The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 1 Summary
There's big-time drought in Oklahoma, folks. Everything dries up under the fierce sun.
In mid-June, dark rain clouds form up above, but they pass by without dropping rain.
In the wake of the rain clouds come fierce winds, and the winds kick up the dry earth and the dust that has for so long
been baking under the sun.
Dust storms form, and they are so thick that you can't even see the sun. They drive the Oklahomans inside their
homes.
The crops are ruined.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 2 Summary
A truck driver makes small talk in a diner with a waitress.
Outside a man hangs out around the truck driver's truck. This man is wearing brand new clothes. They aren't fancy
clothes, but they are brand spankin' new.
The truck driver pays his bill and goes out to his truck, only to find this sketchy man milling about.
The sketchy man asks the truck driver if he can hitch a ride with him. Truck driver is all, "Didn't you see my NO
HITCHIKERS sign?"
The man convinces the truck driver to give him a ride, and the two have a somewhat awkward drive together.
The truck driver is really nosy, keeps asking the sketchy man questions, and talks about how he wants to study
mechanical engineering one day.
The sketchy man has a real name, and it's Tom Joad.
Tom drinks whiskey and chitchats with the truck driver.
When Tom tells the truck driver to pull over and let him out, he thanks him for his generosity, but tells him not to be so
nosy. He also tells the truck driver that he's just gotten out of prison, where he's been for the past four years after
being convicted of killing a man. Dun-dun-dun (dramatic music).
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 3 Summary
This chapter is about a turtle, but not just any turtle – a really tough turtle.
Lots of things get in this turtle's way. For example a fire ant crawls into his shell (ouch).
Why did the turtle cross the road? To avoid the crazy drivers. One woman swerves out of the way in order not to hit
our favorite turtle. Another driver intentionally tries to hit our turtle.
Don't worry, the turtle is OK. That shell does come in handy.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 4 Summary
Tom drinks some whiskey by the side of the road, and he watches the truck driver drive away.
Tom spies a turtle, and he picks it up and wraps it in his coat. He can feel it struggling to get free.
It's a really hot day today, and Tom has to walk a fair distance. He decides to rest underneath a willow tree.
A strange man is resting under the willow and is singing a song.
The strange man recognizes Tom, and Tom realizes that he's staring at his childhood preacher.
The preacher's name is Reverend Jim Casy, but as it turns out, he's no longer a preacher. Casy left the religious life
a while back and decided to leave town.
Casy tells Tom about the various sins he committed while he was a preacher, not the least of which was sleeping
with the female congregants. A lot. Apparently, there was a good deal of rolling around in the grass, if you catch our
drift
The preacher had a ton of guilt about sleeping with his congregants, but he started to think about the idea of sin. He
says, "There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing" (4.35).
Casy starts to wax a bit philosophical. He tells Tom that he believes that all men's souls are part of one giant,
universal soul. He believes all humans are connected in this way.
Tom tells Casy about being sent to jail for killing a man. FYI, Tom is not ashamed of anything.
The way Tom describes it, the McAlester State Penitentiary is a pretty sweet deal. You get fed on time every single
day, you get clean clothes, and you can take baths all the time.
Tom and Casy decide to brave the fierce sun and make their way to the Joad farm, Tom's homeland.
As they get closer and closer to the Joad property, Tom begins to walk down memory lane. He remembers how his
Uncle John traded his father spools of wire in exchange for a pig. He ate the pig in one night and got really sick.
Tom and Casy finally catch sight of the Joad home, but something is amiss. It looks like a ghost town.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 5 Summary
The landowners and their representatives have to kick tenant farmers off the land. (Tenant farmers are
sharecropping families that work the land and give a cut of the profit that comes from the crops to the
landowner).
Because of the drought, the crops have been ruined, and the tenant farmers haven't been able to pay the landowners
for the land.
The landowners are going to grow cotton, a crop that will bleed the soil dry of any remaining moisture and nutrients.
Then the landowners plan to sell the land to unsuspecting East-coasters who are hoping to move west.
The farmers are devastated and can't understand why anyone would kick them off of the land they've been farming
for generations.
