Dreams and Epiphanies

The Joad family begin an epic journey with dreams and hopes.  Grandpa, for one,  imagines a life of ease picking  grapes and eating all the fruit he wants.  Rose of Sharon and Connie imagine a successful career as a radio operator with a new house for the new baby and ice.  Yet, along the way they learn harsh truths about their new reality from the cost of labor, discrimination, and suffering endemic to the human condition.

What is one dream or illusion that they have that is shattered or that they stubbornly hold despite all evidence to the contrary?  What is one epiphany or enlightenment they learn?  Is there a connection between the two?  

And Then There Were . . . : The Incredibly Shrinking Cast of Characters in Grapes

 During the Joad's odyssey to find a new life in California, many of their friends and family members are lost along the way.  Some characters like Muley Graves don't even begin the journey.  Others like Grandpa and Grandma die on the way.  Some like the Wilsons are too sick to continue.  Still others like Noah and Connie drift away from the family to parts unknown.  Others like Casy are arrested.  Like a horror movie, one by one the family members disappear.  By the end of journey only a remnant of the family and original party remain.  

What does the disappearance of so many characters tell us about a theme in the novel? Or about the individual characters?  Why do so many folks dissapear, die, surrender and fail in this novel?

The Violent Bear It Away

 Grapes of Wrath begins when Tom Joad, imprisoned for homicide, returns home on parole.  Near the end of the novel, in a shocking scene of violence, Jim Casy, the preacher who no long preaches -- now a union organizer -- is brutally murdered by the police and Tom attacks the police with their own weapon, probably killing one of them.  Yet, despite the fact the film is bracketed with violence, there are other moments of peaceful resistance as when Huston and Tom thwart an attempted riot and do not seek vengeance on the infiltrators. 

Is the novel taking a stand on violence?  Under what conditions does it flourish?  Is it ever justified?  What about things like self-defense, vengeance or political action?  Is violence inevitable -- or is there a better way?