Messina, Chapter 7: Car Sales (Faller late)
Provided a YouTube video dealing with a car salesman getting hit by a car.
Gave an agenda; asked that we start with the idea of Machiavelli, ends justifying the means.
Summary of the Chapter: Brief, jumpy monologue between car salesmen; one man does “not have the well-being of the Joads / other families in mind.”
Voice: Someone with too much caffeine. Staccato. Not a great variety of sentence structures; had Wedzikowski read the quote from page 79. (Excellent look having Wedzikowski read this in his slang voice)
Dos Passos slide: Problematic, as it’s difficult to see the text; also, the year of his birth is wrong (1986?)
Discussed the car salesmen’s quick language—hurried, have to rush folks to buy their cars.
Described what is a jalopy.
· Gave questions about what would be a jalopy today…
· Showed photographs of farmers, saying that they didn’t know much about cars.
Asked class for skills, knowledge, business IQ…
· Kaleb…likely limited…
· Wedzikowski: Limited street smarts
· Kessling: Joads got lucky…relying upon Al as the head car mechanic.
· Eble: Challenged the guys on their assessments of country folk.
Messina: Shared ideas of logos, ethos, pathos, selling cars to the families of the Dust Bowl.
· Ethos: The men wanted money; didn’t car.
· Pathos: “Parents weren’t going there to get a car for someone’s sixteenth birthday.”
· Logos: Wanted people eager to escape the Dust Bowl to buy these “jalopies”
Messina: Asked about the morality of these methods.
· Rinn: Can’t blame the folks who ran the car lots.
· Cooper: I agree…
Candy Salesman. Had half of the group act as sellers, while the others were the buyers. Half of the group didn’t care about buying…the other group was trying to sell to them.
A discussion followed:
· Buyers: How did you feel the salesman was treating you?
· Sellers: What did you find the most effective? Did you have the needs of your own placed first or the needs of the buyers? Why?
· Wedzikowski: the Good and Plenty are a tough jalopy.
· Spaeth: Ryan made me do pushups.
· Cooper: With a bigger offer, there was a greater chance of me buying something…
A robust discussion about economics followed…selling techniques.
Eble: What if this was done pre-lunch? Nice discussion following…
Spaeth, Kessling (made a Grapes parallel), Eckley, Cooper, Schmitt offered comments throughout this reflecting on the activity.
Messina: List of questions for consideration:
· Why did Steinbeck feel the need to include this in the chapter?
· Machiavelli: Did the means to sell these cars justify the end result of successfully selling the cars? Why or why not?
· Are these salesmen evil? Where do these salesmen fall on Kohlberg’s Moral Development Stages?
· Do salesmen today follow the same tactics and techniques as the salesmen in The Grapes of Wrath? Are they effective, morally justified?
Discussion:
· Kessling: Steinbeck included this to present a picture of how desperate the chapters were. Intercalary chapters serve to paint a picture of the Joads’ journey.
· Cooper: Shows the entire society…
· Schmitt: Question… from the perspective of the sellers… (Messina answered…)
· Rinn: The least selfish are the poor. Joads are still willing to help. Only people willing to help are the poor. Others seem to be selfish. Salesmen are worried about making a deal.
· Spaeth: Have to look out for yourself; can still make it fair. Could still have sold in a way that both parties are getting something out of it.
· Rinn: Knock on capitalism?
· Wedzikowski: Brought up planned obsolescence…
· Kessling: Advertising, displaying a product in a way that people want it…
· Spaeth: Explained McDonald’s advertising versus the reality…
· Eble: Read a quote from Chapter 10…asked about purchasing power versus bargaining power…
o Wedzikowski: Things need to be sold between countries…they will hold out on each other. Haggling on a national scale. Food, water, goods. If one country has nothing that another country wants, they are screwed. Like with the Joads, salespeople can get away with what they want.
o Kessling: Leverage…the Joads couldn’t take it…salesman has a total upper hand with the leverage.
o Cooper: Salesmen have to have a “devious genius” and to be psychologists…had to be pretty smart to take advantage of people as they did. The farmers would have shot them (they could be provoked).
o Kessling: So why didn’t they shoot people?
o Eckley: They were pretty desperate…
o Rinn: They didn’t blame the salesmen for their problem. Like carpetbaggers going down South.
o Messina: Like the demand.
o Wedzikowski: Expected someone else to rob someone else. Apocalyptic…maybe humans by their nature are much more peaceful.
o Messina: Any more thoughts?
o Eble: Any thoughts about where Matthew can go with Kohlberg, the salesman, Grapes?
One problem: Your pictures were somewhat cursorily mentioned.