American Literature books summary

room, and they see a bat. Catherine prepares him for the operation, and

warns him not to talk about their affair while under the anaesthetic.

After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three other

patients come to the hospital--a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy from

New York with malaria and jaundice, and a boy who tried to unscrew the fuse

cap from an explosive shell for a souvenir. Henry develops an appreciation

for Helen Ferguson, who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on

duty. Catherine continues to stay with Henry every night, but Henry and

Miss Gage finally convince her to take three nights off of night duty--Miss

Van Campen has commented that Henry always sleeps till noon.

Book II, Chapters 18-24

That summer Henry learns to walk on crutches, and he and Catherine

enjoy Milan. They befriend the headwaiter at a restaurant called the Gran

Italia, and Catherine continues to see Henry every night. They discuss

marriage, but Catherine remains opposed to the idea for the time being.

They pretend to be married instead. Catherine tells Henry that her love for

him has become her religion.

When not with Catherine, Henry spends time with a soldier named Ettore

Moretti, an Italian from San Francisco who is very proud of his war medals.

Ettore is extremely boastful about his military prowess, and Catherine

finds him annoying and dull. One night Henry and Catherine lie in bed

listening to the rain, and Catherine asks Henry if he will always love her.

She says she is afraid of the rain, and begins to cry.

Henry and Catherine go to the races with Helen Ferguson, whom Henry now

calls "Fergie," and the boy who tried to unscrew the nose cap on the

shrapnel shell. They bet on a horse backed by a racing expert and former

criminal named Mr. Myers; they win, but Catherine feels dissatisfied, so

they pick a horse for the next race on their own. Even though they lose,

Catherine feels much better.

By September, Henry's leg is nearly healed. He receives some leave time

from the hospital, and Catherine tells him she will arrange to go with him.

She then gives him a piece of startling news: she is six months pregnant.

Catherine worries that Henry feels trapped, and promises not to make

trouble for him, but he tells her he feels cheerful and thinks she is

wonderful. Catherine talks about the obstacles they will face, and mentions

the old quote about how the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but

one. She says that, in reality, the brave man dies perhaps two thousand

deaths in his imagination--he simply does not mention them.

The next morning it begins to rain, and Henry is diagnosed with

jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds empty liquor bottles in Henry's room, and

accuses him of producing jaundice through alcoholism to avoid being sent

back to the front. Miss Gage helps Henry clear things up, but in the end he

loses his leave time.

Henry prepares to travel back to the front. He buys a new pistol, and

takes Catherine to a hotel. The hotel makes Catherine feel like a

prostitute, but before the night is over they feel at home there. Before

midnight, they walk downstairs and Henry calls a carriage for Catherine.

They have a brief good-bye, and Henry boards the crowded train that will

take him back to the war.

Book III, Chapters 25-28

After returning to Gorizia, Henry has a talk with the major about the

war--it was a bad year, the major says; Henry was lucky to get hit when he

did. Henry then goes to find Rinaldi; while he waits for his friend, he

thinks about Catherine. Rinaldi comes into the room and is glad to see

Henry; concerned, he examines Henry's wounded knee. He says that he has

become a skilled surgeon from the constant work with the wounded, but now

that the fighting has died down temporarily he has a frustrating lack of

work. They talk about Catherine, and at dinner the officers tease the

priest.

After dinner, Henry goes to talk with the priest. The priest thinks the

war will end soon, but Henry remains skeptical. After the priest leaves,

Henry goes to sleep; he wakes when Rinaldi comes back, but quickly falls

asleep again.

The next morning, he travels to the Bainsizza area, and sees the damage

caused by the war: the whole village is destroyed. Henry meets a man named

Gino, and they discuss the fighting. Gino says the summer's losses were not

in vain, and Henry falls silent--he says words like those embarrass him. He

says that the names of villages and the numbers of streets have more

meaning than words like sacred and glorious.That night, the rain comes down

hard, and the Croatians begin a bombardment. In the morning, the Italians

learn that the attacking forces include Germans, and they become very

afraid--they have had little contact with the Germans in the war so far,

and prefer to keep it that way. The next night, the Italian line has been

broken, and the Italian forces begin a large-scale retreat.

