Fiction reading is just a distraction from learning anything in our lives.
Fiction reading is just a distraction from learning anything in our lives.
This was an interesting story about a man and his religion. Joseph Wayne receives his father's blessing to move to Steinbeck's beloved California and start a farm there. After his father's death, his brothers follow him. Joseph believes his father's spirit also moved with them and inhabits an old oak tree. I think this is a cautionary tale to not believe in a god of our own making, especially if we believe we are that god's savior.
The incredible connection that the protagonist Joseph felt with the land and nature to the point where he found it difficult to know where one finished and the other began prompted me to think of what I have been taught regarding Australian Aboriginals and their bond with their land. I would love to hear an Aboriginal Australian or a First Nation American's perspective on this element of the novel as well as the novel as a whole.
My favourite Steinbeck novel.