I liked the first chapter of The Grapes of Wrath. Well, I like the entire book, but this is a good chapter. It's one of the filler chapters, and they are the chapters I like the most.
Why? Well, for starters, there is no dialogue in this chapter. In the other ones, there is dialogue in the Oklahoma vernacular, accent included, and it is extremely irking. I tend to be what you may call a "grammar Nazi", so seeing dialogue that looks like this:
"Let's see what the fambly wants ta do."
"Remember what Uncle John done last weeken'?"
- makes me mad.
... Okay, that isn't actual dialogue, but it looks like that. It's really, really irritating, and I kind of want to attack it with a word processor that has a spell check feature.
Other than that, I really liked the imagery in this chapter. I already wrote about that, I know, but the words made the setting really pop out for me. I always appreciate good descriptions because they add a lot to the story when done and used correctly, so that made this chapter fun to read for me.
I also liked that it was three and a fourth pages long. That was VERY nice.
The foreshadowing also made this chapter enjoyable to me. Foreshadowing is one of my favorite plot devices, so the foreshadowing with the farming families made me happy in a sad way. It's such a nice way to get the reader excited about the rest of the book and to get them to speculate and wonder what will happen next. That's why I like it.
Also, one of my favorite things about this chapter - and the entire book - is the history behind it. I'm a history nerd as well as a grammar Nazi, so reading historical fiction is something I enjoy. It's like getting personal with history, which isn't always as personal as it could be. So yes, this first chapter was a really good start to the book.
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