The landowners say the bank monster is hungry for money, and that the bank monster can make more money if it
replaces an entire farming family with a single tractor. Yikes!
Tractors invade the land, plowing the soil in preparation for the cotton crops.
A tractor driver can make $3 a day (good money).
The farmers recognize the tractor drivers. They are the sons of family friends. They wonder how anyone could betray
a community by working for The Man.
The tractor drivers say that they have to look out for their own best interests; they have to feed their own families.
The landowners suggest that the tenant farmers move west to California, where there are tons of jobs and where it is
always sunny.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 6 Summary
Tom and Casy inspect the Joad home, but something is amiss. It's completely empty, but nothing has been stolen.
The two deduce that there aren't any neighbors around. If there were neighbors, the house would have been pulled
apart, and the lumber would have been stolen.
Muley Graves stops by. Muley is an old friend of the Joads, and he's gone a bit batty. But he's got the 411.
Tom's parents are staying at his Uncle John's house, and his family is getting ready to move to California.
Muley tells Tom about how his family lost their land. Willey Feeley, another family friend, drove the tractor that dug up
their yard and that crushed their house.
Muley's own family has gone west, but he won't budge. He's made it his job to be a perpetual thorn in the landowners'
sides. He doesn't want to leave his land.
Since Uncle John Joad's house is eight miles away, the men decide to camp at the abandoned Joad home for the
night.
Muley shares the jackrabbits he caught and killed with Tom and Casy, and Tom has a really good time skinning and
cooking the rabbit meat. He's so Iron Chef.
On the horizon, the men see a car's lights.
They hide in the cornrows while the men investigate the campsite. Technically, the men are trespassing on private
property. Muley knows all of the landowners' habits and routines.
The men decide to spend the night in a riverbed, well-hidden from the world.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 7 Summary
All over the land, used-car lots appear. There's a profit to be made selling used cars to the families who have been
kicked off of their land, and who are hoping to make it to California.
The car salesmen are really slimy, and the used cars are overpriced.
Families are tricked into buying overpriced cars.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 8 Summary
Tom and Casy get up early the next morning and walk eight miles to Uncle John's house.
On their way there, they watch dogs mating.
Tom is reunited with his mother (Ma Joad), his father (Pa Joad), Grampa, and Granma. Everyone is delighted to see
him. We're talking spitting-jelly-beans-jumping-for-joy delight.
Ma Joad is especially moved, because she didn't think she'd ever seem him again.
Ma cooks up a delicious breakfast for everyone, and the preacher gives a very unique prayer.
Pa shows Tom the new family car that will take them across the country to California.
Al Joad saunters down the road. Al is Tom's younger brother, and he likes girls a lot. He also wears a big belts and a
cowboy hat.
Al thinks his older brother is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. He's excited to see Tom and to hear about
his prison adventures.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 9 Summary
After being kicked off their land, the tenant people have to go through their belongings and to decide what is essential
for them to bring with them, and what is frivolous.
They sell the rest of their belongings in town.
The tenant people are nervous to leave and to begin their journeys to California.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 10 Summary
Pa and John go into town to sell the family's belongings.
Tom and Ma Joad have a heart-to-heart about California. Ma is worried that the golden state is not what it's cracked
up to be.
Pa and John return from their adventure feeling embarrassed. They were only able to get $18 for all of their earthly
possessions.
We meet twelve year-old Ruthie, ten year-old Winfield, and a pregnant Rose of Sharon.
Ruthie and Winfield are mischievous; Rose of Sharon is moony-eyed over her nineteen year-old husband, Connie
Rivers.
The family hangs out by the truck and chitchats.
Ma cooks up a delicious dinner, while the men decide that the family will leave the next morning. They are itching to
leave.
The Joads agree to let Reverend Casy join them on their trip westward. It's always good to have a preacher on board.
There's some pig-slaughtering and pig-salting action.
The next morning, everything gets packed onto the Joad truck, but Grampa doesn't want to leave. He gets very
stubborn about this.
Ma puts sleepytime cough medicine in Grampa's coffee, and so he falls asleep instantly. The Joads carry him into the
car.
The Joads say bye-bye to their house.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 11 Summary
The houses that the tenant farmers leave behind slowly deteriorate.
