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The Grapes of Wrath
Reading Assignment
DO NOT WRITE ON THIS PACKET – keep everything organized in your composition book
Social Criticism – Literature that addresses real-life issues: Political, Social, Religious, or Economic. A writer comments on a perceived problem through direct comments or portrayals of imaginary characters’ situations
Route 66 is a highway that runs from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. In the 1930s this was the main road to travel the Southwest. This is the road the Joads took after leaving Sallisaw, Oklahoma.
Narration and Structure
The narrator tells the story in third-person point of view. Generally, the narrator is omniscient, or all-knowing, seeing and reporting the thoughts of the characters as well as witnessing and reporting the action. At times, however, he reports only the action without revealing the characters' thoughts. The narration alternates between chapters centering on society, nature, universal themes, or background information and chapters centering on specific people and places. For example, Chapter 1 presents information about the the Dust Bowl and society's reaction to it. Chapter 2 centers on Tom Joad and a truck driver who gives Tom a ride home after his release from prison. Chapter 3 centers on a turtle that exhibits the kind of perseverance that sustains the Joad family during their journey west. Chapter 4 focuses on Tom and Jim Casy, a former preacher who tags along with Tom. Chapter 5 presents general information on how banks evict tenant farmers. Chapter 6 zeroes in on Tom, Casy, and Muley Graves at the abandoned Joad homestead. The narration continues to alternate chapters in this way, giving the novel a balanced structure.
Answer the following in a well developed paragraph.
- Many Americans have thought of their country as a kind of ―promised land.‖ Some see its promise in its good land, bountiful harvests and stable weather conditions. Some see its promise in terms of democratic processes. Still others are dazzled by opportunities provided by a system of free enterprise. What is your idea of a ―promised land‖?
Read Chapters 1 & 2 and complete the following
- Describe the setting established in the first chapter. What color imagery do you note here? How does it create emotion?
- What does the setting of the opening scene suggest about the rest of the novel? What does it suggest about family structure?
- The Oklahoma setting includes two overwhelming elements—the sun and the dust. Quote and document at least three references to sun and dust.
- Explain this quote: ―The faces of the watching men…became hard and angry and resistant…Then the women knew they were safe…‖
- Write a character analysis for Tom Joad. Include observations about his physical characteristics and his mannerisms. What does his handling of the grasshopper connote about him?
- How does this chapter set up an opposition between bosses and workers?
Draw and complete this Connections Chart
Image or Idea Example from Chapter 1 Example from Chapter 2 Time ―as the sharp sun struck day after day…‖, ―The dust was long in the settling back again.‖
―Now and then the flies roared…‖
Light Wind Tools/Machines People and Their Environment
Read Chapter 3 and complete the following
- The turtle is symbolic of a struggle for survival. Indicate from the final paragraph of Chapter 3, two actions that are similar to humans.
- Compare the turtle to Tom Joad
Chapter 4 Summary
After getting out of the truck, Tom Joad begins walking home. He sees the turtle of the previous chapter and picks it up. He stops in the shade of a tree to rest and meets a man who sits there, singing "Jesus is My Savior." The man, Jim Casy, had a long, bony frame and sharp features. A former minister, he recognizes Tom immediately. He was a "Burning Busher" who used to "howl out the name of Jesus to glory," but he lost the calling because he has too many sinful ideas that seem sensible. Tom tells Casy that he took the turtle for his little brother, and he replies that nobody can keep a turtle, for they eventually just go off on their own. Casy claims that he doesn't know where he's going now, and Tom tells him to lead people, even if he doesn't know where to lead them. Casy tells Tom that part of the reason he quit preaching was that he too often succumbed to temptation. Finally he realized that perhaps what he was doing wasn't a sin, and there isn't really sin or virtue there are simply things people do. He realized he didn't ―know Jesus,‖ he merely knew the stories of the Bible. Tom tells Casy why he was in jail: he was at a dance drunk, and got in a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the head with a shovel. Tom tells him that he was treated relatively well in McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. He even tells about how someone broke his parole to go back. Tom tells how his father ―stole‖ their house. There was a family living there that moved away, so his father, uncle and grandfather cut the house in two and dragged part of it first, only to find that Wink Manley took the other half. They get to the boundary fence of their property, and Tom tells him that they didn't need a fence, but it gave Pa a feeling that their forty acres was forty acres. Tom and Casy get to the house: something has happened nobody is there.
Analysis: Jim Casy is the moral voice of the novel and its religious center. He is a religious icon, a philosopher and a prophet. His initials (J.C.) reveal that Steinbeck intends him to be a Christ figure espousing Steinbeck's interpretation of religious doctrine. He eschews dogma and scripture, even any semblance of a strict moral code. Instead, Casy finds the rules and regulations of Christian teachings too confining and not applicable to actual situations. The most striking case of this is his ―sins‖ with the women he converts. Casy originally felt tremendously guilty over his actions, worried about his responsibilities toward the women he was trying to convert to Jesus, yet finally came to the conclusion that "maybe it's just the way folks is." Casy's final moral code is one without any definition. He denies the existence of virtue or vice, finding that "there's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing."
Tom that his mother was worrying about him. His family was evicted, and had to move in with his Uncle John. They were forced to chop cotton to make enough money to go west. Casy suggests going west to pick grapes in California. Muley tells Tom and Casy that the loss of the farm broke up his family his wife and kids went off to California, while Muley chose to stay. He has been forced to eat wild game. He muses about how angry he was when he was told he had to get off the land. First he wanted to kill people, but then his family left and Muley was left alone and wandering. He realized that he is used to the place, even if he has to wander the land like a ghost. Tom tells them that he can't go to California, for it would mean breaking parole. According to Tom, prison has not changed him significantly. He thinks that if he saw Herb Turnbull, the man he killed, coming after him with a knife again, he would still hit him with the shovel. Tom tells them that there was a man in McAlester that read a great deal about prisons and told him that they started a long time ago and now cannot be stopped, despite the fact that they do not actually rehabilitate people. Muley tells them that they have to hide, for they are trespassing on the land. They have to hide in a cave for the night.
