Chapters 12 - 15

A few of you requested that I post these questions: GRAPES OF WRATH chapters 12-15 1) Why do we get two chapters in a row (11 and 12) featuring the abstract, larger perspective rather than the alternation between it and the life of the Joad family? 2) What is Highway 66? What does it represent? Is the number 66 in itself suggestive of anything? 3) What is the nature and philosophy of the business people offering "service" to travelers along Highway 66? What do the more alert travelers come to understand about the nature of that "service"? What anecdote does one such traveler tell to illustrate the meaning of the word "service"? What is the actual character of the "service stations" along the way? What is significant (and ironic) about the businessman's claim that "he ain't in it for his health"? 4) What does Steinbeck mean by saying, "The people in flight from the terror behind--strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever"? What is Steinbeck suggesting about human nature and its possibilities? 5) What is the significance of Casy's and Tom's answers to the gas station man who keeps asking, "what's the country comin' to"? Why does Tom tell him "You ain't askin' nothin: you're jus' singin' a kinda song ... You don' wanta know"? 6) What does Casy mean when he says, "Here's me that used to give all my fight against the devil 'cause I figgered the devil was the enemy. But they's sompin worse'n the devil got hold a the country, an' it ain't 7) Why does Grampa die? Why does the dog die? Is there something symbolic here? 8) Why are the "owners" in the Western states getting nervous? What do they perceive as the immediate enemy? 9) What are Steinbeck's observations concerning the meaning of "I" and "we"? What is the meaning of the statement: "If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results; if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you you forever into 'I,' and cuts you off forever from the 'we.'"? What does Steinbeck imply concerning the future of capitalism and capitalists? 10) 
What is the significance of descriptions of the interior of hamburger stands along the highway: "The walls decorated with posters, bathing girls, blondes with big breasts and slender hips and waxen faces, in white bathing suits, and holding a bottle of Coca-Cola and smiling--see what you get with a Coca-Cola"? How do those posters work? What do they suggest? Are they similar in any way to the yellow handbills? 11) Seen briefly through the windows of large cars on the highway, how are wealthy described? What are their main concerns? Why is it said that they meet in "lodges and service clubs" and "reassure themselves that business is noble and not the curious ritualized thievery they know it is; that businessmen are intelligent in spite of the records of their stupidity; that they are kind and charitable in spite of the principles of sound business; that their lives are rich instead of the thin tiresome routines they know; and that a time is coming when they will not be afraid any more"? What is the meaning of the cars that "whizzed viciously by on 66"? 12) Consider the scene where a family attempts to buy a ten-cent loaf of bread at a sandwich shop. What is the meaning of the situation? What different sets of values collide here? Why does the father hesitate to take the loaf for ten cents after learning that it costs fifteen? Why do the shop operators sell the bread and the candy for less than its actual value? Why do the truck drivers leave extra money behind? What happened to sound business principles?