Local kids come and break the windows with rocks.
Mice move in and get cozy, and the cats hunt the mice.
The wind slowly begins to pull the roof off the buildings.
Everything is empty, empty, empty.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 12 Summary
Highway 66 is a famous road. It carried thousands of people west toward California during the Dust Bowl.
The families who crowd into their used cars learn how to listen to their cars. They listen for any kind of breaking-down
sounds.
On the road they meet mechanics and car salesman who again try to rip them off. These merchants tell them that
they're silly to believe that there is opportunity in California.
The families keep on keeping on.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 13 Summary
Al cruises along, and he's really worried that their beautiful car won't make it if it has to cross any mountains.
The Joads stop at a gas station, and they encounter a very anxious gas station owner. The owner is worried that the
Joads don't have any money to pay for their gas. He tells them he's seen so many families who roll by, begging for
gas and food because they don't have any money.
The gas station man wants to know what the country is coming to, and Tom snaps at him for asking a question no
one can really answer.
Tensions are running high.
Grampa Joad isn't feeling well, and he's a little confused.
A car runs over the family dog (who is nameless). Granted it might not have been a good idea for the pooch to sniff
around on the highway, but this is still a very sad occasion indeed.
The Joads keep on trucking, and they later decide to stop on the side of the road where another family has set up
camp. The family is having car trouble and looks perplexed.
The campers are Ivy and Sairy Wilson, and they immediately form a bond with the Joads. Sairy lets Grampa take a
nap in her cozy tent.
Grampa really doesn't look too hot.
The families set up camp.
Grampa dies soon after the Joads stop.
Ma prepares his dead body, while the Joads dig a deep grave for him.
Reverend Casy says a few words at Grampa's funeral. They aren't the warmest words you could wish for at a funeral,
but they are words, and that's all that matters.
Al promises to fix the Wilson's touring car, which has broken down.
The Joads and the Wilsons decide that they will travel together to California. They will caravan, if you will.
Everyone's really happy about this idea.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 14 Summary
Our narrator speaks to the landowners and the banks and all of the people responsible for kicking thousands of
tenant farmers off the land during the dust bowl.
Our narrator warns these powerful entities that, while it may be easy to manipulate a single family, it won't be as easy
to push around a group of families that have banded together.
Basically, there is strength in numbers, so watch out, mean landowner people.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 15 Summary
All along Route 66 there are little rest stop diners.
These rest stop diners are usually run by people named Al, Susie, Will, Joe, Mae, or Minnie. Not to generalize, or
anything.
This particular rest stop diner features a waitress named Mae, and a short order cook named Al.
Mae doesn't like it when the migrant worker families come in to eat, because they usually can't afford the food, and
they usually beg for things. Mae prefers the truck drivers who are flirtatious and who have dough to spend.
Mae refers to the migrant worker families as "shitheels."
As luck would have it, here come two such flirtatious, dough-spending truck drivers.
As Mae gets her flirt on, a father and two sons come into the diner. They look very ragged and poor.
The father asks Mae if he can buy a loaf of bread from her, but she says she doesn't sell loaves of bread, only
sandwiches.
Al, the short order cook, tells Mae to be nice to the family and to sell them the loaf of bread.
Mae sells them the loaf for 10 cents, and then she also sells the man two pieces of candy for a penny. The two little
boys look ravenously at the candy.
We learn that the candy actual costs a nickel a piece, but that Mae was being generous.
The truck drivers leave her a big tip, and good karma abounds.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 16 Summary
The Joads and the Wilsons caravan their way down Highway 66.
Rose of Sharon tells her mother about all of the fun things she and Connie are going to do when they get to California
– they're going to go to the movies, have a pretty little house, and buy new clothes for the baby.
The Wilsons' touring car is feeling sick and sounds kind of creaky.
Al and Tom know that something's pretty jacked up. They think it's the "con-rod bearing," for your information.
It's Saturday afternoon, and they're several miles from the nearest mechanic/wrecking yard. They know the wrecking
yard will be closed on Sunday, so they either have to act fast or wait until Monday to fix the car and press on.
