The Grapes of Wrath Analysis PDF

Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com The Grapes of Wrath and universality to Steinbeck’s work. Steinbeck’s work also...

Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com The Grapes of Wrath and universality to Steinbeck’s work. Steinbeck’s work also INTR INTRODUCTION ODUCTION shares a similarity of focus on blue collar workers in the depression and the dustbowl with the songs and work of BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN STEINBECK Woody Guthrie. Steinbeck grew up in a rural town, and spent his youth working on ranches alongside migrant laborers. In 1920, he began KEY FACTS attending Stanford University, but never graduated, choosing instead to move to New York and try his hand at a career in Full Title: The Grapes of Wrath writing. He had trouble getting his work published, however, When Written: 1939 and returned to California to work a series of manual jobs, Where Written: Pacific Grove, California writing all the while. In 1935, Steinbeck first found literary When Published: 1939 success with Tortilla Flat, which follows the exploits of a group of Mexican-Americans in Monterey, California. In the following Literary Period: American Realist years, Steinbeck wrote several novels that focused on farming Genre: Novel life and its discontents. The most famous of these is 1937’s Of Setting: Oklahoma, California, the American Southwest Mice and Men Men. In 1939, Steinbeck published the Grapes of Climax: Rose of Sharon’s breastfeeding of a starving man Wrath, which garnered him significant critical acclaim, including Antagonist: Industrial farms, banks a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Following his success with The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck went on to publish Point of View: Third person omniscient narrator other notable works, including the 1952 novel, East of Eden Eden. Steinbeck died in New York City in 1968, at age 66. EXTRA CREDIT A Blockbuster Success: In 1940, The Grapes of Wrath was HISTORICAL CONTEXT adapted into a movie, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, The Grapes of Wrath was published while the American Great and won two. Depression—in which the economy went into freefall, destroying lives and livelihoods—had the country fully in its grip. This historical backdrop without a doubt amplified the Steinbeck’s Politics: Although Steinbeck’s politics certainly number of people who could directly relate to the destitution leaned left, and he sympathized intensely with the working Steinbeck describes. More pertinently, the Oklahoma man, he never aligned with the Communist Party. Three trips to Dustbowl was a product of drought and dust storms in the Soviet Russia only affirmed his distaste for Communism. Later 1930’s that decimated agriculture in the American prairies, on, Steinbeck developed more conservative views; he was at particularly Oklahoma. This natural disaster resulted in the first supportive of Lyndon Johnson’s stance on the war in displacement of hundreds of thousands of farming families, Vietnam, and he held the 1960’s counterculture in little who, stripped of their livelihoods, often migrated westward to esteem. California to find opportunity, much like the Joads do. PL PLO OT SUMMARY RELATED LITERARY WORKS Steinbeck’s masterpiece is in many ways a descendant of the In Oklahoma during the Great Depression, drought and dust muckraking tradition of the turn of the 20th century. storms—the Dust Bowl—have ruined farmers’ crops and Muckraking journalists often exposed the horrendous destroyed livelihoods already damaged by the failing economy. conditions that America’s lower classes had to endure in work Tom Joad is a young man from a farming family who has just and life. Several notable books from this period include Upton been paroled from prison, after serving four years on a Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906), which was an exposé of the lives of homicide charge. As Tom returns home, he meets Jim Casy, an low-wage immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry; and ex-preacher whom Tom knew as a child. Casy no longer Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Liv Lives es (1890), which offered a preaches of virtue and sin, and instead holds the unity and photojournalistic account of life in New York City’s miserable equality of human spirit as his highest ideal. Together, Tom and tenements. Additionally, events in The Grapes of Wrath are often Casy travel back to the Joad homestead, but discover that it parallels to biblical themes or occurrences, which adds gravity has been abandoned. Muley Graves, a neighbor who has stayed behind, explains to the two men that the farming families have ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 1  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com all been evicted by the landowners and the banks, who have are forced to stay in the boxcar (as opposed to go to a hospital repossessed their land and now use tractors to cultivate it. or find a midwife) while Rose of Sharon gives birth. Rose of Muley tells the men that they can find Tom’s family at the home Sharon’s baby is stillborn, and the family flees to a nearby barn of Uncle John, the brother of Tom’s father, Pa Joad. to escape the floods. There, they find a boy and his starving When Tom and Casy arrive at Uncle John’s, they find the Joads father. Ma Joad realizes that Rose of Sharon is lactating, and loading up a car in preparation to leave for California. Pa Joad she gets the rest of the family to leave while Rose of Sharon reveals that the family saw fruit-picking jobs advertised on breastfeeds the starving man. handbills, and they are heading west to take advantage of these opportunities. Once on the road, the Joads befriend a migrant couple, Ivy and Sairy Wilson, and shortly thereafter, the CHARA CHARACTERS CTERS cantankerous Grampa Joad dies of a stroke. The Wilsons travel MAJOR CHARACTERS with the Joads until the California border, where Sairy becomes too ill to continue. Noah, Tom’s older brother, abandons the Tom Joad – Tom Joad is the novel’s protagonist. At the family at this border, choosing instead to subsist on his own. beginning of the novel, he has just been paroled after serving a four-year prison sentence for killing a man in self-defense. He is On their way to California, the Joads receive disheartening strong, stoic, principled, and observant; during the trip to reports about a lack of jobs and hostility towards “Okies” in California, the Joad family comes to rely on Tom for precisely California. Once the family arrives in the state, these rumors these qualities. Tom is very principled, and injustice enrages prove to be true, and their hardships continue. Granma Joad him. This rage can get the better of him—the most notable dies during the family’s passage through the Mojave desert. example of this is when Tom retaliates for the murder of Jim The family is forced to inhabit a Hooverville, a squalid tent city Casyby killing the offending policeman. Over the course of the (named after President Herbert Hoover) where migrants live at novel, Tom comes to realize the importance and strength of the the whim of unscrupulous contractors and corrupt deputies. At migrant worker community, and at the novel's close, he has this camp, Connie Rivers—the husband of Tom’s pregnant decided to dedicate himself to organizing the workers to sister, Rose of Sharon—abandons the Joads. When Tom and a improve their quality of life. friend from the Hooverville try to negotiate better wages from a contractor, they get into a tussle with a deputy. Tom flees and Ma Joad – Ma Joad is the ferociously dedicated matron of the Casy willingly takes the blame for the fight; the preacher is Joad family. Throughout the novel she makes countless arrested and taken into custody. sacrifices for the good of her family, and is remarkably committed to keeping the family moving forward. Her The Joads leave the Hooverville and find refuge at a more confident leadership sometimes clashes with Pa’s notions, but comfortable, government-run camp. Instead of a police her willpower always wins out over his patriarchal authority. presence, the camp is governed by a committee elected by the migrants themselves. At this camp, the Joads find some comfort Jim Casy – Jim Casy is an ex-preacher who knew the Joads as and friendship, but only Tom can find work. One day, Tom far back as Tom’s childhood. Casy has since given up his discovers that the greedy Farmers’ Association, working in religion, because he is afflicted by guilt for having had relations tandem with corrupt deputies, plans to start a riot at an with some of the young women in his congregations. Casy now upcoming dance. This will give the deputies a pretense to places his faith in the remarkable power of a united human destroy the camp, which will weaken the laborers’ bargaining spirit. Throughout the book, Casy performs several acts of self- power. However, Tom and some other men discreetly pre-empt sacrifice for the common good: he saves Tom by taking the this attack, and the camp is saved. blame for a scuffle at a Hooverville, and later, he gives his life leading a strike so that peach-picking workers can earn higher The Joads are unable to survive on the income they receive at wages. the camp. They leave to find