So since there's only one reading this week I wanted to talk about the age barrier in Steinbeck's Leader of the People. Throughout the novel you have the four male characters who represent various age groups. There's the young Jody, the impressionable boy with his childhood innocence, who enjoys hearing about all these great people doing great things and envisioning he might do them someday. Then you have Billy Buck, the young adult ranch hand who seems to be the living incarnation of the grandfather in his younger days to Jody. Carl, the father, is the responsible family man who lives in the here and now and doesn't dwell on things past and then there's Grandfather who constantly talks about his days of former glory. Steinbeck shows all the different generations and the way they interact shows how society views the different stages of life. Jody reveres his grandfather and finds his stories a source of comfort while Carl thinks they're annoying and just the wild tales of an old man who has nothing left in life. Billy seems to go about things with no opinion but it's implied that he find the grandfather someone worthy of looking up to and respecting. The Grandfather is the most heartwrenching character since all he has left in life are his stories. The theme seems to be, when your sole purpose in life is over what is left to do? The Grandfather is shuffled to different areas and unfortunatley his son-in-law can't stand him and it stresses his daughter out to keep everyone happy, the man has to know he's a burden. The only one he makes happy is Jody and even then there's a sadness in the Grandfather's stories because he knows he's nothing in this new and fast paced world.
Critical Question: What does Steinbeck intend to say with all these different men, how do their interactions uncover the main theme of the story?
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