Tom tells the families to go ahead without him and the preacher, and that they will get the touring car fixed and then
catch up with them later. The touring car is faster than the Joad truck, and so the chances of catching up to them are
good.
Ma Joad throws a hissy fit and grabs a jack handle from the back of the car. She says there is not a snowball's
chance in hell that she will allow Tom to be separated from his family again.
Pa Joad tries to calm her down, but Ma Joad just threatens him with the jack handle.
Everyone realizes that Ma Joad has won the argument, and so the Joads and Wilsons pile into the truck and head up
the road to find a campsite. Tom and the preacher stay behind with the touring car.
After depositing the family in the campsite, Al drives back and picks up Tom. The two drive to the nearest wrecking
yard, hoping it will still be open on a Saturday afternoon.
After a little digging around, Tom and Al find the part they need to fix the touring car.
The wrecking yard is managed by a one-eyed, smelly man. The smelly man doesn't wear an eye patch. Let's take a
moment to consider that.
The one-eyed man moans about how mean his boss is and about how he never gets to go on dates. Tom tells him to
wake up and smell the roses. He advises the one-eyed man to get an eye-patch, take a shower, fix up one of the
broken-down cars, and go seek his fortune. Seize the day! Dang, Tom gives good advice.
The boys bring the materials back to the touring car (which is being dutifully guarded by the preacher), and it doesn't
take them long to get the car in ship shape again.
The boys drive to the campsite where the rest of the Joads and the Wilsons have set up camp. It's an expensive
campsite, costing the families one half dollar per day. They would have kept on truckin' in search of another campsite,
but Granma Joad is really under the weather.
No one knows why Granma is not feeling very well. Um, maybe it's because her husband just died? Just a shot in the
dark.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 17 Summary
As the thousands of families head west on Highway 66, they fall into the rhythms of life on the road.
These families camp every night, and they learn to look out for campsites where people have already settled in for
the night. It's more fun when you get to hang out with other families.
Unspoken laws and codes are written and are enforced in these little camp communities every night. These laws and
codes help to keep the peace and to make life bearable.
The families know to share their food, to help one another, to gather wood, to collect water, to be friendly.
Little worlds are created every night as families build their campsites, and, in the morning, the worlds are
deconstructed and packed away until the next night.
All kinds of men are gathered on the porch steps of the camp owner's house, including Pa and Tom. They are
shooting the breeze.
One man talks about how terrible conditions are in California, telling the group that there are no jobs and that
everyone is miserable there.
Ruh-roh.
The Joad men decide to shake it off and turn in for the night.
Tom Joad leaves the campsite, because he doesn't want to pay another half-dollar to stay there, and the side of the
road will do just fine as a bed, thank you very much.
On his way out, Tom throws a clod of dirt at the camp owner's house. Take that.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 18 Summary
The Joads keep on keeping on. Their car climbs the New Mexico mountains, it crosses Arizona.
A snippy border guard in Arizona asks them how long they plan to stay in the state.
Welcome to California, Joads! Look at the mountains you just crossed. Look at that big, scary desert you now have to
cross.
The Joads decide to take a load off and to rest by the Colorado River. It's morning, and they don't want to have to
cross the desert in the heat of the day.
Granma is not feeling so well.
The Joads and the Wilsons set up camp.
The men decide to go skinny-dipping in the Colorado River.
Two strangers, a father and a son, join the Joad men in the river. They are on there way back from California. They
tell stories about how terrible things are in California. There is no land for sale, and Californians are mean. They call
the migrant workers, "Okies," a nickname that means "scum." There is no work to be had, and the Californians are
scared that the migrant workers will steal their land.
"Ruh-roh," thinks Pa and Tom Joad. This doesn't sound too hot.
Tom Joad decides to take a nap in the Willows.
Noah tells Tom he's not going to continue to journey into California with his family. He has fallen in love with the
Colorado River and wants to live here forever, fishing and swimming.
Tom tries to convince Noah not to leave, but Noah won't listen. Noah tells Tom that he knows his parents don't really
care about him. Sad.
Noah disappears for good, and Tom takes a nap.
