Personal Philosophy Statement - Beauty

Beauty is a concept that is often considered universal, concrete, and unalterable. A few years ago, after careful consideration, I decided that none of those adjectives accurately describe beauty at all. The parameters by which the general public decides what is "Beautiful" – roses, sunsets, and the like – are set in place by primal instinct. To believe that beauty is fixed is to create a world in which humanity exists only to serve these instincts rather than to use them to achieve a higher purpose than survival. To strive for a primal, superficial appeal is shallow, but to pursue a meaningful beauty is incredibly important to improving the quality of one's life.

When I was younger, I painted a lot of flowers. As an artist, I took joy in recreating the things that I found aesthetically alluring. However, I never once considered what it was about the natural world that made me wish to paint it. Curiously, the answer to that question can be found in the theory of evolution. Humans find flowers appealing because we have evolved to see them as a sign of a coming fruitful springtime. We surround ourselves in their colors, their pinks, purples, reds, and greens, because our subconscious associates them with survival. The only reason for us to consider anything “beautiful” is because we connect it to something beneficial. Once I realized this, I started applying more meaning to the things that I found beautiful. In the grand scheme of things, roses began to seem dull to me. There was nothing special about them anymore. Food is plentiful in the twenty-first century and I had no reason to maintain the intense drive to acquire it. Rather, I began to better appreciate the sight of a friendly face or a warm meal. These visuals meant something important to me, something really significant, something completely superior to my already satisfied need to live long enough to reproduce. Life became more enjoyable because I could find beauty in everything; no longer did I have to go to a garden or a forest to experience it, since it could be found in every aspect of my daily life.

To this day, I find motivation in the pursuit of beauty. It makes me feel fulfilled to know that I’m aware of my instincts and thus able to use them to my advantage rather than being a slave to them. Humans have the unique ability to override their natural inclinations for their benefits. Understanding this concept is what ultimately separates us from animals. I would consider it beautiful.

Rules of the Camps - chapters 16-19 - Letter A

Rules of the Camps

1. Respect the privacy of other campers.
2. Never ask about other campers' pasts.
3. Allow other campers to speak their minds.
4. If another camper wishes to speak their mind, listen.
5. Offer help when another camper is in need and you are in a position to aid them.
6. If another camper wishes to refuse your help, do not push them to accept it.
7. Respect the rights of others to accept help.
8. Respect the rights to courtship held by the sons and daughters of the camps.
9. Do not foul the drinking water
10. Do not eat food near those who are hungry.
11. If you have excess to food to offer to someone who needs it, do so.

Any who break these rules are subject to death or ostracization from the camps.

Rules 5 and 6 create an environment that is beneficial to all of the campers and harms no one. Rule 5 is simple: offer help when you can. This rule, while seemingly detrimental to the one who is forced to offer the help, is ultimately helpful to both parties. By by the helper, one supports this rule. They force themselves to follow the rule, and in doing so, make it more likely that others will follow the rule. Like Steinbeck says, this is a sort of insurance. By helping other campers, you ensure that they will help you when you need it. It is the epitome of the golden rule: "do unto others as you would have done unto you." This way, the camps work smoothly, and by embracing this rule, the campers quickly create for themselves a comfortable environment to live in. They help others, and are helped when they need aid. 

A camper might not always be in a position in which it is favorable to help someone else. This is where the sixth rule comes in. The sixth rule says that anyone is allowed to refuse help if they don't want it. The intent of this rule is to create another kind of insurance, one where no one has to give too much. The fifth rule creates an environment of mutual giving, and the sixth rule makes sure that that environment is not detrimental to anyone. When one of the campers refuses help from another, they show the person offering the help that they do not need too much help. In fact, the one receiving the help could use the help. Whatever they're doing, the odds are that someone's assistance would benefit them. However, by refusing this assistance, whether it's because they can do it themselves or the benefit they would receive is only negligible, they show the extent to which they would be willing to help if the roles were reversed. By only allowing themselves to receive so much help, they show that that is the exact amount of help that others should be willing to receive from them.

