colored races will
submerge the white race eventually. Daisy talks to Carraway alone, and
claims that she has become terribly cynical and sophisticated. After
visiting with the Buchanans, Carraway goes home to West Egg, where he sees
Gatsby come from his mansion alone, looking at the sea. He stretches out
his arms toward the water, looking at a faraway green light.
Chapter Two: Fitzgerald begins this second chapter with the description of
a road running between West Egg and New York City. A large, decaying
billboard showing two eyes (advertising an optometrist's practice)
overlooks the desolate area. It is here, at a gas station, where Tom
Buchanan introduces Nick Carraway to Myrtle Wilson, the woman with whom he
is having an affair. Myrtle herself is married to George B. Wilson, an auto
mechanic. Tom has Myrtle meet them in the city, where Tom buys her a dog.
They go to visit Myrtle's sister and also visit her neighbors, Catherine
McKee and her husband, who is an artist. They gossip about Gatsby, and
Myrtle discusses her husband, claiming that she was crazy to marry him, and
how she met Tom. Later, Myrtle and Tom argue about whether or not she has a
right to say Daisy's name, and he breaks Myrtle's nose.
Chapter Three: Nick Carraway describes the customs of Gatsby's weekly
parties: the arrival of crates of oranges and lemons, a corps of caterers
and a large orchestra. On the first night that Carraway visits Gatsby's
house, he was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. When he
arrives, he sees Jordan Baker, who had recently lost a golf tournament.
They hear more gossip about Jay Gatsby he supposedly killed a man, or was
a German spy. Jordan and Nick look through Gatsby's library, where she
thinks that his books are not real. Later in the party, a man who
recognized Nick from the war talks to him Nick does not know that it is
Gatsby. Suddenly, after he identifies himself, Gatsby gets a phone call
from Chicago. Afterwards, Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan Baker alone. When
she finishes talking to Gatsby, she tells Nick that she heard the most
amazing thing and says that she wishes to see him. Guests leaving the party
have a car wreck in Gatsby's driveway. This was merely one event in a
crowded summer. Carraway, who spent most of his time working, began to like
New York. For a while he lost sight of Jordan Baker. He was not in love
with her, but had some curiosity toward her.
Chapter Four: At a Sunday morning party at Gatsby's, young women gossip
about Gatsby (he's a bootlegger who killed a man who found out that he was
a nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil). One morning
Gatsby comes to take Nick for lunch. He shows off his car: it had a rich
cream color and was filled with boxes from Gatsby's purchases. Gatsby asks
Nick what his opinion of him is, and Nick is evasive. Gatsby gives his
story: he is the son of wealthy people in the Middle West, brought up in
America and educated at Oxford. Carraway does not believe him, for he
chokes on his words. Gatsby continues: he lived in the capitals of Europe,
then enlisted in the war effort, where he was promoted to major and given a
number of declarations (from every Allied government, even Montenegro).
Gatsby admits that he usually finds himself among strangers because he
drifts from here to there, and that something happened to him that Jordan
Baker will tell Nick at lunch. They drive out past the valley of ashes and
Nick even glimpses Myrtle Wilson. When Gatsby is stopped for speeding, he
flashes a card to the policeman, who then does not give him a ticket.
At lunch, Gatsby introduces Carraway to Meyer Wolfsheim, a small, flat-
nosed Jew. He talks of the days at the Metropole when they shot Rosy
Rosenthal, and proudly mentions his cufflinks, which are made from human
molars. Wolfsheim is a gambler, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series.
Tom Buchanan is also there, and Nick introduces him to Gatsby, who appears
quite uncomfortable and then suddenly disappears. Jordan Baker tells the
story about Gatsby: Back in 1917, Daisy was eighteen and Jordan sixteen.
They were volunteering with the Red Cross, making bandages, and Daisy asked
Jordan to cover for her that day. She was meeting with Jay Gatsby, and
there were wild rumors that she was going to run off to New York with him.
On Daisy's wedding day to Tom, she nearly changes her mind, and goes into
hysterics. According to Jordan, Gatsby bought his house just to be across
the bay from Daisy. Nick becomes more drawn to Jordan, with her scornful
and cynical manner. Jordan tells Nick that he is supposed to arrange a
meeting between Gatsby and Daisy.
Chapter Five: Nick speaks with Gatsby about arranging a meeting with Daisy,
and tries to make it as convenient for Nick as possible. Gatsby even offers
him a job, a "confidential sort of thing," although he assures Nick that he
would not have to work with Wolfsheim. On the day that Gatsby and Daisy are
to meet, Gatsby has arranged everything to perfection. They start at Nick's
home, where the conversation between the three (Nick, Gatsby, Daisy) is
stilted and awkward. They are all embarrassed, and Nick tells Gatsby that
he's behaving like a little boy. They go over to Gatsby's house, where
Gatsby gives a tour. Nick asks Gatsby more questions about his business,
and he snaps back "that's my affair," before giving a half-hearted
explanation. Gatsby shows Daisy newspaper clippings about his exploits, and
has Ewing Klipspringer, a boarder, play the piano for them. One of the
notable mementos that Gatsby shows Daisy is a photograph of him with Dan
Cody, his closest friend, on a yacht. As they leave, Carraway realizes that
there must have been moments when Daisy disappointed Gatsby during the
afternoon, for his dreams and illusions had been built up to such grandiose
levels.
Chapter Six: On a vague hunch, a reporter comes to Gatsby's home asking him
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