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"By turning his anger outward to benefit a larger community, Tom makes a final commitment to his society. As readers, we sense that Tom Joad's greatest actions are yet to come. These future actions, we sense from Tom's rhetoric, will become an intentional protest against established authority."

"Tom's transition from the private to the public, from an inner, intuitive sense of morality to an outward expression of that morality, parallels the exemplary American man embedded in the rhetoric of one of America's first social rebels, Thomas Paine. As an augmentation of Paine's rhetoric, Tom further mythologizes rebellion and protest as the natural right of all Americans."

This article tells of Tom's transformation from a private man into a public one. The article discusses the similarities between the audacious Tomas Paine of the American Revolution to Tom Joad. Although Paine has nothing to do with business ethics or treatment of the workers, it is interesting to see the parallels between Paine and Joad. The article also brings to light how America's morals change over time.

Although Sparknotes is a very stereotypcial website on novels, it's still a very effective source of information. It makes blatantly clear the fact that the rich, aristocratic upper class is mainly responsible for the poverty and economic devastation in the country. The rich get richer at the cost of the destruction of the lower class. The workers are treated poorly in an effort to keep them desperate, which in turn keeps the rich people rich. Selfishness and greed, key themes in practically every novel read so far, is clarified and pointed out. The condition of the migrants is no accident, it's an intentional, deliberate plot to oppress them. Their only hope is through unity.

This article mainly shows how Steinbeck gathered his information that he later compiled into the Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck lived among the "Okie" families and talked to them about their struggles in California. He was hosted by the Weedpatch Camp numerous times, and Tom Collins was especially helpful in Steinbeck's work. Both men fought an battle to better Okie migrant laborer and family living conditions. Steinbeck's work was also influenced by some of Collins', who was an influential reporter himself

I think this is interesting, because by living with the people he was really able to get a feel for what he was writing. Instead of writing from a 3rd person point of view, he wrote from a member of the migrant class. This creates a deep personal connection, as opposed to an outside perspective.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896, the namesake and second cousin three times removed of the author of the National Anthem. Fitzgerald's given names indicate his parents' pride in his father's ancestry. His father, Edward, was from Maryland, with an allegiance to the Old South and its values.

An intresting summery of Fitzgeralds life, while reading I could not help but notice all the similarties between his person life and the characters in The Great Gatsby, for example his dropping out of a prestigious school such as princeton and joining the army, where seems very similiar to what Gatsby did or his family living off of inharitance such as he family did, much like Tom and Daisy.

"Fitzgerald resented that Zelda mined their marriage for material, as he himself had done in "Tender is the Night."

This source describes F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, and the relationship between them. Zelda was troubled woman who suffered from mental illness. No matter her mental state, she knew she was Fitzgerald's muse, finally giving in and marrying him after he became successful enough. While the marraige was not long lasting and Zelda eventually wasted away in a mental hospital, she was a large influence in the themes of the Great Gatsby. Her reluctance to marry a working-class man parallels Daisy, who decided to marry Tom in order to pursue a better appearance.

shows the moral decay of the rich in the great gatsby (appearance vs reality)

In any event, Gatsby, unprepared for life in the elite class, repeatedly misread people and events. By contrast, his protagonist Tom was in his element, read people and events accurately, and reacted toward his own survival. Gatsby doesn't have the advantages that those born into the higher classes have. He had to start on his own with no background.