As the forces slowly move out, Henry returns to the villa, but finds it

empty; Rinaldi is gone with the hospital. Henry finds the drivers under his

command, including Piani, Bonello, and Aymo. Before leaving in the morning,

Henry gets a good night's sleep.

They drive out slowly through the town, in an endless line of soldiers

and vehicles. Henry takes a turn sleeping, and shortly after he wakes, the

column stalls. He finds that Bonello has given two engineer sergeants a

ride, and Aymo has two girls in his car. Exhausted, Henry falls asleep

again, and dreams of Catherine.That night, columns of peasants join the

retreating army. In the early morning Henry and his men stop briefly at a

farmhouse, eating a large breakfast. Soon, they continue slowly on their

way, rejoining the line of trucks and soldiers.

Book III, Chapters 29-32

Aymo's car gets stuck in the soft ground; the men are forced to cut

brush hurriedly to place under the tires for traction. Henry orders the two

engineer sergeants riding with Bonello to help; afraid of being overtaken

by the enemy, they refuse, and try to leave. Henry draws his gun and shoots

one of them, but the other escapes. Bonello takes Henry's pistol and kills

the wounded sergeant.

They begin to cut branches and twigs; in the end, they are unable to

save the car. Henry gives some money to the two girls travelling with Aymo

and encourages them to go down to a nearby village, Aymo gets in Henry's

vehicle, and they set out, now cut off from the main column.

Crossing a bridge, Henry sees a nearby car full of German soldiers. As

they travel, they begin to notice more and more signs of German occupation,

and they worry that they have been completely cut off from Italian-

controlled land. They proceed with caution; a sudden burst of gunfire kills

Aymo. They realize he was shot by the Italian rear guard--the Italians are

ahead, but because the rear guard is afraid, they are almost as dangerous

as the Germans.

Fearing death, Bonello leaves in hopes of being taken prisoner. The men

hide in a barn that night, and in the morning they rejoin the Italians. The

enlisted men become furious with the officers, and Piani is afraid they

will try to kill Henry. Suddenly, two men (battle police) seize hold of

Henry. They seize Henry because he is a foreigner, and in the chaos of the

retreat they intend to shoot him for a spy. When they look away for a

moment, Henry dives into the river and swims away.

After floating in the river for what seems like a very long time, Henry

climbs out, removes the stars from his shirt, and counts his money. He

crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train

that evening, hiding under a canvas with guns.

Lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the war, and

about Catherine. He realizes that he will be pronounced dead, and assumes

he will never see Rinaldi again. Rinaldi has been concerned he will die of

syphilis, and Henry worries for him. Exhausted and hungry, he imagines

finding Catherine and going away with her to a safe place.

Book V, Chapters 38-41

That fall, Henry and Catherine live in a brown wooden house on the side

of a mountain. They enjoy the company of Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen, who live

downstairs, and they remain very happy together; sometimes they walk down

the mountain path in Montreux. One day Catherine gets her hair done in

Montreux, and afterwards they go to have a beer--Catherine thinks beer is

good for the baby, because it will keep it small; she is worried about the

baby's size because the doctor has said she has a narrow pelvis. They talk

again about getting married, but Catherine wants to wait until after the

baby is born when she will be thin again.

Three days before Christmas, the snow comes. Catherine asks Henry if he

feels restless, and he says no, though he does wonder about his friends on

the front, such as Rinaldi and the priest.

Henry decides to grow a beard and by mid-January, he has one. Through

January and February he and Catherine remain very happy; in March they move

into town to be near the hospital. They stay in a hotel there for three

weeks; Catherine buys baby clothes, Henry works out in the gym, and they

both feel that the baby will arrive soon.

Finally, around three o'clock one morning, Catherine goes into labor.

They go to the hospital, where Catherine is given a nightgown and a room.

She encourages Henry to go out for breakfast, and he does, talking to the

old man who serves him. When he returns to the hospital, he finds that

Catherine has been taken to the delivery room. He goes in to see her; the

doctor stands by, and Catherine takes an anaesthetic gas when her

contractions become very painful. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Henry

goes out for lunch.

