the text. They make wise statements, so they appear intelligent. Ma was smart in a natural way, not from education: “You can cook little stuff in a big kettle, but you can’t cook big stuff in a little pot.”Compare California to Kansas. On the first page of the text, Steinbeck describes the land and the animals, such as gophers. The first animals the Joads see in California are a rattlesnake (which Tom kills) and a dog (which gets hit by a car). But California was certainly a paradise, no matter how much evil occurred there. It was the “Eden,” which refers to the romance archetype once again. This California is described as a place where, “it’ll be different out there-plenty work, an’ ever’thing nice and green, an’ little white houses an’ oranges growin aroun’.” Although the terms ‘evil’ and ‘Eden’ seem to contradict themselves, there is a reason for the evil in California.The reality of California is best described by a man who was leaving the state: “She’s a nice country. But she was stole a long time ago. You git acrost the desert an’ come into the country aroun’ Bakersfield. An’ you never seen such purty country-all orchards an’ grapes, purtiest country you ever seen. An’ you’ll pass lan’ flat an’ fine with water thirty feet down, and that lan’s layin’ fallow. But you can’t have none of that lan’. That’s a Lan’ and Cattle Company. An’ if they don’t want ta work her, she ain’t gonna get worked. You go in there and plant you a little corn, an’ you’ll go to jail! ... Sure, nice to look at, but you can’t have none of it. They’s a grove of yella oranges-an’ a guy with a gun that got the right to kill you if you touch one. They’s a fella, newspaper fella near the coast, go...