work elsewhere, and come across a peach-picking compound, where they are brought in to work Pa Joad – Pa is the easygoing head of the Joad family. He often while other migrants are on strike outside the gates. Tom feels responsible for taking care of the entire family, even when discovers that Casy is the one responsible for organizing the this task far exceeds his abilities, and he works tirelessly for the strike. Just after Tom reunites with Casy, police find them, and Joads’ benefit. He also feels guilt for his firstborn son Noah’s one of the officers kills Casy with a pickaxe in front of Tom. In poor health, as he hand-delivered Noah when the child was response, Tom kills the officer, and goes into hiding. born. Occasionally, Pa feels emasculated by Ma, who takes a more dominant role in the leadership of the family. The Joads leave to pick cotton and live out of a boxcar, while Tom hides in the wilderness nearby. The family has enough Rose of Sharon – Rose of Sharon, also referred to as money to eat fairly well, and Tom’s younger brother Al has Rosasharn, is a sister of Tom’s. She is pregnant, and married to gotten engaged to the daughter of their housemates, the Connie Rivers. Rosasharn often falls victim to superstitious Wainwrights. Suddenly, torrential rains come, and the Joads concerns about the health of her baby-to-be, and loves to ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 2  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com wallow in her guilt. At the book’s close, Rosasharn serves as an police. iconic symbol of the text by breastfeeding a grown man to Mr Mr.. Thomas – Mr. Thomas hires Tom and the Wallaces to do rescue him from starvation. pipe-laying work. He informs them of the Farmers’ Uncle John – Uncle John is Pa Joad’s brother. John is wracked Association’s plans to start a riot at the dance. with guilt over the long-past death of his young wife, whose Timoth Timothyy and Wilkie W Wallace allace – Tom meets this father-and-son complaints of pain he dismissed as harmless whining. He tries pair at the government camp. They help find him a job. to atone for his sin by living as selflessly as possible; however, Agnes WWain ainwright wright – Agnes’s family shares a boxcar with the he occasionally gives in to temptation and gets drunk. Joads when they live on a cotton plantation. She becomes Al’s Mule Muleyy Gr Graaves – A neighbor of the Joads in Oklahoma, Muley fiancée. Graves compulsively refuses to leave his land despite having The Ma Mayyor – The Mayor is a haggard man who runs the first been evicted. He hides on his former land, sleeping wherever Hooverville the Joads stay in. He has been beaten down by the he can, hunting for food, and remembering his own and his systematic oppression of the cops and other cruel institutional family’s personal history with the land. Muley also imparts powers, and can no longer bring himself to resist. advice to Tom about the repercussions of standing up to the authorities and then finding yourself hunted, foreboding Tom’s Jim Ra Rawle wleyy – Jim Rawley is the manager of the government eventual situation. camp. He treats the Joads with kindness and caring. Lisbeth Sandry – Mrs. Sandry is a Jehovite (Jehova's Witness) MINOR CHARACTERS zealot from the government camp who terrorizes Rose of Gr Grampa ampa Joad – Grampa is a curmudgeonly and somewhat Sharon to make her fear sin. depraved old man. He is reluctant to leave his home in Ezr Ezraa Huston – Ezra Huston is the chairman of the government Oklahoma, and dies shortly after the Joads begin their travels. camp committee. Gr Granma anma Joad – Granma is devoutly religious. During the Willie Eaton – Willie Eaton is the chairman of the government journey west, her health declines, and she passes away as the camp’s entertainment committee. Joads cross the desert into California. Mae the W Waitress aitress and Al the Cook – Mae and Al give a migrant Al Joad – Al is Tom’s younger brother. He greatly looks up to family a special deal on food in their roadside restaurant. Tom. Al is a skilled mechanic and a prodigious flirt, and towards The One-Ey One-Eyeded Junkyard Attendant – The one-eyed man does the end of the novel he becomes engaged to Agnes Wainwright. nothing but complain bitterly about his lonely, pathetic life. Tom Ivy and Sairy Wilson – Ivy and Sairy Wilson are a migrant urges him to get in control of his life. couple whom the Joads encounter on the road to California. They hospitably help the Joads cope with Grampa’s death. The two families travel together until they reach the California THEMES border, where Sairy falls too ill to continue. In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color- Connie Riv Rivers ers – Connie is Rose of Sharon’s immature, selfish coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes husband. He grows frustrated during the Joads arduous occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have journey, and abandons the family and his young wife. a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in Noah Joad – Noah is the oldest Joad child. He is aloof and cold; black and white. Pa suspects that his strange personality came as a result of Pa mishandling him at birth. Noah abandons the family to live on HUMANITY, INHUMANITY, AND his own when they reach the Colorado River. DEHUMANIZATION Ruthie Joad – Ruthie isTom’s kid sister. Her immature and In The Grapes of Wrath, the most brutal adversity boastful nature gets her into trouble when, to impress her the Joads face doesn’t come from the unforgiving peers, she reveals that Tom is on the lam. natural conditions of the dustbowl. Rather, the Joads and the Winfield Joad – Winfield is the youngest Joad. He is often Okie community receive the cruelest treatment from those treated cruelly by his sister Ruthie, and he takes every most capable of helping them: more fortunate individuals, opportunity to tattle on her. Towards the end of the book, he typically ones who wield institutional power. Throughout the grows very ill. book, establishments and technological advances are shown to Flo Floyyd Knowles – Floyd is a young man whom befriends in the corrupt the humans behind them. Steinbeck’s depiction of the first Hooverville. Floyd tries to stand up to a contractor but is state police shows that they’ve been perverted by their arrested on a bogus charge, and hides after an altercation with authority: in the first Hooverville the Joads occupy, an exploitative contractor comes to recruit Okies for dirt-cheap ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 3  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com labor, and the deputies that accompany him level blatantly false highlights this culture of self-sufficiency. Annie Littlefield, one accusations of theft against Floyd Knowles, Tom, and anyone of the organizers of the women’s committee, remarks that “we else who dares to protest. don't allow nobody in this camp to build theirself up that-away Similarly, the banks are beyond the control of the men that [by giving charity to others]. We don't allow nobody to give work for them, and like the industrial farms, they expand nothing to another person. They can give it to the camp, an' the unchecked, without regard for human life. As the banks and camp can pass it out. We won't have no charity!” Finally, their farms grow and grow, their owners stoop lower and lower in justified anger at being wronged by the establishment is what order to increase their profits. Some California farms even go motivates Casy and Tom to organize against the powers that so far as destroying perfectly good food in order to keep prices oppress them, in the hopes of improving their community’s high, all while starving migrants clamor for food and jobs. welfare. Steinbeck describes the modern men of industry as The Okies’ honorableness is also meant to contrast with the mechanized, unnatural beings who live detached from the land unscrupulous conduct of wealthier people. “Shitheels,” as the and in so doing have become dehumanized, unlike the farming affluent are sometimes called, are known to steal from hotels, families they displace. This hostility is contagious—even small just as banks and industrial farms extort the masses for business owners fear and resent the Okies, and local everything they’re worth. Through his descriptions of the Californians form militias to intimidate the desperate migrants. dignity and morality of Okie culture, Steinbeck glorifies their At the same time, Steinbeck occasionally shows glimpses of humble, self-sufficient lifestyle and denounces the greed of the humanity, especially in the most wretched characters. These upper classes. acts often come when a character breaks the rules of an oppressive system, which further reinforces Steinbeck’s point FAITH AND GUILT that institutions tend to be dehumanizing and morally toxic. At different times in The Grapes of Wrath, nearly all After she is extorted at a farm company store, Ma Joad of the main characters endure spiritually trying observes that “if you're in trouble or hurt or need—go to poor times. Casy is the first to address this theme when people. They're the only ones that'll help—the only ones.” The he speaks of his reformed faith: instead of the black-and-white poorest characters are often the most generous, and the teachings of Christian dogma, Casy has come to believe in a