Where are WE coming from, and how did we get here?

First Integrative Essay

Note: Your instructor may alter this or give a different assignment (McKercher prompt)

Using The Grapes of Wrath (and selected readings from the reader/C8 core wiki), we're trying to understand the roots of our current situation.

Here are some questions to think about as you're reading (your instructor will give you a topic to write on):

1) The problem with trying to understand the environment is that it’s very complex; any given issue or project has multiple factors, which are interdependent. That is, it's a system. The ability to understand how systems work, whether they be political, physical, symbolic etc is probably the most important skill you can develop in this course. Does the Systems Theory in Commoner's "The Ecosphere" and/or Macy and Brown give you insight into The Grapes of Wrath? Does it help you identify where we went wrong, if we did?

Readings

Donald Worster's three excerpts in the course reader give excellent background, as well a sense of what it was like to experience the Dust Bowl. (See also Dust Bowl Resources page.

Wiliam Reisner's Cadillac Desert explores how crucial the development of dams were to the West. (McHenry Library has the four part PBS series based on the book VT4840 also online. Episode summaries) Introduction. Chapter 1 includes John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War officer who was the first to explore the Grand Canyon by boat. White speaks of regionalism, an idea pioneered by Powell. NPR audio.

Paul Wartzman Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of The Grapes of Wrath Ch. 1
Ch. 3 on Steinbeck's reaction, (not required by most sections, check with your instructor)