[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4731]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           BIG READ, AN EXCERPT FROM ``THE GRAPES OF WRATH''

  (Mr. FARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, today my community celebrates the birthday of 
John Steinbeck, one of our famous native sons, born in Salinas and 
raised in and around Monterey Bay. At home in my district this month, 
the National Steinbeck Center will get the whole community to read one 
book together, ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' one of the best, well-known 
tomes by Steinbeck.
  The book is being read across the country as part of NEA's Big Read 
program, designed to bring reading for pleasure back into our lives. 
Since I am a citizen of Monterey County myself, I would like to offer 
my own participation in this celebration by reading the following 
passage from ``The Grapes of Wrath'':
  ``The people came out of their houses and smelled the hot stinging 
air and covered their noses from it . . . Men stood by their fences and 
looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing 
through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move 
often. And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men--
to feel whether this time the men would break. The women studied the 
men's faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else 
remained . . . The children sent exploring senses out to see whether 
men and women would break . . . After a while, the faces of the 
watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry 
and resistant. Then the women knew that they were safe and that there 
was no break. Then they asked, What'll we do? And the men replied, I 
don't know. But all was all right. The women knew it was all right and 
the watching children knew it was all right . . . The men sat still--
thinking--figuring.''
  This is Steinbeck at his best.

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