richest the most selfish. Because most Okies can barely natural unity of the human race. Tom, too, comes to this support themselves, let alone help others, every instance of realization later in the novel, after hiding from the law in the altruism becomes a powerful moment in the text. Rosasharn’s woods. Finally, Ma Joad’s determination to press forward is breastfeeding of the starving man in the book’s final scene itself a sort of faith that things will turn out all right. Notably, serves as the definitive example of the selfless altruism of the the faith these characters hold is often detached from poor. established religion. Casy abandoned his preaching because of skepticism about Christianity, and Ma Joad resists the holier- DIGNITY, HONOR, AND WRATH than-thou attitude of the "Jehovites" (Jehova's Witnesses) in Despite their destitution, Okies are shown to be the government camp. The aspects of Christianity still present extremely conscious of maintaining their honor. No in the Joads’ lives tend to resemble rituals, like saying Grace to matter how dire their circumstances, the Joads are please Granma, more than sincere beliefs. unwilling to stoop to accepting charity or stealing. When they On the flipside of the characters' faith is a sense of guilt that do accept help, they are quick to repay the debt—for example, often cripples them. Rosasharn worries constantly that her when the Wilsons offer Grampa Joad a deathbed, Al repairs baby will be harmed because of her own improper behavior and their car and Ma replaces the blanket used to shroud Grampa. the behavior of those around her. Uncle John feels responsible With this strong sense of honor comes an equally powerful for the death of his wife, and tries to atone for his sins by living notion of righteous fury: when Okies are wronged, their anger generously, although his anguish often drives him to drink. At is what gives them the strength to press onward. Toward the the emotional climax of the story—when Rosasharn delivers a end of the book, when California’s winter floods threaten the stillborn child—Pa Joad agonizes about whether there was Okies’ livelihood, Steinbeck writes that “as long as fear could more he could have done to save the baby, just as he agonizes turn to wrath,” the Okie families would be able to continue their about hurting his firstborn, Noah, when Noah was delivered. struggle. Dignity and wrath are a defining part of Okie culture. For POWERLESSNESS, PERSEVERANCE, AND instance, Steinbeck describes a migrant family that is unwilling RESISTANCE to pay anything less than the sticker price for a meal at a The novel often focuses on characters who resist in restaurant, because to pay less would be no better than situations that seem hopeless. At the beginning of stealing. The organization of the government camp also ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 4  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com the novel, the Oklahoma sharecropper families are rendered apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. … The danger powerless by the repossessing landowners. All the same, Muley is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one.” Graves remains on his land, in spite of regular run-ins with law enforcement. He knows he can’t change his circumstances, but he refuses to let go of his heritage. The land turtle that appears SYMBOLS in an early chapter, is a metaphor for the Okies’ helplessness, Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and endurance, and courage: it presses forward as humans treat it with both kindness and cruelty and even manages to right itself Analysis sections of this LitChart. when a car flips it over. Similarly, the Joads refuse to abandon their journey westward even when the obstacles they face ANIMALS seem insurmountable. Tom and Casy rebel against a corrupt Animals often embody the same important industrial and political system even though it costs Casy his life character traits that are valued in humans, and and forces Tom into hiding. people’s treatment of animals is often used to illustrate human These individual struggles symbolize the spirit of the Okie capacity for both kindness and arbitrary cruelty. For example, community as a whole. At their most desperate and most the intrepid land turtle that appears in chapter three powerless moments, the Okies rarely seem to lose their drive represents the unyielding resolve that the migrants display to work. Some strive to subvert the larger institutions that keep when traveling to California. Like the Okies, the turtle is shown them down, like the law, the banks, and the farm owners—even both kindness and malice by humans: some swerve to avoid it when these institutions seem far too powerful to overcome. on the road while others swerve to hit it. Additionally, Tom’s moral maturation is shown through his treatment of animals. FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, AND COMMUNITY Early in the story, he goes out of his way to kill a rattlesnake on Time and again in The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck the road, but later on, he reprimands Al for swerving to hit a demonstrates the profound ties and nuanced gopher snake. relationships that develop through kinship, friendship, and group identity. The arc of the Joad family shows, THE STILLBORN BABY on one hand, a cohesive unit whose love and support of one another keeps them from abandoning hope. On the other hand, Rose of Sharon’s stillborn baby is a literal however, the novel shows that this unity comes with representation of the inhumane conditions that the complications. Ma Joad’s assertive leadership strips Pa of his migrant laborers must endure. The failed pregnancy symbolizes masculine identity, and he is ashamed and embarrassed the impossibility of cultivating life in the toxic environment of whenever his wife’s determination forces him to back down in hostility, prejudice, and extortion that the Okies face day in and front of the entire clan. The cooperation and mutual assistance day out in California. Uncle John sends the baby’s remains found in the Joad family extends past blood relationships to down the floodwaters, he hopes that all who see the small other Okies as well. This give-and-take of friendly support corpse will recognize it as a symbol of the oppression and among the Okies is essential to all of the Okies' survival, abjection that prevent the migrant workers from living happily. including the Joads. Just as Wilkie Wallace helps Tom find work, the Joads are happy to assist friends they meet on their way to California, like the Wilsons. QUO QUOTES TES On a larger scale, a united community confers its own kind of Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the benefits: political strength. On several occasions, Tom marvels Penguin Books edition of The Graphs of Wrath published in at how the government camp can function without police. The 2002. camp’s Central Committee is a testament to the power of cooperation; its system of self-governance allows residents to Chapter 1 Quotes regulate themselves and discipline wrongdoers without sacrificing the camp’s independence. Working together not Women and children knew deep in themselves that no only gives Okies a way to avoid the prejudice they meet in misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole. California—it also gives them power to unionize and push for reasonable wages. Despite the vicious persecution of union leaders, many Okies remain committed to the concept of Related Themes: working together to improve their condition. As an Page Number: 4 endorsement of collaboration, Steinbeck writes, “here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep…men ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 5  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Explanation and Analysis and those around him in general. After a devastating dust storm that ruins the hard-earned crops grown on Oklahoma farms, the women and children Chapter 4 Quotes mentioned in this passage worry that the fathers and husbands will feel "broken" by their struggles. They look to “I says, ‘Maybe it ain't a sin. Maybe it's just the way folks is. these men to set a standard for how to respond: the Maybe we been whippin’ the hell out of ourselves for patriarchal structure of the family is not really questioned nothin’.’