Analysis: When Tom and Casy return to the Joad home, it appears foreign and unfriendly. The home is empty, but for Tom the situation is unnatural. There are signs that the family has left, but suspiciously everyone seems to have left as well.
Muley Graves echoes the previous chapter's idea that no matter who a man might kill, he cannot stop the banks. Eventually Muley enters a state of resignation, forced to accept his fate. The character is essentially a ghost, living on the outskirts of society and wandering the land, bereft of his wife and children. He demonstrates the dehumanizing quality of the banks' intrusion. He is a man without any impetus for living.
When Tom tells Muley and Casy that he has not been rehabilitated by his jail term, it is a warning that, despite his calm demeanor he is still a man capable of violence. This foreshadows later developments; if Tom is provoked, there is still the possibility that he could react viciously. Neither Tom nor Muley believe in the rehabilitating power of prisons. According to Muley, the only type of government force that can manipulate human behavior is the capitalist system, the idea of the ―safe margin of profit.‖ This reinforces the idea that the corporate system is the real controlling force of society, now more powerful than any citizen or group of citizens yet without concern for them.
Even spending the night on the property places Tom, Casy and Muley in danger. They are trespassing, and must hide in a cave in order to protect themselves from patrolling deputies. Muley makes the apt comparison of them to hunted animals, forced into subterfuge and unable to even show themselves in the open.
Read Chapter 7 and complete the following.
- Discuss how the consumer was manipulated by the car salesman. Describe a time that you think you have been manipulated either by advertising or by a sales person.
- What does Chapter 7 imply about used-car salesmen?
- How does the mules' replacement by used cars parallel the situation the farmers experience with their land?
Chapter 8 Summary
Tom and Casy reach Uncle John's farm. They remark that Muley's lonely and covert lifestyle has obviously driven him insane. According to Tom, his Uncle John is equally crazy, and wasn't expected to live long, yet is older than his father. Still, he is tougher and meaner than even Grampa, hardened by losing his young wife years ago. They see Pa Joad fixing the truck. When he sees Tom, he assumes that he broke out of jail. They go in the house and see Ma Joad, a heavy woman thick with child-bearing and work. Her face was controlled and kindly. She worries that Tom went mad in prison. This chapter also introduces Grampa and Granma Joad. She is as tough as he is, once shooting her husband while she was speaking in tongues. Noah Joad, Tom's older brother, is a strange man, slow and withdrawn, with little pride and few urges. He may have been brain damaged at childbirth. The family has dinner, and Casy says grace. He talks about how Jesus went off into the wilderness alone, and how he did the same. Yet what Casy concluded was that mankind was holy. Pa tells Tom about Al, his sixteen-year old brother, who is concerned with little more than girls and cars. He hasn't been at home at night for a week. His sister Rosasharn has married Connie Rivers, and is several months pregnant. They have two hundred dollars for their journey.
Analysis: The members of the Joad family are tough people, crude and hardened by life experience. Uncle John has gone nearly mad from losing his wife to illness, Pa Joad is sullen and withdrawn, and Grampa is too angry and bitter to even stay in the house. Only Ma Joad retains some level of warmth and compassion. She worries that Tom may have gone insane in prison. However, even she has changed, as Tom remarks, for until recently she never had her house pushed over or had to sell everything she owned. Even Granma and Grampa Joad are mean, tough people.
Casy's speech at dinner is yet another example of Steinbeck's glorification of the common person. For him, the population as a whole exemplifies what is holy. It is only when people diverge from the common good that they become unholy. This is further bolstered by Ma Joad's musings that there might be hope if everybody became angry enough to rise up against the moneyed interests. Steinbeck takes a largely socialist viewpoint, championing the common good over individual interests.
Read the following and answer the question that follows
Ma was heavy, but not fat; thick with child-bearing and work. She wore a loose Mother Hubbard of gray cloth in which there had once been colored flowers, but the color was washed out now, so that the small flowered pattern was only a little lighter gray than the background. The dress came down to her ankles, and her strong, broad, bare feet moved quickly and deftly over the floor. Her thin, steel-gray hair was gathered in a sparse wispy knot at the back of her head. Strong, freckled arms were bare to the elbow, and her hands were chubby and delicate, like those of a plump little girl. She looked out into the sunshine. Her full face was not soft; it was controlled, kindly. Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding. She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. And since old Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless she acknowledged hurt and fear, she had practiced denying them in herself. And since, when a joyful thing happened, they looked to see whether joy was on her, it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. But better than joy was calm. Imperturbability could be depended upon. And from her great and humble position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty. From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgment as a goddess. She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone.
- How would you characterize Ma Joad? Give specific evidence from the passage to support your assertions.
- What similarities are there between Ma Joad and Casy?
Read the biblical story of the prodigal son that follows (Luke 15:11-32, King James Version). How does Chapter Eight echo the parable?
A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, & before thee, & am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Analysis: This chapter illustrates the Joad family dynamic. The numerous relatives across three generations make any order difficult, as the family meeting demonstrates. The Joad family has Grampa as the nominal head, yet he exerts no special influence. If any member of the family leads the others, it is Ma Joad, who dominates by moral force. It is she who issues the final verdict allowing Casy to go with them to California. While Tom Joad is the main character in The Grapes of Wrath , it is Ma Joad who is the story's moral center, reminding everyone that they have greater concerns than just their own interests it would be wrong if them to refuse food or shelter to anyone.
