Grapes of Wrath: pgs. 1-65

JOURNAL #1
I found some of the things they did back then a little odd after reading these 65 pages. For instance, how they would kill somebody and find no shame in it (even though some people are like that today), but it kind of made me raise a brow when Tom said he liked the guy he killed, and he was drunk, but still...he said he'd kill him again if he came running at him with a knife again. Technically now, they would call that self-defense or something and the case would go to court for who knows how long, but back then, Tom only got a total of 7 years for killing a guy.
I did kind of find the part about the jail a little interesting because nowadays even, we waste tax dollars on feeding criminals and keeping them alive in cells, and it doesn't really teach them a lesson of any type.
Does anybody else think that the part about the family arguing with the owners was actually supposed to be Tom's family (a sort of flash-back thing of sorts) while he was in jail? That's what it seemed to be to me, but I'm not really sure.
These chapters also revealed the greed of people. We'll put hundreds of others out of work and out of food before we starve or have to loose a penny. I kind of liked Muley though, and how he shared his rabbits with Casey and Joad even though he really didn't have to.
Some of the religious battles Casy had had with himself kind of struck me as odd too...some of his beleifs on certain subjects were a little...different...but I'll wait to see what he has next because he seemed to be coming into some revival again at the end of these chapters before they all went to bed under the stars.