…Before I knowed it, I was sayin’ out loud, ‘The hell with throughout the book, although some of the men do struggle it! There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff with how to live up to the expectation that they be strong people do. It’s all part of the same thing. And some of the things and powerful. folks do is nice, and some ain’t nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.’” The men, however, react with wrath rather than disappointment or brokenness. As a result, the women and children perceive them as still "whole": they have gained Related Characters: Jim Casy (speaker) agency through their strong reaction and thus commit themselves to combating this difficulty, as well as any others Related Themes: that may arise. As the book begins, therefore, it at once shows anger to be a powerful, and potentially powerfully Page Number: 23 good, trait, one that can equip people like the Okies, who Explanation and Analysis lack a great deal of social, economic, or political power, with Tom Joad has met Jim Casy, a former preacher who believes a different kind of strength. that he baptized Tom long ago. Casy tells Tom why he left the church: he had been sleeping with girls in his congregation until he began to feel wracked with guilt. Here Chapter 2 Quotes he explains to Tom the progress in his thoughts concerning “…sometimes a guy'll be a good guy even if some rich his own actions and their relationship to his faith. He does bastard makes him carry a sticker.” feel that he betrayed the girls' trust, but he also cannot accept that his attraction to them was fully sinful. This Related Characters: Tom Joad (speaker) realization has made him feel that there cannot be such black and white categories as "sin" and "virtue." Instead, he Related Themes: thinks that there is a more gray area in terms of how humans should act, a gray area that is so complicated that Page Number: 7 mere humans shouldn't claim to be able to pronounce without doubt what is right and wrong. Explanation and Analysis Still, Jim Casy's reasoning is clouded by a sense that what he Tom Joad is traveling home after being released from did cannot be entirely excused. His exclamation, "The hell prison, and here he is trying to cajole a truck driver into with it!", expresses his frustration with the categories that giving him a ride, even though the truck bears a sticker that are available to him, as he searches for meaning that would reads "No Riders" on it. Tom appeals to the driver's sense of be more satisfying than the empty-seeming rules and decency and community, one that for Tom exists between dictates of his religion. fellow inhabitants of the dusty Midwest. This community, he implies, has nothing to do with the centralized, powerful corporation that attempts to dictate how things are run far away. “maybe it's all men an’ all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit—the human sperit—the whole shebang. Tom thus makes a strong distinction between the "rich Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ Now I sat bastard" that holds the money and power, and the "good there thinkin’ it, an’ all of a suddent—I knew it. I knew it so deep guy" that may be more economically vulnerable, but makes down that it was true, and I still know it.” up for it by emphasizing his goodness and humanity. Of course, these lofty sentiments have a more practical side as well, since it's in Tom's interest to have the truck driver give Related Characters: Jim Casy (speaker) him a ride, but the passage is also a legitimate example of the way Tom attempts to claim greater dignity for himself Related Themes: ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 6  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Chapter 6 Quotes Page Number: 24 “If on’y they didn’t tell me I got to get off, why, I’d prob’y be Explanation and Analysis in California right now a-eatin’ grapes an’ a-pickin’ an orange when I wanted. But them sons-a-bitches says I got to get As Jim Casy continues talking to Tom about his struggle off—an’, Jesus Christ, a man can’t, when he’s tol’ to!” with his faith, he strikes a more positive note as he searches for an alternative to the strict categories of sin and virtue that he has long since decided are insufficient. He continues Related Themes: to make use of some of the terms and beliefs that were part of his arsenal as a preacher, but here he uses the idea of the Page Number: 47 Holy Spirit, for instance, to describe something different than the figure in the Bible. Jim Casy instead develops a Explanation and Analysis notion of an all-encompassing sense of humanity, a Tom has met Muley Graves, who is the sole person to stay community that all can be a part of, and a community behind when all the other tenant farmers have been evicted defined by love rather than guilt. by the landowners. Here, he attempts to explain why. Muley's reasoning may seem convoluted: essentially, he is suggesting that if no one had told him to leave, he may well Chapter 5 Quotes have left by himself, and he'd already be in California in a Some of the owner men were kind because they hated much more pleasant situation than he finds himself in now. what they had to do, and some of them were angry because However, what Muley can't stomach is the principle of the they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because matter - the idea that someone can tell him when he can and they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless cannot leave his land. In response, he embraces one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger stubbornness and commits himself to staying. Muley is not than themselves. acting with the same cold, calculating, and rational judgment as those who hold power above him. Instead, he chooses another kind of reaction, one that emphasizes the inherent Related Themes: dignity of the individual and his ability to resist. Page Number: 31 Chapter 8 Quotes Explanation and Analysis “I ain’t sayin’ I’m like Jesus…But I got tired like Him, an’ I got This passage describes the tense relationship between the mixed up like Him, an’ I went into the wilderness like Him, landowners or "owner men" and the tenant farmers. The without no campin’ stuff…Sometimes I’d pray like I always done. landowners have the power to tell the tenant farmers when On’y I couldn’ figure what I was prayin’ to or for. There was the they must leave the land so that the banks that are really hills, an’ there was me, an’ we wasn’t separate no more. We was directing these affairs can profit more from the land. The one thing. An’ that one thing was holy.” narrator describes these men in a variety of ways, from angry to cold to kind. Ultimately, it's suggested, it doesn't really matter which attitude the landowners take, since they Related Characters: Jim Casy (speaker) are participating in a cruel process anyway, one that seems to forget that the tenant farmers are also complex people Related Themes: with desires and needs of their own. Page Number: 81 In some ways, though, the anger of the landowners can be understood as similar to the anger of the tenant farmers. Explanation and Analysis For both, wrath is a way to regain a piece of control over a Granma has asked Casy to say grace with the family before situation that they cannot conquer. Here, the landowners they can begin eating. Casy's rigorous Christian belief may be powerful compared to the farmers, but they too are system has long since eroded, but even as he lacks a caught up in larger processes, which are directed by far- confidence in his own faith, he still finds the structures of away corporations. As a result, it comes to seem as though the religion to be a reference point that gives him a way to these processes will unfold inevitably, no matter what process how he acts and what he does. As a result, Casy's individuals think about them. grace is rambling and sometimes confusing. He draws on ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 7  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Chapter 10 Quotes the famous Bible story of Jesus going into the wilderness to pray, and being tempted by demons, to help him explain his And now they [the Joads] were weary and frightened own struggles with temptation and his own distancing from because they had gone against a system they did not society. understand and it had beaten them. Once again, however, Casy attempts to turn to an alternative to the strict catechism of Christianity, one that Related Characters: Ma Joad, Tom Joad, Pa Joad, Rose of emphasizes community and common humanity over Sharon, Grampa Joad, Granma Joad, Al Joad personal striving. This sense of community is what Casy continues to think of as "holy," even if it has little to do with Related Themes: traditional Christian beliefs. It is ironic but also significant that Casy uses grace - a short ritual that for most people is Page Number: 97 just something to get through before a meal - as an Explanation and Analysis opportunity for real spiritual questioning. Some of the members of the family had gone into town to sell everything in the house that they can. They have returned, however, with only eighteen dollars for all of it. Chapter 9 Quotes They felt that their belongings were worth much more, but To California or any place—every one a drum major leading the buyer wouldn't pay more than that for them, and they a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some could not find a way to "beat" this system. This is the first day—the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. hint for the Joads that their plan of salvation, their And they'll all walk together, and there'll be a dead terror from migration to California, will be beset with difficulties just as it. great as those they have faced in Oklahoma. Their battles with the "system" will not end just because they are leaving this one physical place. Indeed, it is their lack of Related Themes: understanding how exactly this system works, and what its power might have in store for them, that increases their Page Number: 88 suspicion and even despair before the long road ahead of Explanation and Analysis them. The perspective of the book has switched, in this chapter, to tenant farmers preparing to leave for California, and to one in particular who is disillusioned by the process of selling his “It ain't kin