Ma Joad appears to be the principal victim of the move to California. Casy notices that she looks ill from the recent events, and only she is the only one who appears to have regrets. For the others, it is an unfortunate move, yet she must leave behind the memories that she treasures. Even Grampa, when he refuses to leave, does so out of bitter energy. Ma Joad, in contrast, has a ―great weariness.‖
Grampa's refusal to leave highlights how important the land is for these people. For him, it is unimaginable to leave the area where he was born and raised. Yet he has no option. If he were to remain, he would essentially cease to exist as a human, like Muley Graves.
Read Chapter 11and Find examples for each THEME
Modern technology separates people from the land
- ―there is no day and night for a tractor‖
A deep relationship with the land is important and necessary, because people have no connection to the land cannot truly understand themselves.
- ―in the tractor man there grows the contempt that comes only to a stranger who has little understanding an no relation‖
Read Chapter 12 and complete the following.
- Discuss why Route 66 is called ―the mother road.‖
- List the states that Route 66 traverses. List only the states that the Joads traverse.
- How can the last scene in this chapter be an allegory to the entire novel's journey? (You might consider coming back to this question after you finish the novel.)
Find examples for each THEME
Human beings as predatory
- Businessmen taking advantage of poverty and/or ignorance
Human beings as kind and decent
- Man helping a family of twelve
Chapter 13 Summary
The Joads continue on their travels. Al remarks that they may have trouble getting over mountains in their car, which can barely support its weight. Grampa Joad wakes up and insists that he's not going with them. They stop at a gas station where the owner automatically assumes they are broke, and tells them that people often stop, begging for gas. The owner claims that fifty cars per day go west, but wonders what they expect when they reach their destination. He tells how one family traded their daughter's doll for some gas. Casy wonders what the nation is coming to, since people seem unable to make a decent living. Casy says that he used to use his energy to fight against the devil, believing that the devil was the enemy. However, now he believes that there's something worse. The Joad's dog wanders from the car and is run over in the road. They continue on their journey and begin to worry when they reach the state line. However, Tom reassures them that he is only in danger if he commits a crime. Otherwise, nobody will know that he has broken his parole by leaving the state. On their next stop for the night, the Joads meet the Wilsons, a family from Kansas that is going to California. Grampa complains of illness, and weeps. The family thinks that he may suffer a stroke. Granma tells Casy to pray for Grampa, even if he is no longer a preacher. Suddenly Grampa starts twitching and slumps. He dies. The Joads face a choice: they can pay fifty dollars for a proper burial for him or have him buried a pauper. They decide to bury Grampa themselves and leave a note so that people don't assume he was murdered. The Wilsons help them bury Grampa. They write a verse from scripture on the note on his grave. After burying Grampa, they have Casy say a few words. The reactions to the death are varied. Rose of Sharon comforts Granma, while Uncle John is curiously unmoved by the turn of events. Casy admits that he knew Grampa was dying, but didn't say anything because he couldn't have helped. He blames the separation from the land for Grampa's death. The Joads and the Wilsons decide to help each other on the journey by spreading out the load between their two cars so that both families will make it to California.
Analysis: The first stop that the Joads make reinforces the idea that they may not find work when they reach California because of a filled labor market. Yet even with the dire situation that the Joads face, they are nevertheless better off than some travelers, at the very least able to pay for gas.
Casy reiterates the idea that the nation faces a nearly unconquerable enemy. Although he does not explicitly identify this identity, its characteristics indicate that it is the capitalist system that was earlier vilified. He identifies the enemy as a system that precludes normal people from making a decent living. For Casy, this ―evil‖ is too powerful to effectively combat, a battle more strenuous than that against the devil.
Even early in the journey the Joads suffer a tragic loss, if one less significant than an actual family member. The family dog becomes the first victim on the journey. Its early demise, dying before the Joads even reach the Oklahoma border, foreshadows further losses that the family may suffer. Steinbeck further foreshadows problems that the Joads may face when Tom mentions parole violations. He is only in danger if he commits another crime. That danger may eventually arise.
The death of the dog is followed by the death of an actual family member. Despite his tough veneer of anger and bitterness, Grampa dies from a stroke. Since he was the one family member most adamantly opposed to leaving their home, it was likely the separation that hastened his demise. Casy makes a direct correlation between Grampa's death and their journey, reinforcing the idea that these people have a significant personal relationship with they farmed.
The agreement between the Joads and the Wilsons to aid each other on the way to California is a significant plot development, for it is in collective interests that these families find their strength. This is the first building block in a collectivist scheme that Steinbeck seems to support in which working class people come together for their collective interests.
Read the following paragraph. Then using it as a mentor passage, describe someone you know
Al, at the wheel, his face purposeful, his whole body listening to the car, his restless eyes jumping from the road to the instrument panel. Al was one with his engine, every nerve listening for weaknesses, for the thumps or squeals, hums and chattering that indicate a change that may cause a breakdown. He had become the soul of the car.
