Grapes of Wrath Action Project

For my action project, I decided to contact the CEO of my phone company, Virgin Mobile, Inc. Recently, the company changed the plans available to customers. Instead of being able to pick and choose different things you want on your plan (such as unlimited texting, number of minutes, etc.), there are only three plans available and all are rather expensive (you can choose between a forty dollar plan, fifty dollar plan, or a sixty dollar plan). I decided to see what the reasons were for the change.
To get started, I searched for who the CEO was first. I discovered that Graeme Oxby is the current director of mobile and home phones in Virgin Media. After finding his name, I simply googled for his e-mail address, and I came across a website listing many CEO's e-mails. I found his, and then I composed an e-mail explaining who I was and what the project is about. Then I asked why the plans were changed and if it would be possible to access the old plans. I thanked him for his time and sent the e-mail, hoping at best to receive an automated response or something of the sorts.
To my surprise, less than an hour later, I received a response from Graeme Oxby. He addressed my question and informed me that they only choose to advertise what they think consumers will be most interested in and what will cater most to their wants. He said that the old options are still available, and if I am having difficulty finding them I can call customer service and they will straighten it out right away.
I have looked for the old options a lot, so they must be hidden very well. It is clever to advertise the most expensive plans the most (probably common sense for a company), but it is inconvenient when it is so difficult to find the cheaper options. Mr. Oxby was kind in his e-mail, and I did not see any reason to pursue the matter further. I encountered no obstacles in contacting him, which was very surprising.

This project has a clear connection with the Grapes of Wrath. The migrant people in the novel were so powerless because they did not have access to the people with the power. There were so many layers between them and the people that controlled most things that they had to deal with horrible, inhumane conditions. Back in the thirties, those layers were nearly impossible to get through (the example in the book is that the man ruining the farm is sent by the bank who is ordered by the East). Unfortunately, the migrant people could not go shoot everyone in the East. The people with power were faceless. Although our situations are not nearly as dire, it is still very important to give those people with power a face. We had to take down the layers between us and people with more power. Similar to the people in the Grapes of Wrath, we as consumers can be easily taken advantage of if we do not know the facts or bother to even ask. This can also be related to how the migrants were taken advantage of by Californians who lowered their wages so they really could not live off of them. If all the migrants knew that if all of them went to one place to get hired their wages would decrease, they might have been able to organize and make a change. If we as people are more informed to an injustice or more informed in general, we can make a change as more people are educated to this fact. I think this project was assigned for several reasons. First, there is a good connection to the Grapes of Wrath. We can see what the migrants might have had to go through (not in the same way, they obviously did not have the Internet) to start breaking down the layers between them and people with power. There is a good connection with the unit. Another reason is to build confidence and grow in the ability to talk to people, especially CEO's. This is a skill we will probably need later in life. It is probably fun to see us feeling uncomfortable also.