we? It's will we?” …As far as ‘kin,’ we can’t do belongings: his tools are now useless because of new nothin’, not go to California or nothin’; but as far as ‘will,’ technology, and he feels that he himself is now just as why, we’ll do what we will. An’ as far as ‘will’—it’s a long time our useless. California is treated by some in the book as a folks been here and east before, an' I never heerd tell of no marvelous land of opportunity, a place to recover some of Joads or no Hazletts, neither, ever refusin’ food an’ shelter or a the agency and stability that the tenant farmers have lost in lift on the road to anybody that asked. They’s been mean Joads, Oklahoma. but never that mean.” This farmer, however, begins to feel as though California is not just a random choice but a useless one. Wherever he Related Characters: Ma Joad (speaker) and his fellow farmers go, he believes, they will be pursued by the sense of hopelessness that has defined their work up Related Themes: until now. If there's any sliver of hope left, it's in the fact that there are so many people like this that they make up "armies Page Number: 102 of bitterness," a group of people bound by shared Explanation and Analysis experiences even if those experiences are desperate. The family has begun to debate whether or not Casy will be allowed to come with the Joads to California. At first Pa Joad isn't sure, but soon his wife begins to overrule him. By making a distinction between "can" and "will," she reminds her family that so many of their struggles have been based on a seeming impossibility of "can": that is, a sense that they ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 8  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com don't have the material means to gain power over their own extracted from them; in addition, it means that people situation. themselves will feel less strongly a sense of humanity in its However, precisely because their capabilities are so connection to the place they live. uncertain, Ma Joad believes that it is crucial to express their will in whatever they can - to commit to certain actions regardless of whether they might seem impossible or Chapter 12 Quotes hopeless. For her, these actions must align with certain The people in flight from the terror behind—strange things values that are defining traits of the family, including happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that kindness and generosity. By referring to her and her the faith is refired forever. husband's ancestors, Ma Joad reminds her family of their long heritage in Oklahoma, and how these families have countered the economic and social fragility of their lives Related Themes: with the dignity and responsibility that comes from emphasizing community. Page Number: 122 Explanation and Analysis Chapter 11 Quotes For this chapter, the narrator has zoomed in on the experience of one migrant family in particular. A crooked That man who is more than his chemistry, walking on the salesman, knowing that they are desperate, tries to sell earth, turning his plow point for a stone, dropping his handles them a tire for an exorbitant price. After refusing and to slide over an outcropping, kneeling in the earth to eat his continuing to limp along with a broken trailer, the family lunch; that man who is more than his elements knows the land finally enlists the help of another driver and manages to that is more than its analysis. But the machine man, driving a arrive to California. As a result, this family's experience is a dead tractor on land he does not know and love, understands typical reminder of the various ways that humans can treat only chemistry; and he is contemptuous of the land and of each other, some of which include acting as though other himself. people are simply instruments of one's own power and wealth. Other attitudes, though, value strangers as fellow travelers and fellow humans. Related Themes: The narrator thus stresses that it is impossible to extract Page Number: 115-116 any one conclusion from the struggles of these migrant farmers, apart, perhaps, from the inherent complexity and Explanation and Analysis inconsistency of humanity. Still, we also see in this passage Here the narrator describes certain changes taking place as that the families are desperate enough to leave behind the a result of technological progress coming to replace humans "terror" of their past life that they will cling to "beautiful" with tractors and other machines on the farms of things more than "cruel" ones. The small examples of Oklahoma. By creating distance between the land and the kindness and community will have to be enough to enable person using it, between labor and its means, the narrator them to persevere on their journey. suggests that such changes are alienating people from the very source of their stability and livelihood. Farmers who are close to the land, who physically have to kneel down and Chapter 13 Quotes rummage through the dirt, understand that the land is not “We’re proud to help. I ain’t felt so—safe in a long time. just there to gain profits for him or for far-away People needs—to help.” corporations: instead, it is powerful and important in itself, as well as closely bound with farmers' own self-definitions. Related Characters: Ivy and Sairy Wilson (speaker) As technology continues to distance people from their sources of wealth and resources, the narrator suggests, Related Themes: people come to look scornfully on this land, failing to understand the mutual interdependence between humans Page Number: 141 and environment. This does not only mean that vast landscapes will be transformed into ugly, barren outdoor Explanation and Analysis factories, useless except for the money that can be ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 9  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Granpa has just died, and the family is making preparations Related Themes: to bury him on the own. Earlier, the Joads had met a couple, the Wilsons, whose car had broken down, and after initially Page Number: 151 exchanging tense remarks, Tom's appeal to their common humanity had helped to ease the situation. Although Explanation and Analysis Granpa's death has happened only shortly after their After detailing the desires of humans fighting for greater meeting, the Wilsons now feel close enough to the Joads to dignity and banding together in communities in order to do want to help in whatever way they can, in order to maintain so, the narrator turns to the enemies of these communities: Granpa's dignity even in a fragile situation. Friendship and the landowners and corporations who care little about the community, this passage suggests, may be just as fragile, but lives of these people who are so less powerful than they can also be powerful signals of common humanity. themselves. The narrator frames the differences between Indeed, as Sairy implies here, the act of helping another can these two groups in the form of rhetorical "advice" that he be a positive force even for the person who offers gives to those in power. While it is important for workers assistance. and the poor to express their common humanity through community, for those in power the opposite is necessary: they must continually break down the bonds of common Chapter 14 Quotes humanity in order to prevent real change from happening. Fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a To do so, the narrator suggests, those in power must turn concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and individuals against each other, encouraging them to suspect this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe. and harbor ill will towards each other. As a result, they will be able to maintain their own power over others just as they break down the dignity of those over whom they rule. Related Themes: Page Number: 151 Chapter 16 Quotes Explanation and Analysis “It don't make no sense. This fella wants eight hundred The narrator is describing the changes taking place in the men. So he prints up five thousand of them things an' maybe West as a result of the influx of migrant farmers, some of twenty thousan' people sees 'em. An' maybe two-three whom are fighting for better wages and work quality. The thousan' folks gets movin' account a this here han'bill. Folks narrator suggests that what they are really fighting for, that's crazy with worry.” however, is a sense of dignity and respect that the landowners involved refuse to give them. What is called the "concept" is this broader motivation behind the fight for Related Themes: change: while specific, material desires stir people onward, it is the belief in certain broader values that really defines Page Number: 189 humans and convinces them that a better life is possible. Explanation and Analysis This process of change and perseverance is only possible, Pa has met an exhausted, downtrodden-looking man at it's suggested, when a group of people bands together, so camp who is coming back from California. He is one of the that life becomes not just a question of the individual I, but first pieces of proof that California may not be the paradise of humanity or "Manself" all together. Indeed, it is this that the Joad family had hoped it would be. The Joads, like community of strivers that defines what humans are and many other families, have learned about