comin' to?' You don' wanta know. Country's movin' aroun', goin' places. They's folks dyin' all aroun'. Maybe you'll die pretty soon, but you won't know nothin'. I seen too many fellas like you. You don't want to know nothin'. Just sing yourself to sleep with a song- 'What we comin' to?'" He looked at the gas pump, rusted and old, and at the shack behind it, built of old lumber, the nail holes of its first use still showing through the paint that had been brave, the brave yellow paint that had tried to imitate the big company stations in town. But the paint couldn't cover the old nail holes and the old cracks in the lumber, and the paint could not be renewed. The imitation was a failure and the owner had known it was a failure. And inside the open door of the shack Tom saw the oil barrels, only two of them, and the candy counter with stale candies and licorice whips turning brown with age, and cigarettes. He saw the broken chair and the fly screen with a rusted hole in it. And the littered yard that should have been graveled, and behind, the corn field drying and dying in the sun. Beside the house the little stock of used tires and retreaded tires. And he saw for the first time the fat man's cheap washed pants and his cheap polo shirt and his paper hat. He said, "I didn' mean to sound off at ya, mister. It's the heat. You ain't got nothin'. Pretty soon you'll be on the road yourse'f. And it ain't tractors'll put you there. It's them pretty yella stations in town. Folks is movin'," he said ashamedly. "An' you'll be movin', mister." The fat man's hand slowed on the pump and stopped while Tom spoke. He looked worriedly at Tom. "How'd you know?" he asked helplessly. "How'd you know we was already talkin' about packin' up an' movin' west?" Casy answered him. "It's ever'body," he said. "Here's me that used to give all my fight against the devil 'cause I figgered the devil was the enemy. But they's somepin worse'n the devil got hold a the country, an' it ain't gonna let go till it's chopped loose. Ever see one a them Gila monsters take hold, mister? Grabs hold, an' you chop him in two an' his head hangs on. Chop him at the neck an' his head hangs on. Got to take a screw- driver an' pry his head apart to git him loose. An' while he's layin' there, poison is drippin' an' drippin' into the hole he's made with his teeth." He stopped and looked sideways at Tom. The fat man stared hopelessly straight ahead. His hand started turning the crank slowly. "I dunno what we're comin' to," he said softly.
- Explain both sides of the situation.
- How do the Joads feel about their situation?
- How does Casy make the service station attendant understand the plight of the migrants?
- Why does Tom change his tone with the service station attendant?
- What does it show about the Joads when they befriend the Wilsons?
- Explain Casy’s statement: ―Grampa didn’t die tonight. He died the minute you took him off the place.‖
Read Chapter 14 and complete the following.
- The novel states: ―The Western States nervous under the beginning change.‖ How are the states changing? Changes in California to the changes in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, & Missouri.
- Chapter 14 is one of the most powerful chapters in the novel. Discuss Steinbeck's clear definition of humanity provided here. How is his philosophy ultimately linked to the land?
Read Chapter 15 and complete the following
- What is the function of Chapter 15? What does it imply about businessmen, waitresses, and truck drivers?
- How do you explain the tension remaining in the diner between Mae, Al, and the truck drivers after the migrants leave?
Chapter 16 Summary
The Joads and the Wilsons continue on their travels. Rose of Sharon discusses with her mother what they will do when they reach California. She and Connie want to live in a town, where he can get a job in a store or a factory. He wants to study at home, possibly taking a radio correspondence course. There is a rattling in the Wilson's car, so Al is forced to pull over. There are problems with the motor. Sairy Wilson tells them that they should go on ahead without them, but Ma Joad refuses, telling them that they are like family now and they won't desert them. Tom says that he and Casy will stay with the truck if everyone goes on ahead. They'll fix the
car and then move on. Only Ma objects. She refuses to go, for the only thing that they have left is each other and she will not break up the family even momentarily. When everyone else objects to her, she even picks up a jack handle and threatens them. Tom and Casy try to fix the car, and Casy remarks about how he has seen so many cars moving west, but no cars going east. Casy predicts that all of the movement and collection of people in California will change the country. The two of them stay with the car while the family goes ahead. Before they leave, Al tells Tom that Ma is worried that he will do something that might break his parole. Granma has been going crazy, yelling and talking to herself. Al asks Tom about what he felt when he killed a man. Tom admits that prison has a tendency to drive a man insane. Tom and Al find a junkyard where they find a part to replace the broken con-rod in the Wilson's car. The one-eyed man working at the junkyard complains about his boss, and says that he might kill him. Tom tells off the one-eyed man for blaming all of his problems on his eye, and then criticizes Al for his constant worry that people will blame him for the car breaking down. Tom, Casy and Al rejoin the rest of the family at a campground not far away. To stay at the campground, the three would have to pay an additional charge, for they would be charged with vagrancy if they slept out in the open. Tom, Casy and Uncle John eventually decide to go on ahead and meet up with everyone else in the morning. A ragged man at the camp, when he hears that the Joads are going to pick oranges in California, laughs. The man, who is returning from California, tells how the handbills are a fraud. They ask for eight hundred people, but get several thousand people who want to work. This drives down wages. The proprietor of the campground suspects that the ragged man is trying to stir up trouble for labor.
Analysis: Rose of Sharon stands as a stark contrast to the rest of the characters in The Grapes of Wrath. She is the only adult character who retains some sense of hope for their future; she believes in the possibility of living a decent life with her husband and eventual child. The other characters expect little more from California than meager survival, while Rose of Sharon hopes to live the traditional American dream. She is the one beacon of hope within the Joad family. Even her younger brother, Al, does not have a similar optimism. He is defensive and combative, consistently worried that others will blame him for problems with the car.
Ma Joad once again reveals herself to be the center of the Joad family when she demands that they not leave Tom and Casy behind, even temporarily. She leaves the family no option but to remain together, even threatening violence against anybody who opposes her. In doing so, she reiterates the idea that the strength that these people have is in unity.
