Information Overload – Opinion, Hype or T.M.I.?

(This is Peaches, and I'm going to paint her portrait)

I have read and written about the book “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck at least four times. After the first reading, I was captured by that generation and the “Great Depression” era. Since that time, I’ve read both fiction and nonfiction books on that time period. 

After my first experience, a high school student at my church was bewailing the fact that “Grapes of Wrath” was required reading that year. She called it a filthy book, and said that the language was coarse and trashy. She didn’t understand why she had to read that kind of a book, anyway.

Her remarks prompted my second reading of Steinbeck’s novel. What on earth was she talking about? I didn’t remember any bad language. The book had inspired me and aroused my sympathy for the plight of the hungry and poor.

As I flipped through the pages, I was stunned. Sure enough, there were enough four-letter words on every page to make a sailor blush. Why had I not recalled such “filth” on my first reading? Perhaps because I was so caught up in the lives of the characters and their very real story.

By the time I finished the book, I loved it even more. So much so that I quickly forgot the student who disdained reading it and her remarks. The whole book is full of symbolism about life, about the roles of men and women in society, and the desperation that comes when everything you ever depended upon is gone.

When the husbands and fathers were jobless and down on their luck, they leaned heavily on their women who gave them strength and propped up their sagging egos. The mothers succored their children, managed to find things for them to eat, and gave their families hope. They were the backbone of society.

(Work in Progress "Peaches 'n Cream") The drawing and first layers of acrylic paint.

In the final chapter, the loose ends are connected in the cycle of life. A woman loses her baby because of poor nutrition. Broken and unresponsive, she wanders away from her family. Her breasts are engorged with milk, and she doesn’t know what to do or where to turn. At wits end, she comes across a man on the ground at her feet who is dying from hunger. Many men went without food so that their women and children could eat.

The forlorn woman lays down beside him and gives him her milk-swollen breast; the only sustenance she has to offer. By this we know that not only will he live, but that they both will survive to witness another day’s struggle.

"Bella Bellissimo" 16 x 20 acrylic on canvas (SOLD), but prints available.

Steinbeck recreates the Garden of Eden showing the dependence of male and female on each other, and in society’s ongoing battle for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Great literature and great art cannot be picked apart by focusing on that which is taken out of context. Without the whole there is no meaning nor purpose. How and what you remember when the last chapter is read is the measure of a book. It will rise and fall not on a useless hunting and pecking exercise, but on how well it is judged through the eyes of history and truth.

"Winston" Portrait of a Westie (SOLD) prints available. (mixed media)

Books open doors and minds with hope and renewal

"An Open Book" 16x20 mixed media

I’ve always been an avid reader. From the moment I discovered the Public Library and got my first library card, I’ve been in love with books; only now I have a Kindle, and I download my favorites.

Still, there’s nothing like the smell and touch of a good book. They open up the world to a whole new dimension of thought and feeling. Books expand our knowledge and build empathy for other human beings and other cultures. Books make us weep and feel the pain of someone else’s life and circumstances. Books build bridges.

I was in Sixth grade when I read “Les Misérables” for the first time. Some critics view it as a “sappy” novel, but what do they know. The book and the Broadway play have charmed audiences for generations. The words and the music touch people’s hearts. The story breaks through our crusty exterior and gives us an outlet for our own pent up frustrations.

"Through her Eyes" drawing

I adored “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. People in my church had more or less banned it from their reading lists deeming it too vulgar and too filled with curse words to be of any value. I heard their disdain long after I’d already read it and loved it.

I went back to the book and read it a second and a third time. I loved it even more after each reading. Sure enough, the swearing and the vulgar language were there. I was reading about poor farmers and transients in the 1930s at the height of the biggest depression in history. They were not just hungry, they were starving and destitute. They were uneducated, poor, and desperate.

"Emma's Birthday" Drawing

What I gleaned from this book changed my life forever. I discovered that it was the women who held everything together. When their men had lost their jobs, their livelihood and their self-esteem, the wives, mothers, and sweethearts lifted them up and encouraged them.

The women scrounged for food and sustenance. They nurtured their children and cast out fear. They gave their loved ones hope and a belief that things would get better. The last chapter clinches Steinbeck’s theme.

"Mother and Child III" Oil Brush Drawing 12x16 framed

A starving woman has lost her baby. She is filled with grief and engorged with milk, the wellspring of life. She weeps. She stumbles to find her way in a dark world. The first person she sees is a man sprawled on the ground in the last grips of starvation. She lies beside him and offers up her breast, the last vestige of nourishment within miles. He takes of this life giving fountain and the book ends reminding us of the cycle of life and women as the life givers and nurturers of society.

The book is classic! To have missed reading this book because of words and actions I or others may not have approved would have been tragic. My life was lifted and enlarged by the reading. I gained a new appreciation for my own significance as a mother of six children and for women everywhere and the contributions they make to the home, the family, and to the world.

"Broken" 11x14 mixed media, framed SOLD

Books are the doorway through which blind men pass and then they see. Books open up our eyes and our minds to the promise of our own potential. God bless the writers who enlarge our spirits and our minds with the fruits of inspiration.