16 January 2013
FLASHBACK: Teacher Kimberly Yeyna’s students get a full view of life in the 1930s.
By Tyler Demshki, Staff Writer
The Grapes of Wrath is a celebrated piece of literature; it discusses an important issue from America’s past (and possibly present) society and is studied by many. Yet how many of readers actually try living like the characters in the novel?
Kimberly Yeyna, an AP Language teacher, gave her junior classes this very opportunity via an extra credit assignment over winter break. In exchange for some coveted points, students mimicked the lifestyles of the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath. This entailed giving up all forms of technology, wearing only one set of clothes (except when hand-washing that set), taking only cold showers, not eating any processed or luxury foods and carrying everything one needed for the duration of the assignment in a small suitcase, wherever one went. Yeyna stressed this last point.
Students would need to do this for six days total and record their experiences in a journal, which they would turn into Yeyna once school resumed. Understandably, the number of journals turned in was not high, though the students that did participate had some memorable experiences.
“Having to wash my clothes every other day by hand was by far the worst part,” Noelle Goodyear (11) said.
Bad experiences aside, the assignment was a great learning opportunity. The students were able to get a brief glimpse of past hardships, which is a central concept in The Grapes of Wrath. This helped them better understand the message and theme of the novel.