These rules also connect to the idea of pride. Having recently been removed from their lives' works, many of the farmers in the camps are desperate to hold onto any semblance of pride they can maintain. Here, the golden rule comes into play again. By agreeing to not injure the pride of others too much, one guarantees that their pride will remain intact. Refusing help is a direct way to keep hold of one's pride in themselves. Having rule 6 allows the farmers to keep their self-confidence by reinforcing the belief that they can do some things by themselves. It reminds them that they are not children, and that they do not need to be aided by someone or something more powerful than themselves in everything they do. 

Circularity - Chapters 16-19 - Letter H

The lives of the Migrant farmers are ever repeating because of the common goal that all the farmers share. They all share the same dream, so they all work with each other and create valuable communities, again and again. Steinbeck uses this repetition to cement in his readers' minds the belief that these kinds of mutually beneficial communities are the natural result of hardship. In any system in which a group must face a common problem, Steinbeck proposes that the group will bond within itself and create a community, or as he calls it in chapter 17, a "world." He demonstrates this bonding in a quote near the beginning of the chapter: "In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream"(193). Steinbeck illustrates a strongly connected group of people, specifically "in the evening." He chooses to have these connections occur during the nighttime because it is a time of day most closely associated with danger and the darker parts of humanity. Bad things happen at night, and in the face of these bad things, the people facing them unite. They all have the same dream, to move West, and that dream brings them together. By helping others achieve this dream, they ensure that they will be helped as well; "A kind of insurance developed in these nights. A man with food fed a hungry man, and thus insured himself against hunger"(195). Steinbeck suggests that there is nothing unnatural about these people's willingness to help each other. At first glance, it might seem strange that one would sacrifice something of their own to help another, but in reality, these people are helping themselves by helping others. It instills in other people a willingness to help, so that when one needs help they can get it. These acts of humanity are not some unique, anomalous happenstance, but rather the natural progression of self-interest.

The Oversoul - Chapters 11-15 - letter H *

One of the key tenets of the transcendentalist movement is the concept of the oversoul – the idea that all of humanity is bonded in a singular soul that takes the place of God. Steinbeck offers a less literal interpretation of this idea. Steinbeck presents the opinion that there is solid proof that Humanity is as one; While our opinions may differ and what we fight and die for may be strange and foreign to others of our species, Steinbeck writes that it is the very will to fight and die that unites us. When Grandpa Joad dies in Chapter 13, his dream of moving west outlives him, Steinbeck's way of proving to the reader the existence of the transcendental oversoul. After His death, Casy tells the company that the whole time Grandpa Joad was with them, he knew he was going to die. Even so, Grandpa continued to tell the family about his wild dreams for California, reflecting the hopes of everyone around him. Grandpa's dreams live on in the thoughts of the other family members. Steinbeck orchestrates this event in order to draw a parallel to humanity as a whole. Although our lives might be too short to achieve the things we want for the world, we can expect our desires to be fulfilled by future generations who have been inspired by our efforts. According to Steinbeck, this is evidence enough that these desires are not simply individual wants, but rather the aspirations of the whole of humanity. A living thing, a "soul" in this case, desires things for its benefit. When an individual knows that they will die before the fulfillment of their desires, yet continues to strive for them anyway, there must be a larger driving force, a bigger "soul" that that individual is part of. By this logic, humans are simply the cells of the larger organism called Humanity.