Steinbeck makes it quite clear by the end of the chapter that once the Joads reach California they may not find work. Casy mentions that he has seen numerous others travel westward, but has seen nobody travel back east, and the ragged man that the Joads meet at the campground confirms this fear. Even worse than a crowded labor market is the fact that the presumed opportunities for jobs are a fraud, inducing too many workers in order to drive down wages. The ragged men even suggests that the Joads will face a worse fate in California than they did in Oklahoma. For revealing this information, the ragged man is automatically pegged as a labor agitator, a derisive label consistently given to those who expose social injustices.
The one-eyed man serves as yet another picture of the American experience. He is garish and grotesque and his introduction is a break from the realistic depiction of the novel. The one-eyed man reveals his life story almost immediately, a device that is far from dramatically realistic but serves to give him some layering. He is one of the many workers the Joads encounter, but he is not insignificant. Steinbeck gives him some personality and history to emphasize the importance of all working people, whether or not they are the focus of this particular story. His appearance also demonstrates once again that Tom is forthright and direct. He will not shy away from standing up to a person, a quality that gives him an air of authority but may prove dangerous.
Use this passage to answer the following questions.
"Tom, I been watchin' the cars on the road, them we passed an' them that passed us. I been keepin' track." "Track a what?" "Tom, they's hunderds a families like us all a-goin' west. I watched. There ain't none of 'em goin' east- hunderds of 'em. Did you notice that?"
prayer meeting, but Ma orders them not to do so. Nevertheless, soon she can hear from a distance chanting and singing that eventually descends into crying. Granma whines with the whining, then eventually falls asleep. Rose of Sharon wonders where Connie is. Deputies come to the tent and tell Ma that they cannot stay there and that they don't want any Okies around. Tom returns to the tent after the policeman leaves, and is glad that he wasn't there; he admits that he would have hit the cop. He tells Ma about Noah. The Wilsons decide to remain even if they face arrest, since Sairy is too sick to leave without any rest. Sairy asks Casy to say a prayer for her. The Joads move on, and at a stop a boy remarks how hard-looking Okies are and how they are less than human. Uncle John speaks with Casy, worried that he brings bad luck to people. Connie and Rose of Sharon need privacy. Yet again the Joads are pulled over for inspection, but Ma Joad insists that they must continue because Granma needs medical attention. The next morning when they reach the orange groves, Ma tells them that Granma is dead. She died before they were pulled over for inspection.
Analysis: The arrival in California is anticlimactic at best. The Joads cross the border only to enter the harsh California desert. They still must journey farther to reach the orange groves. There is further evidence that California will not prove the solution to the Joad's problems. The migrant workers are loathed, and there still remains the problems of the wealthy corporate interests. The rich owners are characterized as paranoid, vindictive and cowardly. Steinbeck even makes the explicit contrast between the cowardly owners and Grampa, a fearless old man even in his final days. The rich owners have wealth, but they suffer from loneliness and fear. In this manner they are worse off than even the most impoverished.
The family loses yet another member once they reach California when Noah decides to leave. However, this loss is voluntary, as Noah, Tom's brother who has been frequently ignored, decides that he will stay at the river and support himself by fishing. This loss demonstrates the sense of hopelessness that has set in. Noah, like Muley Graves, decides to leave society instead of being crushed by it.
Although Granma seems to be at the brink of death during the beginning of this chapter, she eventually pulls through. Once again Ma takes charge, ordering the Jehovites to leave them alone. She even confronts the deputies who threaten her, effectively intimidating them. The deputies are the first example of the contempt toward "Okies" that was mentioned earlier in the chapter. This hatred is made even more explicit by the boy at the gas station, who remarks that the Okies are less than human.
The various members of the Joad family become more tense and irritable as the journey continues. Rose of Sharon and Connie begin to feel a sense of claustrophobia, bothered by the lack of privacy, while Uncle John worries irrationally that he may be the cause of the family's troubles. Uncle John, like Sairy Wilson, wishes to use Casy as a preacher, a designation he loathes but nevertheless accepts. Casy's protestations that he is not a preacher and does not believe in god seem excessive. He refuses to be called a preacher because he has doubts, and others approach him as a preacher expecting certainty.
The death of Granma Joad is significant for it demonstrates just how much Ma Joad can bear. The event forces her to confront and intimidate several police officers and hide Granma's fate from the rest of the family.
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
“Whatmakes 'em hate you?" "Dunno," said the man. He cupped his hands full of water and rubbed his face, snorting and bubbling. Dusty water ran out of his hair and streaked his neck. "I like to hear some more 'bout this," said Pa. "Me too," Tom added. "Why these folks out west hate ya?" The man looked sharply at Tom. "You jus' goin' wes'?" "Jus' on our way." "You ain't never been in California?" "No, we ain't." "Well, don' take my word. Go see for yourself." "Yeah," Tom said, "but a fella kind a likes to know what he's gettin' into."
"Well, if you truly wanta know, I'm a fella that's asked questions an' give her some thought. She's a nice country. But she was stole a long time ago. You git acrost the desert an' come into the country aroun' Bakersfield. An' you never seen such purty country- all orchards, an' grapes, purtiest country you ever seen. An' you'll pass lan' flat an' fine with water thirty feet down, and that lan's layin' fallow. But you can't have none of that lan'. That's a Lan' and Cattle Company. An' if they don't want ta work her, she ain't gonna git worked. You go in there an' plant you a little corn, an' you'll go to jail!" "Good lan', you say? An' they ain't workin' her?" "Yes, sir. Good lan' an' they ain't! Well, sir, that'll get you a little mad, but you ain't seen nothin'. People gonna have a look in their eye. They gonna look at you an' their face says, 'I don't like you, you son-of-a-bitch.' Gonna be deputy sheriffs, an' they'll push you aroun'. You camp on the roadside, an' they'll move you on. You gonna see in people's face how they hate you. An'- I'll tell you somepin. They hate you 'cause they're scairt. They know a hungry fella gonna get food even if he got to take it. They know that fallow lan's a sin an' somebody' gonna take it. What the hell! You never been called 'Okie' yet." Tom said, "Okie? What's that?" "Well, Okie use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you're scum. Don't mean nothing itself, it's the way they say it. But I can't tell you nothin'. You got to go there. I hear there's three hunderd thousan' of our people there- an' livin' like hogs, 'cause ever'thing in California is owned. They ain't nothin' left. An' them people that owns it is gonna hang on to it if they got ta kill ever'body in the worl' to do it. An' they're scairt, an' that makes 'em mad. You got to see it. You got to hear it. Purtiest goddamn country you ever seen, but they ain't nice to you, them folks. They're so scairt an' worried they ain't even nice to each other."