the opportunities can be. for workers in the West through advertisements that have promised work and a decent living. However, according to this man, the landowners advertised so much in order to Here is the node, you who hate change and fear have a large influx of labor, so that they could then haggle revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make down the cost and exploit the workers. them hate, fear, suspect each other…the danger is here, for two The man's estimations perhaps "make no sense" from a men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. strictly factual point of view, but he knows well that the strategy does make sense from a business point of view. The ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 10  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Chapter 18 Quotes landowners have an advantage in terms of money, time, and resources, and they use that advantage to the best of their “They's a time of change, an' when that comes, dyin' is a ability to keep the workers (whom they nonetheless need) piece of all dyin', and bearin' is a piece of all bearin', an bearin' as powerless as possible. The man only briefly alludes to the an' dyin' is two pieces of the same thing. An' then things ain't consequences of this strategy, which makes already lonely any more. An' then a hurt don't hurt so bad, cause it ain't desperate people even more desperate, particularly after a lonely hurt no more, Rosasharn. I wisht I could tell you so having overcome obstacles in order to arrive at a place they you'd know, but I can't.” thought would be stable and welcoming. Related Characters: Ma Joad (speaker), Rose of Sharon Chapter 17 Quotes Related Themes: At first the families were timid in the building and tumbling Page Number: 210 worlds, but gradually the technique of building worlds became their technique. Then leaders emerged, then laws were made, Explanation and Analysis then codes came into being. And as the worlds moved Granma seems to be losing her mind, as she starts speaking westward they were more complete and better furnished, for incoherently and imagining that her husband is there with their builders were more experienced in building them. her. Rose of Sharon is worried about her, and here Ma Joad attempts to reassure her. She does so by making an appeal to the larger forces that structure human life. Giving birth, Related Themes: bearing children, and dying are all part of the same process, she says, and it is impossible to have one without the other. Page Number: 194 Ma Joad takes solace in this vision of death, because it Explanation and Analysis suggests that we are not alone - that what seems The Joads have joined one of the many camps that have frightening, unknown, and lonely to us in fact fits into a sprung up where migrant workers making the same journey broader meaning. as they stop for the night to rest. These moments are Ma Joad does seem to have developed her own beliefs initially fraught with tension. The travelers don't know each about life and death beyond what her Christian heritage has other, for the most part, and recognize that they are all taught her. Instead, she draws on all that she's learned going in pursuit of the same jobs, so they could consider regarding the ability for humans to come together in a each other as natural competitors. However, this is not what community. This community might be fragile, but she happens. Instead, they begin to band together in makeshift continues to believe in it enough for it to structure her communities. beliefs. The narrator describes the building of such communities almost as if he were describing the historical development of society out of individuals and smaller units: indeed, in Chapter 19 Quotes many ways the journey west recalls the more monumental And the great owners, who must lose their land in an historical journey of humans through time. Initially, these upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to groups are rudimentary, but over time they grow more read history and to know the great fact: when property complex. While the novel is certainly critical of some accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that complex social organizations, landowning corporations companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and among them, this passage shows that not all communities cold they will take by force what they need. And the little have to be ruthless or small-minded. Instead, those in screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression charge of creating bonds between people can learn from works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. their mistakes through time, and work in support of human connection rather than against it. Related Themes: Page Number: 238 Explanation and Analysis ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 11  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Throughout this chapter, the narrative zooms in and out, of dignity. focusing first on the larger history behind those who owned and took over the land in the West, and then on the specific experiences of the Okies who are forced to move west Chapter 21 Quotes because of the selfishness and greed of the landowners. The great companies did not know that the line between Here, the narrator suggests that these landowners are blind hunger and anger is a thin line. to this cycle of history. They think themselves exceptional because of their powerful grip on others weaker than they are, because of their ability to erase the dignity of their Related Themes: workers. But the narrator points out that the desire to rebel against unjust power never goes away: it is a defining fact of Page Number: 284 human history. Through these powerful lines, Steinbeck suggests that the Explanation and Analysis story he is writing is only one part of a bigger history. His As the situation of the migrant farmers becomes more characters may seem desperate and constantly desperate, the book states, these people no longer seem like dehumanized, and their experiences may be in some ways real people, nor even like farmers, but rather begin to be unique, but in other ways their lives fit into a narrative defined solely as migrants torn from their homes and unable about progress, resistance, and struggle for human rights to settle into a new home. The "great companies" described and recognition. The book itself might not include any here are eager to squeeze out as much work as they revolutions or even political battles, but these remain in the possibly can from the migrants, who are unable to support background, relevant to everything else that happens. themselves or their families with their meager earnings. Instead, they grow hungrier and hungrier. The companies believe this hunger to be something manageable: indeed, Chapter 20 Quotes they may even believe that hunger makes these people more docile and less willing to rise up against the unjust “Well, when the cops come in, an’ they come in all a time, forces affecting their lives. What the narrator suggests, that’s how you wanta be. Dumb—don’t know nothin’. Don’t however, is that hunger is not something meek and quiet understan’ nothin’. That’s how cops like us…be bull-simple.” but rather another kind of wrath. And in this book, of course, wrath can be powerful and good, a force that can Related Characters: Floyd Knowles (speaker) provoke change and remind characters that they are alive enough to fight. Related Themes: Page Number: 248 Chapter 22 Quotes Explanation and Analysis “We ain’t never had no trouble with the law. I guess the big Tom has met another worker, Floyd Knowles, who gives him farmers is scairt of that. Can’t throw us in jail—why, it scares some tips about how to navigate in the world of the farms. ‘em. Figger maybe if we can gove’n ourselves, maybe we’ll do These farms are tense and fraught with danger because of other things.” the constant prowling and hostility of the police. The police are always looking for migrant workers who might be doing Related Characters: Timothy and Wilkie Wallace (speaker) something wrong. While they believe that all the workers are below them in the social hierarchy, they also can readily Related Themes: believe that these migrant workers aren't small enough to cause too much trouble. Page Number: 297 Floyd recommends that Tom take advantage of this bias and Explanation and Analysis prejudice by acting just as dumb as the police probably think he is. In a twisted way, this performance becomes a way for Tom has befriended more people who are savvier regarding the migrant workers to regain some measure of power over how to navigate the difficult and sometimes dangerous their own situations. By managing, even if only partially, a terrain of farm work. Together, though, Timothy, Wilkie, and biased system, they can continue to feel some small degree Tom have learned from Mr. Thomas about the Farmer's ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 12  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Chapter 24 Quotes Association's plans to stir up trouble at the camp so as to be able to bring in the police. Here Timothy expresses “They're gettin' purty mean out here. Burned that camp an' frustration that even the smallest signs of community beat up folks. I been thinkin'. All our folks got guns. I been creation and of