He goes back to the hospital; Catherine is now intoxicated from the

gas. The doctor thinks her pelvis is too narrow to allow the baby to pass

through, and advises a Caesarian section. Catherine suffers unbearable pain

and pleads for more gas. Finally they wheel her out on a stretcher to

perform the operation. Henry watches the rain outside.

Soon the doctor comes out and takes Henry to see the baby, a boy. Henry

has no feeling for the child. He then goes to see Catherine, and at first

worries that she is dead. When she asks him about their son, he tells her

he was fine, and the nurse gives him a quizzical look. Ushering him

outside, the nurse tells him that the boy is not fine--he strangled on the

umbilical cord, and never began to breathe.

He goes out for dinner, and when he returns the nurse tells him that

Catherine is hemorrhaging. He is filled with terror that she will die. When

he is allowed to see her, she tells him she will die, and asks him not to

say the same things to other girls. Henry goes into the hallway while they

try to treat Catherine, but nothing works; finally, he goes back into the

room and stays with her until she dies.

The doctor offers to drive him back to the hotel, but Henry declines.

He goes back into the room and tries to say good-bye to Catherine, but says

that it was like saying good-bye to a statue. He leaves the hospital and

walks back to his hotel in the rain

CHARACTERS’ PROFILE

Frederic Henry - The novel's protagonist. A young American ambulance

driver in the Italian army during the First World War, Henry is disciplined

and courageous, but feels detached from life. When introduced to Catherine

Barkley, Henry discovers a capacity for love he had not known he possessed,

and begins a process of development that culminates with his desertion of

the Italian army. Throughout the novel, the Italian soldiers under Henry's

command call him "Tenente"--the Italian word for "lieutenant."

Catherine Barkley - An English nurse who falls in love with Frederic Henry.

Catherine's fiancee was killed in the battle of the Somme before she met

Henry. Catherine has cast aside conventional social values, and lives

according to her own values, devoting herself wholly to her love for Henry.

Her long, beautiful hair is her most distinctive physical feature.

Rinaldi - Frederic's friend, an Italian surgeon. Mischievous and wry,

Rinaldi is nevertheless a passionate and skilled doctor. Rinaldi makes a

practice of always being in love with a beautiful woman, and at the

beginning of the novel is attracted to Catherine Barkley; Rinaldi's

infatuation causes him to introduce Frederic and Catherine to one another.

Helen Ferguson - A friend of Catherine's. Though she remains fond of the

lovers and helps them, Helen is much more committed to social convention

than Henry and Catherine; she vocally disapproves of their "immoral" love

affair.

Miss Gage - An American nurse. Miss Gage becomes a friend to both Catherine

and Henry--in fact, she may be in love with Henry. Unlike Helen Ferguson,

she sets aside conventional social values to support their love affair.

Miss Van Campen - The superintendent of nurses at the American hospital

where Catherine works. Miss Van Campen is strict, cold, and unlikable; she

is obsessed with rules and regulations and has no patience for or interest

in individual feelings.

Dr. Valentini - An Italian surgeon who comes to the American hospital. Self-

assured and confident, Dr. Valentini is also a highly talented surgeon.

Frederic Henry takes an immediate liking to him.

Count Greffi - A spry ninety-four year old nobleman. Henry knows Count

Greffi from his time in Stresa, and the two play billiards together toward

the end of the novel. Despite his advanced age, the count is intelligent,

disciplined, and fully committed to life.

The Grapes of Wrath

Full Summary

Chapter One: Steinbeck begins the novel with a description of the dust bowl

climate of Oklahoma. The dust was so thick that men and women had to remain

in their houses, and when they had to leave they tied handkerchiefs over

their faces and wore goggles to protect their eyes. After the wind had

stopped, an even blanket of dust covered the earth. The corn crop was

ruined. Everybody wondered what they would do. The women and children knew

that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole, but the

men had not yet figured out what to do.

