"Highway 66 is the main migrant road. 66--the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map, from Mississippi to Bakersfield--over the red lands and the gray lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys....66 is the mother road, the road of flight." --The Grapes of Wrath (p. 118)
We can read the The Grapes of Wrath from multiple perspectives--as literature, as a sociological or political study, or as an economic report on the poverty of the 1930s. We can also listen to the music it contains or view the art that it inspired. And we can look at its geography.
The Grapes of Wrath is a road book. It is an odyssey.
Boris Michev and Nij Tontisirin, from Olin Library's Map & Geospatial Information department, have created a Google Map that traces the Joad family's journey from Oklahoma to California along Route 66. Now you can better visualize the locations and see the distances covered in the book. And the shaded areas show the parts of the country that were damaged by the wind and soil erosion of the Dust Bowl.
Note: The Map staff will continue to add data to this map through the rest of the summer, and for those of you who want to create your own customized Google Maps, they will be offering NeoGeography workshops like the one listed here in the Fall semester.
This will be an extremely helpful site to use in my classroom. Thank you for the time and attention to detail that you are investing into this project.
-Aimee Noel
Dayton, OH
Posted by: Aimee Noel | August 07, 2009 at 02:50 PM
Cornell Steinbeck readers: Check out the new "Geography of Wrath" display in the lower level of Olin Library outside the Map Room. Details are at:
http://blogs.cornell.edu/theessentials/2009/11/20/the-geography-of-wrath/
Posted by: Lance Heidig | December 02, 2009 at 10:10 AM