Meanwhile, in the Joad tent, Granma is lying on the cot and hallucinating. She thinks she sees Grampa and talks to
him.
Rose-of-Sharon is a little freaked out by Granma, and Ma tries to calm her down by explaining that death is a natural
thing, just like birth is a natural thing.
A big woman with sagging skin barges into the tent and tells Ma that she and some other people heard that the Joads
had a dying woman in their tent. She asks Ma if she'd like her (a complete stranger) to assemble a prayer circle in the
tent to help Granma die.
Ma tries to be polite, but is furious by this woman's audacity and rudeness. She tells the woman that Granma isn't
dying, that she's just exhausted.
The woman with the sagging skin says something to the effect of, "Sure, lady, whatever you say. You are the queen
of de Nile. I'm going to go assemble a prayer circle in my tent with the other campers, and we'll pray for your soul,
too."
In the distance, Rose-of-Sharon and Ma can hear the prayer circle start singing. They start thudding around and
wailing, and they sound like puppies at a dish. Ma and Rose-of-Sharon are moved by the sound.
Granma begins to sleep soundly, and Ma Joad wonders if she should have been nicer to the Jehovite woman with
the sagging skin.
Rose-of-Sharon lies down for a nap, gabbing about all of the fun things she and Connie are going to do when they
settle down in California.
There's a rude knock at the canvas tent door, and a man demands to know who is inside. The man wears a gun and
a badge.
Ma answers him, and the policeman rudely tells her that she and her family better not be here tomorrow, or he'll
arrest them.
Offended by his rude manner, Ma runs at him with an iron skillet and tells him that, where she comes from, men don't
speak to women so disrespectfully.
The policeman tells her that she's in a new place now, a place that doesn't like "Okies" and that doesn't want "Okies"
to settle down.
Ma is perplexed by the term, "Okies."
Tom wakes up and decides to go for another swim. He encounters a little boy playing in the water.
Ruthie summons Tom from the river, and then stares in bewilderment at the naked little boy.
Ma tells Tom about the rude policeman and about how he called her an "Okie."
Tom tells Ma that Noah has left the family.
Ma is shocked and says, "family's fallin' apart" (18.221). She reflects on how dirty everyone is and on how she
doesn't even wash the potatoes before she cooks them, "seems like the heart's took out of us" (18.231).
Ruthie summons the rest of the Joad men from their naps, and Tom tells them that they have to push on.
Ivy Wilson tells the Joads that Sairy's too sick to go on, and that they should leave without them. He's very serious
about this.
The preacher goes to see Sairy, and she asks him to pray for her. The preacher tells her he doesn't know how
anymore, but she tells him to do it anyway he can, anyway he wants. Sairy tells him that she used to sing all the time
when she was little and that singing is like praying. She tells the preacher that she feels like "pain covered with skin"
(18.269), and that she knows what ails her, but that she doesn't want to tell her husband for fear he'll get too sad.
The Joads pack up camp and are careful to bring lots of water on their journey through the desert.
Pa tries to give Ivy some money and food, but Ivy won't take any of it.
Ma puts the money on the ground, and puts the pork pan over it. She tells him that she is going to leave the money
right there.
The Joads pile onto the jalopy and head to Needles, CA, where they gas up and look at a map.
The gas station attention tells them they have a lot of nerve to attempt crossing the desert in a beat up car. Tom
replies, "'it don't take no nerve to do somepin when there ain't nothin' else you can do'" (18.295).
As the Joads leave the station, two station attendants gossip about them. They say, "Okies got no sense and no
feeling. They ain't human. A human being wouldn't live like they do. A human being couldn't stand it to be so dirty and
miserable. They ain't a hell of a lot better than gorillas" (18.299).
The Joads crawl through the desert and over the desert mountains.
Uncle John tells the preacher about how his wife died, and asks if it was a sin to let her die like she did.
At dawn, they reach an inspection point, and the inspectors begin to search the car for produce. Ma tells them that
Granma is really sick and to please let them go, so that they can find a doctor. The inspectors agree.
The Joads reach Barstow, and Tom stops the car in order to get Granma to a doctor, but Ma tells him to keep on
driving.