self-sufficiency among the migrant workers, thinkin' maybe we ought to get up a turkey shootin' club an' such as appointing their own leaders and managing some of have meetin's ever' Sunday.” their own affairs, are looked upon as threatening by those in power above them. Related Themes: For Timothy, those in power are frustrated that they cannot use the one biased tool at their disposal - the law - to Page Number: 345 oppress the workers, since they are not breaking the law. Any degree of independence among these workers is looked Explanation and Analysis on as a possibility of further resistance or rebellion, one that A man at the dance tells Pa about a story he heard must be immediately quashed. concerning another group of workers, this time outside Ohio. These people also wanted to fight for better wages and living situations, he says, but they were barred at every “Well, sir, Hines says, 'A red is any son-of-a-bitch that turn. Finally, in a symbolic show of force, thousands of them wants thirty cents an hour when we're payin' twenty-five!' took their rifles and marched through the center of town on Well, this young fella he thinks about her, an' he scratches his their way to the turkey shoot, before marching back - and head, an' he says, 'Well, Jesus, Mr. Hines. I ain't a son-of-a- since then they haven't had any trouble. The man suggests bitch, but if that's what a red is—why, I want thirty cents an that even if force will not get them anywhere that peaceful hour. Ever'body does. Hell, Mr. Hines, we're all reds.'” protest hasn't, it might still be an effective political move for the workers to show that they do have strength in numbers, even if the gesture is largely symbolic. He suggests that by Related Characters: Timothy and Wilkie Wallace (speaker) mounting their own "turkey shoot," the workers might be able to assert their own dignity as well as their closely-knit Related Themes: community in a way that might send a powerful message to Page Number: 298 their bosses. Explanation and Analysis Timothy continues to express his frustration about the lack Chapter 25 Quotes of justice he's experienced as a farmworker from those in The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, power. Here he tells the others about a conversation he had and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get with a certain Mr. Hines. "Reds" are Communists, but the the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they term was also used for anyone suspected of having left- stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the leaning politics. When Timothy attempted to ask Mr. Hines screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick- what the exact definition of a "red" was, it soon became lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying clear that for Mr. Hines, the word was only an excuse: by ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in calling someone a "red" he could threaten greater the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of repercussions from the police and thus ensure that no one the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, would dare to ask for thirty cents an hour rather than growing heavy for the vintage. twenty-five. Mr. Hines seems to have no shame about his calculating attempts to keep his workers poor and powerless. Related Themes: Meanwhile, Timothy embraces the politically dangerous term "reds" to underline just how unjust he sees the system Page Number: 349 to be, turning Mr. Hines's logic on its head to claim that reds Explanation and Analysis must define all the workers, no matter their political beliefs. This passage describes what happens when there is a good harvest and too much food is left over after the expected supply is picked and dispatched. The business owners don't want there to be too great a supply, or else prices will go ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 13  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com down and they'll risk losing money. For them, it is even too learned that they tend to be more compassionate and much a business risk to allow the farmers to collect the food understanding, more willing to forge bonds of community that remains for their own use. than those who, paradoxically, have more. This refusal seems to change the businessmen's actions from a merely shrewd business strategy to an attitude meant precisely to dehumanize the workers, to emphasize Chapter 28 Quotes their powerlessness at the hands of those who hire them. “But now I been thinkin' what he said, an' I can The workers are indeed forced to watch the potatoes, remember—all of it. Says one time he went out in the oranges, and pigs be destroyed, without being able to do wilderness to find his own soul, an' he foun' he didn' have no anything about it. It is this sense of despair, and not only the soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a shocking gap between the overabundance of food and the great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little hungry, weak farmers that are responsible for picking it, piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was that makes the "souls of the people" so heavy. The final line whole. Funny how I remember. Didn' think I was even listenin'. of this passage gives the book its title. The sentence uses a But I know now a fella ain't no good alone.” metaphor of wine vineyards, appropriate given the cultivation work of these migrant workers, to describe a Related Characters: Tom Joad (speaker), Jim Casy growing feeling of despair and anger among them. Like the grapes that grow heavy as harvest approaches, these Related Themes: workers too are building up their wrath to an unknown but inevitable point in the future at which they will no longer be Page Number: 418 able to stand what they are forced to experience. Explanation and Analysis Tom's secret is out, and he will now have to flee the camp in Chapter 26 Quotes order not to be caught and punished for his crime. As Ma “Learnin' it all a time, ever' day. If you're in trouble or hurt Joad generously gives him much of her savings, they talk or need—go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll about what Tom will do next. The book has come a long way help—the only ones.” from its beginnings, with Jim Casy's rambling remarks on what he learned since deciding to leave his position as preacher, but it turns out that Casy's words have actually Related Characters: Ma Joad (speaker) had an enormous impact on Tom - even though even Tom didn't realize that he was affected by them at the time. Related Themes: Tom too is in search of a bigger, more meaningful Page Number: 376 community, and he is struck by the recollection that for Jim Casy, isolating oneself in the wilderness is actually no Explanation and Analysis guarantee of goodness. Instead, Tom is convinced that he Because of the unjust business strategy of the owners, must try to work with others to enact change. Like Casy, which means that the Joad family is making even less money Tom is developing an alternative to the official catechism of than before, Ma is forced to ask the shopkeeper to lend her the Christian faith he was born with, attempting to money for the food she needs. The shopkeeper agrees, but understand how humans relate to one another and how this apparent show of generosity is a deceitful façade: the they might better connect. shopkeeper has inflated the prices at the store to take advantage of the workers' desperation, and it is in his best interests to keep people like Ma Joad dependent on him. Chapter 29 Quotes Ma Joad seethes with anger, as she is forced yet again to And the women sighed with relief, for they knew it was all reckon with the fact that even people who occupy the same right—the break had not come; and the break would never general community as she does can too often be cruel and come as long as fear could turn to wrath. calculating. She realizes that the family must carefully weigh Tiny points of grass came through the earth, and in a few days whom to trust and whom to remain suspicious of. One the hills were pale green with the beginning year. possible way of judging such a test, she decides, is poverty: even though poor people have less to give, Ma Joad has ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 14  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Chapter 30 Quotes Related Themes: “Go down an' tell 'em. Go down in the street an' rot an' tell 'em that way. That's the way you can talk. Don' even know if you Page Number: 435 was a boy or a girl. Ain't gonna find out. Go on down now, an' lay Explanation and Analysis in the street. Maybe they'll know then.” The beginning of The Grapes of Wrath had described a severe drought in Oklahoma that was devastating for the Related Characters: Uncle John (speaker) farms and those who worked on them. Now it is the opposite, a flood and not a drought, that strikes fear once Related Themes: again into the hearts of the women. And here, once again, their fears are assuaged by realizing that their husbands Related Symbols: and fathers have chosen anger over fear: for them, this sentiment ensures that they will continue to act, rather than Page Number: 448 being broken and rendered passive by what has happened Explanation and Analysis to them. Rosasharn's baby has been born stillborn, the ultimate sign The end of this passage suggests that even the darkest of how the conditions in which the Joads find themselves times eventually give way to something better. The imagery afford so little possibility for life. Here, Uncle John puts the has to do with the cyclical process of nature, but it also dead infant into a box and sends it down the current. He recalls the Biblical story of the great flood, which washed knows that, as things stand, the baby's death will remain away human sin and allowed humanity to begin again. unknown and unacknowledged by the world outside the Perseverance, for these workers, does not mean that they desperate migrant camps. By sending it down into town, he will suddenly become successful or that their problems will hopes that the body will bear witness to the desperation of be magically resolved, but there is some solace to be had in these workers, and their despair in the face of apathy and the knowledge that they will live to see even slightly better inhumanity on the part of other people. If others finally days. "know," perhaps, Uncle John will have done his part in sharing these people's experiences with the world, and in helping to change their reality, even if only slightly and slowly. ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 15  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com SUMMARY AND ANAL ANALYSIS YSIS The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart. CHAPTER 1 Beginning in the month of May, a drought damages the The book opens with a bleak depiction of the dustbowl. Every hope cornfields of Oklahoma. As the land’s fertility wanes, the earth for rain that appears is promptly crushed by nature. The author’s and the sky grow steadily more pale. In June, wind blows away repetition of the word “pale” highlights the gradual destruction of all clouds that offered any chance of rain. This wind increases. the landscape. Soon, Oklahoma is engulfed in a furious dust storm that ruins the crops beyond saving. Farming families look in dazed disbelief at the harm the The impoverished Oklahoma farmers will persevere in weather has done to their fields. Women worry that their circumstances that seem hopeless. It’s important to note that the husbands will “break,” and children worry that their mothers men’s wrath—“anger” instead of passive “dismay”—is what assures and fathers will “break.” Yet the farming men’s initial dismay their families that they won’t give up. And it isn't catastrophe that turns to anger, and this reassures their wives and children: destroys a person—it's giving up. “women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole.” The men then begin to think of what to do next. CHAPTER 2 Tom Joad, a protagonist of the novel, is introduced. He is young, Tom’s new clothes are an inconvenience, and they contrast sharply tall, and weather-beaten. He has just been released from with his weather-worn body. By taking a seat on the running-board serving a four-year prison sentence for homicide, and he wears of the truck in spite of the “No Riders” sticker, Tom shows that he’s the new, ill-fitting suit that was given to him upon his release. self-assured and comfortable breaking rules. Tom has walked to a roadside restaurant to hitch a ride home. He takes a seat on the running board of a truck, even though he notices that the truck bears a “No Riders” sticker. When the truck driver returns and seems wary of giving Tom a Tom’s comment about the rich emphasizes the way those in power ride, Tom appeals to the trucker: “sometimes a guy’ll be a good impose arbitrary rules to prevent people from helping each other. guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.” The The driver helps in order not to seem inhospitable or supportive of trucker, sensing that he’s being “trapped” by Tom’s words, the wealthy. agrees to let Tom ride. Tom explains that he’s on his way back to his father’s forty acre The driver’s surprised comment foreshadows the discovery Tom will farm. The driver is surprised to hear that a forty-acre "cropper" make a few chapters later, when he comes across his family’s managed to escape the destruction of the dust storms or abandoned farmhouse, and also makes it clear that nature isn't the repossession by landowners. Tom responds that he hasn’t only thing the small farmers have to contend with. heard any news lately, since he and his father, while literate, don’t write letters to one another. ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 16  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Throughout the ride, the truck driver pressures Tom for more Tom’s quiet confidence contrasts with the driver’s insecure babbling. information about himself—his questions “spread nets” and “set The driver’s reference to the loneliness of life on the road prefigures traps.” Tom senses this “secret investigating casualness,” and the long journey to California that the Joads will soon undertake, answers the trucker’s questions standoffishly, choosing to and it highlights the value of companionship during hard times. remain mostly silent as the driver rambles. The trucker notices Tom’s reticence and explains that the loneliness of life on the road is what makes him so talkative. Finally, once the truck nears Tom’s destination, Tom With this candid outburst, Tom shows that he doesn’t much like acknowledges the driver’s nosiness: “You give me a goin’-over deception. Tom’s willingness to tell the driver about his time in jail when I first got in. I seen you.” He then explains that he received shows that he isn’t ashamed of his past. a seven-year sentence in McAlester prison for homicide; he’s out early on parole. After exchanging goodbyes, Tom gets out at a dirt road and the truck pulls away. CHAPTER 3 A turtle moves slowly across a run-down highway, struggling to Throughout the book, animals often represent the concept of climb a steep embankment. As it works its way across the road, powerlessness. The turtle’s persistence in the face of adversity a woman in a sedan swerves to avoid running it over, and the symbolizes the perseverance of the Oklahoma farmers, who, like the turtle continues plodding on. Soon after, a man in a truck comes turtle, receive both kind and malicious treatment from the humans down the road, and goes out of his way to run the turtle over. they encounter. The turtle is thrown across the highway and lands on its back. It slowly manages to turn itself over, and continues on its way, down the embankment on the other side of the highway. CHAPTER 4 After watching the truck depart, Tom walks down the road Tom’s treatment of the defenseless turtle gives a glimpse into his barefoot, with his shoes wrapped in his coat. He comes across a character at this point. He is neither kind nor cruel, just observant; turtle and turns it on its back. After watching the turtle flail and he doesn’t use his power to hurt or to help. wet itself in fear, Tom picks it up and carries it off wrapped in his coat. Tom finds a man sitting in the shade of a tree, singing a hymn. This encounter shows how close-knit Tom’s community is. Even The man recognizes Tom, and gives his name as Jim Casy. Casy after years apart, Tom and Casy remember one another, and are is a former preacher, and claims to remember baptizing Tom, immediately comfortable together. back when Tom was a young boy fixated on pulling girls’ pigtails. The two share a drink of whisky from Tom’s flask. ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 17  Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Casy goes on to explain why he has given up being a preacher. Casy occupies somewhat of a moral gray area. He abused the trust He tells Tom that he was plagued by guilt for having sex with of women in his congregation, but he seems to be genuinely girls from his congregations, but found himself unable to stop. remorseful for his actions. Casy’s guilt stems from the black-and- After agonizing about seducing the young women he felt white teachings of sin and virtue that he believed while he was responsible for, Casy concluded that he doesn’t really believe in preaching. His re-evaluation of his faith shows less of a focus on the Christian concept of sin. Rather, he “loves people” and absolute judgments like good and evil, and instead emphasizes doesn’t feel comfortable judging their actions. For Casy, the common humanity. Holy Spirit is the “one big soul ever’body’s a part of.” Casy is relieved to hear that Tom remembers his baptism experience with indifference, because Casy’s guilt makes him worry about having done one of his congregants harm during his time preaching. Casy asks Tom about his father, Ol’ Tom Joad, and Tom Tom’s explanation of his crime to Casy includes a new detail: the confesses that he hasn’t heard anything from him in four years. murder was in self-defense. This makes Tom’s moral situation less Tom explains that he served time for killing a man with a shovel clear—he isn’t a stone-cold murderer, as he led the trucker to in self-defense, after he was assaulted with a knife at a dance. believe, but he isn’t perfectly innocent, either. His comment about Tom remarks that his jail time wasn’t all that unpleasant, since jail reveals how bad things are for the poor during the Depression; he was kept clean and fed. jail’s pretty good compared to that poverty. The two men head off in the direction of