- What is fallow land?
- What is ironic about the situation?
- What can the Joads expect in California?
Read Chapter 19 and complete the following
- How has farming changed according to Chapter 19?
- Why do the local people fear the migrants?
- What is a Hooverville? How do you suppose a Hooverville got its name?
- What are the "three great facts of history," and what do they imply about the outcome of the events in this novel?
- A metaphor used early in this chapter posits the California landowners as Romans. Using your historical knowledge, what are the implications of this metaphor?
Chapter 20 Summary
The Joads take Granma to the Bakersfield coroner's office. They can't afford a funeral for her. They go to a camp to stay and ask about work. They ask a bearded man if he owns the camp and whether they can stay, and he replies with the same question to them. A younger man tells them that the crazy old man is called the Mayor. According to the man, the Mayor has likely been pushed by the police around so much that he's been made bull- simple (crazy). The police don't want them to settle down, for then they could draw relief, organize and vote. The younger man tells them about the handbill fraud, and Tom suggests that everybody organize so that they could guarantee higher wages. The man warns Tom about the blacklist. If he is labeled an agitator he will be prevented from getting from anybody. Tom talks to Casy, who has recently been relatively quiet. Casy says that the people unorganized are like an army without a harness. Casy says that he isn't helping out the family and should go off by himself. Tom tries to convince him to stay at least until the next day, and he relents. Connie regrets his decision to come with the Joads. He says that if he had stayed in Oklahoma he could have worked as a tractor driver. When Ma is fixing dinner, groups of small children approach, asking for food. The children tell the Joads about Weedpatch, a government camp that is nearby where no cops can push people around and there is good drinking water. Al goes around looking for girls, and brags about how Tom killed a man. Al meets a man named Floyd Knowles, who tells them that there was no steady work. A woman reprimands Ma Joad for
- There in the Middle and Southwest had lived a simple agrarian folk who had not changed with industry, who had not farmed with machines or known the power and danger of machines in private hands. They had not grown up in the paradoxes of industry. Their senses were still sharp to the ridiculousness of the industrial life. Discuss your thoughts concerning mechanical items: are they more help or hindrance in your life? Be specific.
- Why is it so difficult to obtain work in California? Why do wages fall?
- What business practices do the owners adopt to ensure that they will continue to make high profits?
- What keeps the men from uniting?
- How have the migrants changed?
- Why are the migrants hated?
- In what ways does the hostility of the local people change the migrants?
- And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents and spies, for blacklists, for drilling. On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment. What is the importance of this statement? What does it tell the reader about the situation in California? Explain the irony of this situation.
- What passage from Chapter 21 hints at future large-scale violence between the migrant workers and owners?
Chapter 22 Summary
The Joads reach the government camp, where they are surprised to find that there are toilets and showers and running water. The watchman at the camp explains some of the other features of the camp: there is a central committee elected by the camp residents that keeps order and makes rules, and the camp even holds dance nights. The next morning, two camp residents (Timothy and Wilkie Wallace) give Tom breakfast and tell him about work. When they reach the fields where they are to work, Mr. Thomas, the contractor, tells them that he is reducing wages from thirty to twenty-five cents per hour. It is not his choice, but rather orders from the Farmers' Association, which is owned by the Bank of the West. Thomas also shows them a newspaper, which has a story about a band of citizens who burn a squatters' camp, infuriated by presumed communist agitation, and warns them about the dance at the government camp on Saturday night. There will be a fight in the camp so that the deputies can go in. The Farmers' Association dislikes the government camps because the people in the camps become used to being treated humanely and are thus harder to handle. Tom and the Wallaces vow to make sure that there won't be a fight. While they work, Wilkie tells Tom that the complaints about agitators are false. According to the rich owners, any person who wants thirty cents an hour instead of twenty-five is a red. Back at the camp, Ruthie and Winfield explore the camp, and are fascinated by the toilets they are frightened by the flushing sound. Ma Joad makes the rest of the family clean themselves up before the Ladies Committee comes to visit her. Jim Rawley, the camp manager, introduces himself to the Joads and tells them some of the features of the camp. Rose of Sharon goes to take a bath, and learns that a nurse visits the camp every week and can help her deliver the baby when it is time. Ma remarks that she no longer feels ashamed, as she had when they were constantly harassed by the police. Lisbeth Sandry, a religious zealot, speaks with Rose of Sharon about the alleged sin that goes on during the dances, and complains about people putting on stage plays, which she calls ―sin and delusion and devil stuff.‖ The woman even blames playacting for a mother dropping her child. Rose of Sharon becomes frightened upon hearing this, fearing that she will drop her child. Jessie Bullitt, the head of the Ladies Committee, gives Ma Joad a tour of the camp and explains some of the problems. Jessie bickers with Ella Summers, the previous committee head. The children play and bicker. Pa comforts Uncle John, who still wants to leave, thinking that he will bring the family punishment. Ma Joad confronts Lisbeth Sandry for frightening Rose and for preaching that every action is sinful. Ma becomes depressed about all of the losses Granma and Grampa, Noah and Connie because she now has leisure time to think about such things.
