Chapter 15: "Frog Warfare…”

A mural inside the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, CA. I think this captures the ethos of the event perfectly...

“since my wife went into politics, I’m just running crazy. She got elected to the Assembly for this district and when the Legislature isn’t in session, she’s off making speeches. And when she’s home she’s studying all the time and writing bills.” “Must be lousy in--I mean it must be pretty lonely,” said Mack. (Steinbeck 82)

The kind of women who put papers on shelves and had little towels like that instinctively distrusted and disliked Mack and the boys. Such women knew that they were the worst threats to a home, for they offered ease and thought and companionship as opposed to neatness, order, and properness. They were very glad she was away. (Steinbeck 82)

A few frogs lost their heads and floundered among the feet and got through and these were saved. But the majority decided to leave this pool forever, to find a new home in a new country where this kind of thing didn’t happen. A wave of frantic, frustrated, frogs, big ones, little ones, brown ones, green ones, men frogs and women frogs, a wave of them broke over the bank, crawled, leaped, scrambled. They clambered up the grass, they clutched at each other, little ones rode on big ones. And then--horror on horror--the flashlights found them...never in frog history had such an execution taken place. (Steinbeck 85)

Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries (Link to music)