Chapter Seven: Bizzare & Unnecessary

I recently finished reading chapter seven in The Grapes of Wrath and was very confused. I could not figure out who the speaker was, but I read chapter eight and came to the conclusion that maybe it was Tom's Uncle John trying to buy a car. I realize that cars were not all that common back in those days; they were just starting to make their appearances into the world. However, to spend an entire chapter discussing cars and the way they sell a car was rather pointless and strange in my opinion. Although, I did find it interesting the way the author described what was going through the car dealers mind. Because I figured out the speaker was probably a car dealer, I just do not know his name. I thought it was neat how the car dealer was telling a salesman how to sell the car. He should start with the most expensive car there is and they'll want to get a better car than the customer had originally hoped for. Plus, the car that was on display was actually never for sale, as they would never get a good price for it. The salesman should always say the car was just sold. Therefore, I still do not see the main point in this chapter. Obviously with everyone moving out of their homes to go to California, cars will be needed. I just do not see why Steinbeck had to spend an entire chapter on cars, much like the turtle scene. However, the chapter did once again give me insight to how desperate the people were back in those times, so maybe that is the purpose of the chapter: to inform the readers. All-in-all, I found the chapter boring, and I struggled to get through it as the dialog was confusing and just the main idea of the chapter did not make much sense to me as I read it. Hopefully, the chapter will have some significance later on in the novel, allowing me to understand the purpose of this chapter.