Analysis: The government camp proves a shocking interruption to the consistent maladies and hardships that have plagued the Joad family throughout the novel. The people are polite and well-mannered toward the Joads. Ma Joad is even shocked to hear Jim Rawley call her "Mrs." The few problems in Weedpatch, such as the theft
of toilet paper, are handled in a fair and organized manner. The camp represents a communal society in which everyone has an equal share and an equal voice. While not a perfect place, as shown by the unwelcome proselytizing of Lisbeth Sandry, the government camp nevertheless is a comfortable community where the Joads can live respectably.
The degree of comfort that Weedpatch affords is reflected in the return to a normal rhythm that occurs among the Joads. Ruthie and Winfield can play like small children once again. Uncle John settles into his manageable routine of depression. The impressionable Rose of Sharon begins to fret about her child; without Connie she no longer dreams of a middle-class life, but instead focuses on the immediate fate of her soon-to-be-born child. Ma Joad even realizes how great an interruption the journey to California was. For the first time, she can comprehend the losses that the family has suffered and mourn the two deaths and two desertions. Before reaching the camp, her only concern had to be her own survival; the most important luxury that Ma Joad receives at the camp is introspection.
The degree of poverty to which the Joads and other migrant workers are subjected is further reflected by the amazement that the characters show to the simple amenities in the camp. Ruthie and Winfield have never used a toilet before, while Jessie Bullitt tells Ma Joad how some camp residents have trouble with some of the camp's appliances.
Once again the banking elite causes needless hardship for the migrant workers. The Farmers' Association that the banks control dictates that wages be reduced. It becomes clear that the Farmers' Association is responsible for most of the hardship and oppression. They control the state deputies who intimidate the migrant farmers. The Farmers' Association is opposed to treating the migrant workers fairly, for if they expect to be treated well they will demand more. They even plan underhanded tactics to subvert the government camps, for when the workers are in government camps they are more difficult to control. This chapter states their plan: to sabotage the government camp they will instigate a fight that will allow the deputies to enter and disrupt Weedpatch.
- Discuss the ways Jim Rawley and Lisbeth Sandry represent the good and evil inherent in humanity.
Read the Passages and answer the following
The younger man said, "We been eatin' good for twelve days now. Never missed a meal in twelve days- none of us. Workin' an' gettin' our pay an' eatin'." He fell to again, almost frantically, and refilled his plate. They drank the scalding coffee and threw the grounds to the earth and filled their cups again.
- What is the tone of the passage?
We're Joads. We don't look up to nobody. Grampa's grampa, he fit in the Revolution. We was farm people till the debt. And then- them people. They done somepin to us. Ever' time they come seemed like they was a-whippin' me- all of us. An' in Needles, that police. He done somepin to me, made me feel mean. Made me feel ashamed. An' now I ain't ashamed. These folks is our folks- is our folks. An' that manager, he come an' set an' drank coffee, an' he says, 'Mrs. Joad' this, an' 'Mrs. Joad' that- an' 'How you gettin' on, Mrs. Joad?'" She stopped and sighed, "Why, I feel like people again." She stacked the last dish. She went into the tent and dug through the clothes box for her shoes and a clean dress. And she found a little paper package with her earrings in it. As she went past Rose of Sharon, she said, "If them ladies comes, you tell 'em I'll be right back." She disappeared around the side of the sanitary unit.
- What has the Weedpatch Camp restored in the Joads?
- Why does Ma Joad get out a clean dress and her earrings?
Read Chapter 23 and complete the following
- How important is entertainment and leisure to you?
- What does the Indian symbolize?
- Under what circumstances did people move closer together?
cents a box. Even the women and children can do the job. Ruthie and Winfield worry about settling down in the area and going to school in California. They assume that everyone will call them Okies. At the nearby grocery store owned by Hooper Ranch, Ma finds that the prices are much higher than they would be at the store in town. The sales clerk lends Ma ten cents for sugar. She tells him that it is only poor people who will help out. That night, Tom goes for a walk, but a deputy tells him to walk back to the cabin at the ranch. The deputy claims that if Tom is alone, the reds will get to him. While continuing on his walk, Tom finds Casy, who has been released from jail. He is with a group of men that are on strike. Casy claims that people who strive for justice always face opposition, citing Lincoln and Washington, as well as the martyrs of the French Revolution. Casy, Tom and the rest of the strikers are confronted by the police. A short, heavy man with a white pick handle swings it at Casy, hitting him in the head. Tom fights with the man, and eventually wrenches the club from him and strikes him with it, killing him. Tom immediately fled the scene, crawling through a stream to get back to the cabin. He cannot sleep that night, and in the morning tells Ma that he has to hide. He tells her that he was spotted, and warns his family that they are breaking the strike they are getting five cents a box only because of this, and today may only get half that amount. When Tom tells Ma that he is going to leave that night, she tells him that they aren't a family anymore: Al cares about nothing more than girls, Uncle John is only dragging along, Pa has lost his place as the head of the family, and the children are becoming unruly. Rose of Sharon screams at Tom for murdering the man she thinks that his sin will doom her baby. After a day of work, Winfield becomes extremely sick from eating peaches. Uncle John tells Tom that when the police catch him, there will be a lynching. Tom insists that he must leave, but Ma insists that they leave as a family. They hide Tom as they leave, taking the back roads to avoid police.