Chapter Two: A man approaches a small diner where a large red transport

truck is parked. The man is under thirty, with dark brown eyes and high

cheekbones. He wore new clothes that don't quite fit. The truck driver

exits from the diner and the man asks him for a ride, despite the "No

Riders" sticker on the truck. The man claims that sometimes a guy will do a

good thing even when a rich bastard makes him carry a sticker, and the

driver, feeling trapped by the statement, lets the man have a ride. While

driving, the truck driver asks questions, and the man finally gives his

name, Tom Joad. The truck driver claims that guys do strange things when

they drive trucks, such as make up poetry, because of the loneliness of the

job. The truck driver claims that his experience driving has trained his

memory and that he can remember everything about a person he passes.

Realizing that the truck driver is pressing for information, Tom finally

admits that he had just been released from McAlester prison for homicide.

He had been sentenced to seven years and was released after only four, for

good behavior.

Chapter Three: At the side of the roadside, a turtle crawled, dragging his

shell over the grass. He came to the embankment at the road and, with great

effort, climbed onto the road. As the turtle attempts to cross the road, it

is nearby hit by a sedan. A truck swerves to hit the turtle, but its wheel

only strikes the edge of its shell and spins it back off the highway. The

turtle lays on its back, but finally pulls itself over.

Chapter Four: After getting out of the truck, Tom Joad begins walking home.

He sees the turtle of the previous chapter and picks it up. He stops in the

shade of a tree to rest and meets a man who sits there, singing "Jesus is

My Savior." The man, Jim Casy, had a long, bony frame and sharp features. A

former minister, he recognizes Tom immediately. He was a "Burning Busher"

who used to "howl out the name of Jesus to glory," but he lost the calling

because he has too many sinful ideas that seem sensible. Tom tells Casy

that he took the turtle for his little brother, and he replies that nobody

can keep a turtle, for they eventually just go off on their own. Casy

claims that he doesn't know where he's going now, and Tom tells him to lead

people, even if he doesn't know where to lead them. Casy tells Tom that

part of the reason he quit preaching was that he too often succumbed to

temptation, having sex with many of the girls he Њsaved.' Finally he

realized that perhaps what he was doing wasn't a sin, and there isn't

really sin or virtue there are simply things people do.

He realized he didn't Њknow Jesus,' he merely knew the stories of the

Bible. Tom tells Casy why he was in jail: he was at a dance drunk, and got

in a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the

head with a shovel. Tom tells him that he was treated relatively well in

McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. He even tells

about how someone broke his parole to go back. Tom tells how his father

Њstole' their house. There was a family living there that moved away, so

his father, uncle and grandfather cut the house in two and dragged part of

it first, only to find that Wink Manley took the other half. They get to

the boundary fence of their property, and Tom tells him that they didn't

need a fence, but it gave Pa a feeling that their forty acres was forty

acres. Tom and Casy get to the house: something has happened nobody is

there.

Chapter Five: This chapter describes the coming of the bank representatives

to evict the farmers. Some of the men were kind because they knew how cruel

their job was, while some were angry because they hated to be cruel, and

others were merely cold and hardened by their job. They are mostly pawns of

a system that they can merely obey. The tenant system has become untenable

for the banks, for one man on a tractor can take the place of a dozen

families. The farmers raise the possibility of armed insurrection, but what

would they fight against? They will be murderers if they stay, fighting

against the wrong targets.

Steinbeck describes the arrival of the tractors. They crawled over the

ground, cutting the earth like surgery and violating it like rape. The

tractor driver does his job simply out of necessity: he has to feed his

kids, even if it comes at the expense of dozens of families. Steinbeck

dramatizes a conversation between a truck driver and an evicted tenant

farmer. The farmer threatens to kill the driver, but even if he does so, he

will not stop the bank. Another driver will come. Even if the farmer

murders the president of the bank and board of directors, the bank is

controlled by the East. There is no effective target which could prevent

the evictions.

Chapter Six: Casy and Tom approached the Joad home. The house was mashed at

one corner and appeared deserted. Casy says that it looks like the arm of

the Lord had struck. Tom can tell that Ma isn't there, for she would have

never left the gate unhooked. They only see one resident (the cat), but Tom

wonders why the cat didn't go to find another family if his family had

moved, or why the neighbors hadn't taken the rest of the belongings in the

house. Muley Graves approaches, a short, lean old man with the truculent

look of an ornery child. Muley tells Tom that his mother was worrying about

him. His family was evicted, and had to move in with his Uncle John. They

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