Dear Diary - Chapters 11-15 - letter C

Dear Diary,

I just can't stand them shitheels. it damn near breaks my heart to see them comin' an' goin', payin' so easy  and refusin' to accept the change, all the while poor old migratin' families can't even bring 'emselves to accept my and Al's charity. We got our usual income of shitheels today, buying our mos' expensive pies and payin' the juke box generously. We always seem to get that one family though, the one that I can barely seem to look at. Today it was a man, his wife, and their two lil' boys with 'em. The Man asks to use the hose, so i let him, keepin' an eye on him of course. As much sympathy as I feel, caution is often too wise in the middle of the desert. They finish honestly, o' course, then come in an' try to buy from me jus' a loaf of bread. I tells 'em it's fifteen cents for just the loaf,  but he asks if i can cut down the bread to get him to ten. I'll admit I got a little hesitant – the bread truck's not gonna be comin' for a few days now – but Al near ordered me to give it to 'em. I get a little unsure about givin' things away nowadays. You can only do so much charity. I tell 'im, the man, that I can give the whole loaf to 'im for just ten. He refuses at first; how he can keep that pride about 'im while those two shitheels eat their desserts off in the corner I find remarkable. I admire 'im for it. Too many of these migrants come 'round hopin' to skimp on their bills. I sell him the whole for just 10 cents, and give 'im two candies for the boys. It sickens me, these days, that some men can go 'round payin' for whatever they want an' havin' the nerve to judge these people. Good people caught in a bad situation, is all I say. Good people.

Pride - Chapters 1-10 - Letter F *

The concept of pride is consistently present throughout the first 10 chapters of The Grapes Of Wrath. One of the first ways that Steinbeck explores the idea is by spending almost all of chapter 5 describing the connection between the Oklahoman farmers and their land. Their pride tethers them to the earth, and they hold onto their pride because it's the only thing that they have. This ends up making their displacement all the more painful.

"If [a man] owns property only so he can walk on it and handle

it and be sad when it isn't doing well, and feel fine when the rain falls on it,

that property is him, and some way he's bigger because he owns it.

Even if he isn't successful he's big with his property"(37)

Steinbeck illustrates how the proud farmers of Oklahoma have built up their pride so much that being forced off of it is incredibly damaging to them. They've spent years building this connection with their land only to have it stripped from them, leaving them small and helpless. The banks are taking away not only their land, but parts of their soul and certainly most or all of their social status. This incredible attachment leads to both denial and wrath from the farmers. In Chapter 6, Muley Graves, a friend of Tom and Casy's, professes his will to die for his land. His assertion that the land is part of him leads him to become angry and violent, and he even decides that his pride  is more important than his very life.

"If on'y they didn't tell me i got to get off, why, I'd prob'y be in 

California right now a-eatin' grapes an' a-pickin' an orange when I wanted.

But them sons-a-bitches says I got to get off – an', Jesus Christ, a man can't, 

when he's tol' to!"(47)

Muley Graves is so concerned with his pride that he's willing to die for it, but it's not necessarily all because he has to sacrifice his land. What bothers him is that he has to sacrifice it at the behest of someone else: the banks. Muley refuses to let his life choices be defined by some monster that steals from honest farmers like himself. He knows that the land is not fit for working, but his pride and sense of individuality are more important to him than simply doing whatever is convenient.

The Book of Job - Letter I - Chapters 1-10 *

The Grapes of Wrath draws several parallels between the biblical character of Job and the Joad family to show the value of believing in one's own spirit. In the bible, Job is a respectable believer in God who exemplifies the seven heavenly virtues. In response to a challenge by Satan, God allows Job to undergo several trials to assure him of his loyalty to God. Like the Joads, Job loses nearly everything that he finds valuable. However, He retains his faith and continues to believe that God will do what is right. The Joads have a similar experience, but what's significant about their plight is that their faith is found less in God and more in the human spirit, the existential idea of the Oversoul. Casy Jones, who is in fact the family's religious guidance, tells them as much. Jones says to Tom upon meeting him, "maybe it's all men an' all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit" (24).  The man that guides the Joads in matters of spirituality renounces the biblical concept of God, saying that in the long run, what's more important is the recognition of the Human spirit as a driving force behind kindness and compassion. Casy is a preacher, but his God is humanity. In the bible, Job is tested to see if he will keep his faith in God even when he does terrible things to him. In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is tested to see if they will keep their faith in their fellow man despite greed and selfishness.