Analysis: The comfortable situation that the Joads find in Weedpatch must inevitably come to an end, as the Joads realize that they cannot find work in that area. The Joads must then settle for accommodations at the Hooper Ranch, where they no longer have the amenities of the government camp nor the sense of a strong community. The retreat from the strong society of the government camp is reflected in the breakdown of the Joad family. Even Ma Joad realizes that the family is breaking apart, despite her best efforts to keep everybody together. Al has little concern for anybody else, and indicates that he is ready to leave himself. Pa Joad has lost his status as head of the household; he cedes entire control to Ma, the only one strong enough to keep the family together. Pa Joad makes a significant comment about gender roles, lamenting the fact that he no longer runs the family, but Ma makes it clear that the roles have changed because he no longer fulfills his duties as husband and father. Since Ma is the only Joad who fulfills her obligations to the rest of the family she is the caretaker and moral center she gains the right to make decisions for the rest of the family. This is the major loss that Pa suffers; he no longer has the right to make decisions for the family, and must subordinate himself to his wife.
Yet even Ma Joad is not strong enough to prevent the gradual disintegration of the Joad household. Al appears ready to abandon the Joads next; he is more concerned with finding a girl and a steady job working on cars than with helping his family support themselves. In his dreams of successful, steady employment he resembles the callous Connie. Rose of Sharon in turn descends into a paranoid religious hysteria. She fears for the safety of her child, and holds delusions that the murders her brother has committed will permanently scar the child with sin. This relates to the earlier influence of Lisbeth Sandry, the religious zealot who warned Rose of Sharon against sin. Even the two children begin to noticeably suffer: Winfield becomes sick from deprivation.
The conditions at the Hooper Ranch are worse than those at the government camp, but still more manageable than they could be. The Joads have a roof over their heads and are paid sufficient wages. However, the store owned by the ranch artificially raises prices for items, for it is the only nearby store where the workers can buy groceries, and the wages are high initially only because of a strike. Ma Joad makes the significant observation at the grocery store that it is only the poor who will help out other impoverished people; the clerk at the grocery store will help her, but the owners of the grocery store will exploit the workers through inflated prices.
The strike is the catalyst for another tragedy for the Joad family. When Tom finds the striking workers, he is reunited with Jim Casy, who has been released from jail and found a new purpose as a labor activist. His lost religious zeal has been transformed into working-class activism, charged by his experiences in jail and traveling to California. Casy is a crusader for the cause; the indecision over his role as a preacher earlier in the novel has been replaced by a fiery conviction concerning the justice of his cause. There is a strong political text to the
final scenes with Casy. Steinbeck makes it clear that these activists are facing certain doom, but they will be vindicated eventually. Casy, who sacrificed his freedom for Tom earlier in the novel, makes a final sacrifice in this chapter, the victim of a brutal murder at the hands of the police. Casy has now been a martyr for the Joad family and now for the entire class that the Joads represent.
The effect of this martyrdom is that Tom must now leave Hooper ranch to escape capture from the police. Although he wishes to go alone, Ma Joad once again binds the family together. She chooses to risk the safety of the entire family to preserve whatever unity the family has left.
Read the passages and answer the following
"Well," said Willie, "we got to figure her out some time. I been out here a year, an' wages is goin' right on down. Fella can't feed his fam'ly on his work now, an' it's gettin' worse all the time. It ain't gonna do no good to set aroun' an' starve. I don' know what to do. If a fella owns a team a horses, he don't raise no hell if he got to feed 'em when they ain't workin'. But if a fella got men workin' for him, he jus' don't give a damn. Horses is a hell of a lot more worth than men. I don' understan' it."
- What analogy does Steinbeck make?
- What is your reaction to this passage?
"Thought I'd get a piece of meat." "Got all kinds," he said. "Hamburg, like to have some hamburg? Twenty cents a pound, hamburg." "Ain't that awful high? Seems to me hamburg was fifteen las' time I got some." "Well," he giggled softly, "yes, it's high, an' same time it ain't high. Time you go on in town for a couple poun's of hamburg, it'll cos' you 'bout a gallon of gas. So you see it ain't really high here, 'cause you got no gallon a gas." Ma said sternly, "It didn' cos' you no gallon a gas to get it out here." He laughed delightedly. "You're lookin' at it bass-ackwards," he said. "We ain't a-buyin' it, we're a- sellin' it. If we was buyin' it, why, that'd be different." Ma put two fingers to her mouth and frowned with thought. "It looks all full a fat an' gristle." "I ain't guaranteein' she won't cook down," the storekeeper said. "I ain't guaranteein' I'd eat her myself; but they's lots of stuff I wouldn' do." Ma looked up at him fiercely for a moment. She controlled her voice. "Ain't you got some cheaper kind a meat?" "Soup bones," he said. "Ten cents a pound." "But them's jus' bones." "Them's jes' bones," he said. "Make nice soup. Jes' bones." "Got any boilin' beef?" "Oh, yeah! Sure. That's two bits a poun'." "Maybe I can't get no meat," Ma said. "But they want meat. They said they wanted meat." "Ever'body wants meat- needs meat. That hamburg is purty nice stuff. Use the grease that comes out a her for gravy. Purty nice. No waste. Don't throw no bone away."
- What new reality does Ma Joad face?
- How are the migrants now being taken advantage of?
Ma moved menacingly toward him. "I heard enough from you. I know what they cost in town." The little man clamped his mouth tight. "Then go git 'em in town." Ma looked at her knuckles. "What is this?" she asked softly. "You own this here store?" "No. I jus' work here." "Any reason you got to make fun? That help you any?" She regarded her shiny wrinkled hands. The little man was silent. "Who owns this here store?" "Hooper Ranches, Incorporated, ma'am." "An' they set the prices?" "Yes, ma'am."