They reach the top of the mountains, and they look out and see the golden valley stretched out before. They pull over
to take a gander. They can see vineyards, orchards, sparkling cities, and green fields stretch before them in the
morning sun.
Ma looks like she hasn't slept in years. She informs the family that Granma died a while back, but that she didn't want
to tell them for fear they'd stop the car and for fear they'd never get across the desert.
Everyone is moved by the beauty of the valley, and totally freaked out by the fact that Granma's been dead for a
while.
The Joads pile back into the car and head down the mountains and into the valley.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 19 Summary
Once upon a time, the land that is California belonged to Mexico.
Pioneers fought the Mexicans for the land, because their hunger for land was all-consuming.
Over time, pioneers began to develop farms. These farms became small businesses, run by business-minded
farmers who were concerned with making a profit.
Eventually, the farms merged, and there were fewer and fewer farmers who owned larger and larger hunks of land.
These farmers hired "Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos" (19.4) to work the land, barely paying them and
treating them poorly.
The farmers continued to become shrewd businessmen, hiring bookkeepers and teams of employees to manage the
land. Some farmers never even saw the land they owned.
When the Dust Bowl occurred, families from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arkansas flooded
into California looking for work on the farms. These families were hungry and were willing to work for any pay. The
farmers began to pay their employees less and less, because there was a surplus of workers.
Everyone hates the migrant workers: the other workers hate them because they drive the price of labor down, the
farmers hate them because they are afraid they will steal their land, and the merchants hate them because they don't
have any money to spend.
The migrant workers live in junkyard camps called Hoovervilles, where there are homes made from tents, branches,
and paper.
All around the migrant workers is fallow land, land that is unfarmed and rich in soil. But this land belongs to the
farmers, and not to them.
The migrant workers see their children starving, and they know how easy it would be for them to grow food on these
fallow lands, but they don't have a right to grow food.
One migrant worker tries to grow a garden in secret, and a cop kicks him off the land. Because if you successfully
grow a garden or an orchard, you almost own the land. The farmers and landowners don't like the sound of that.
The landowners grow more and more afraid of the migrant workers: "how can you frighten a man whose hunger is not
only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him – he has known fear
beyond every other" (19.46).
The Hoovervilles are burned by the Department of Health, for they have become health hazards. Typhoid has
erupted.
Three hundred thousand migrant workers have been pushed off of their lands in the Dust Bowl and have arrived in
California. More are coming.
The landowners grow more and more fearful, because history tells them that when "property accumulates in too few
hands it is taken away" (19.64).
The landowners begin to meet and band together in order to strategize ways of disempowering the growing anger
and wrath of the starving workers.
The men of the migrant families gather on a porch one night. They have heard that a little boy has died from not
having enough nutrients in his body. His family can't afford a burial.
The men take coins out of their pockets and make a pile of silver for the little boy's burial.
"Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor. Pray
God some day a kid can eat" (19.74).
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 20 Summary
Ma, Pa, and Uncle John leave Granma's body with the coroner in Bakersfield. They don't have enough money to give
her a proper funeral.
Tom drives the family out to the country where they stop at the first camp they see. It is a really shady looking camp,
with ratty tents and makeshift houses made out of things like moldy carpet and tattered canvas. Each tent or shack
has a car next to it.
The Joads ask one couple if they can camp there, but the couple is really loopy and doesn't give a straight answer.
A man is fixing a car across the way and tells the Joads they can set up camp, but that the Deputy Sheriff will be
around to push them along soon enough.
Little kids have begun to gather around and to watch the Joads unpack.
Tom talks to the man fixing the car. The man tells him that there's no work to be had in the area and that he's moving
his family up north in hopes of work. He tells Tom that there are over three-hundred thousand migrant workers in
California all looking for work.
Tom brings up the yellow pamphlet that he and his family saw boasting of jobs in California. The man tells him that
the landowners printed up thousands of those pamphlets in order to get thousands of starving families to come to
California. Now, there is a surplus of labor, and so the landowners don't have to pay the migrant workers practically
anything. Everyone is starving for work and food.
Tom can't believe what he hears, and he asks the man why anyone hasn't organized the starving workers and led a
revolt against the landowners.
The man tells him that people have tried to rebel against the oppressive landowners in the past, but that they have
always been caught and thrown in jail. Now, everyone is scared of rebelling, because, if they do, the police will take
their picture, record their names, and add them to a blacklist. If their name is on that blacklist, they won't be able to
find any kind of work, and their families will starve. The workers are afraid of rebelling.
Tom tells the man he'd beat anybody up who'd stand in the way of his family's survival.
The man tells him that if he tried to beat a law enforcer up, he would eventually end up dead in a ditch. Only a oneline obituary would appear in the local paper, and it would read, "'vagrant found dead'" (20.91).
The man advises Tom to act stupid, like he doesn't know anything if he ever comes across a policeman.
Tom sits next to the preacher who is staring at and wiggling his toes.
Tom begins to talk to the preacher about what he's just heard, but the preacher knows the situation already. He
knows that there's little work and that the situation is grim.
The preacher tells Tom he feels badly for latching onto the Joad family, eating their food, and not paying them back.
He tells Tom he's going to leave them and go make some money so he can try to repay them.
Tom tells him to sit tight, because he's got a funny feeling that something big and important is about to go down.
Rose of Sharon has been puking inside the tent, and Connie is chilling with her. He is not digging the new
campground. This is not what he expected. Connie wonders whether he should have stayed in Oklahoma and driven
a tractor for The Man.
Rose of Sharon starts to worry a little bit about Connie, and tries to remind him of their dream of getting a little house
before the baby comes.
Connie goes out front where Ma is cooking up a stew. The local children have gathered around her pot, and their
mouths are watering like faucets. Ma asks them if they've had any breakfast, and it's pretty clear they haven't eaten in
a long time.
One little girl tells Ma that she and her family have been here for six months now, and that her dad is out getting gas
so that they can move on to find work.
The little girl tells Ma that she and her family used to live in a government camp. They moved north and, when they
came back, the camp was all full. This camp is pretty much paradise for the migrant workers. They have running
water, hot water, real toilets, and the folks gather round at night and sings songs.
Ma is seriously impressed by this, but is also really weirded out by the starving children that continue to stare at her
pot.
Al goes over to meet the man who is fixing his car. We learn that the man's name is Floyd Knowles.
Al and Floyd talk about cars, and Al asks Floyd whether there's steady work to found in the area. No way, says Floyd.
A car pulls up carrying several men. Floyd asks the men whether they found any work, and the men say absolutely
not. It's time to move on to new country in search of new work.
Ma dishes up the stew and leaves some leftovers for the starving children.
The Joads eat inside of the tent because they can't stand to watch the kids devour the near-empty pot with sticks,
spoons, and tin cups.
A "strong, broad woman" (20.156) approaches Ma and coldly berates her for serving stew to her children. She tells
Ma that she's working hard to make ends meet, and she doesn't need some benevolent woman to make her kids
realize that their families are too poor to serve them stew.
Ma Joad tries to talk to the woman, tries to get her to sit down and take a load off, but the woman won't have any of it.
The woman storms back into her tent.
Floyd tells Al and Tom that there's work up in Santa Clara Valley picking prunes and working in the canneries there.
Santa Clara Valley is 200 miles north.
200 miles sounds way too far away for Tom, and he wonders whether there really isn't any work to be had in the
area.
Floyd gets a wee bit annoyed, because he's told Tom and Al about, oh, 10,000,000 times that there's no work in the
area. He tells Tom that he's doing him a favor by telling him about Santa Clara, and he asks him and Al not to tell
anyone else. He's trying to keep it a secret so that all kinds of people don't flock up north and horde the jobs.
A nice Chevrolet pulls up to the camp. A man in khaki pants, a flannel shirt, and a Stetson hat steps out. He's has lots
of pens and a pad of paper.
The man asks Tom, Al, Floyd and a group of other men from the camp whether they are looking for work.
Heck yes, says a camper
The man says that there is work in Tulare country, but he can't tell them how much they'll be paying workers.
Floyd tells the man he'd gladly accept the job, just as long as the man can give him a contract explaining exactly how
much money he'll be making.
The man tells Floyd not to boss him around and tell him how to run his business.
Floyd tries to tell the group of men not to sign up for the jobs until the man shows them his contracting license.
The policeman summons his sidekick from the car. Said sidekick happens to be a policeman with a gun, and the man
tells this sidekick that Floyd is acting "red" and "agitatin" the group. The man asks the policeman if he has seen Floyd
before. The policeman says, yes, indeed, he has. He believes he saw flood the week before at the scene of a
robbery. This, we can tell, is poppycock.
Floyd turns red.
The deputy commands Floyd to get in the car.
Floyd punches the deputy in the face and runs away.
The deputy runs after Floyd, but Tom trips him so that he falls to the ground.
From the ground, the deputy pulls out his gun and aims at Floyd's fleeing frame. He misses Floyd, and, instead,
blows the knuckles off of a harmless woman standing in front of her tent. Her fingers are attached to her hands by
strings of flesh.
Floyd heads for the willow trees, and the deputy aims his gun at him once more.
Reverend Casy kicks the deputy in the back of the head, and the deputy goes unconscious.
The man speeds away in the Chevrolet.
Casy tells Tom to go hide in the willows in case the authorities come looking for vengeance.
More policemen come to the scene, the other campers retire to their tents, and Casy stays with the unconscious
deputy. He tells the police that he is the one who hit the deputy, and he willingly gets in the police car.
The deputy wakes up, sees Casy in the car, and doesn't think that he is the man who kicked him. Casy assures him
that he is.
Casy tells the police to send a doctor for the woman whose knuckles have been blown off. One policeman checks on
her, and then reports back to his buddies that the gunshot sure made a mess of her hand.
The police take Casy away.
The camp gradually returns to normal.
Ma Joad prepares dinner.
Uncle John is worked up about Casy and about the way he took the blame for Floyd and Tom. He starts to talk about
the sins he's committed.
Ma tells John not to confess his sins to other people.
John reveals a five dollar bill and tells them he's been keeping it a secret from the family. He's saved it up, because
he knew he would have to get really drunk at some point. He feels awful about hiding the money from the family, but
he really needs a drink.
John gives Pa the five dollar bill in exchange for two dollars. He takes the two dollars into town, tramples his hat in
front of the store, and then goes in to buy alcohol.
Rose of Sharon is a hot mess. Connie is nowhere to be found, and she's not to happy about it.
Ma tells Rose of Sharon to stop being a prima donna and to peel some potatoes.
In the woods, Tom and Al run into Ruthie and Winfield, who are impersonating a drunken Uncle John. Al says that
Ruthie needs a whipping.
Tom and Al run into Floyd, who tells them that the "poolroom boys" are going to come and burn down the camp that
night. He suggests they get out of town.
Tom tells the family that they have to pack up.
Rose of Sharon asks Tom if he's seen Connie, and Tom says he saw him heading south.
The family realizes that Connie has left Rose of Sharon for good.
The Joads load up the car and head south.
A group of drunken men are in the middle of the road and they stop the Joad car. They tell Tom that they don't want
any "Okies" in town, and that they better head north until cotton picking season comes around.
Tom keeps his cool, turns the car around, and starts to cry.
Tom drives north a little ways, hides in a dirt road, and then watches the drunken men head for the Hooverville.
Tom speeds south.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 21 Summary
Families continue to flood into California from the Dust Bowl, looking for work in the fields and orchards.
The migrant workers are starving, and their children are starving.
There are not enough jobs for the number of people who need jobs in California. Men are willing to work for
practically nothing, just so that they can get work.
The price of the fruit, vegetables, and cotton remains the same, but the cost of labor gets smaller and smaller. The
landowners grow rich.
The towns grow wary of the migrant workers. They think they are sketchy.
The Californians are freaked out by the rampant hunger of the migrant worker community.
Landowners invest money in spies, guns, gas, and other means of subduing the growing anger and growing
desperation of the migrant worker families.
Small farmers begin to lose their land to big landowners, who've grown rich on the profit that cheap labor allows. They
soon have to compete with the other migrant workers for work.
"The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line…And the anger began to
ferment" (21.11).
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 22 Summary
The Joads arrive at the government camp, lovingly known as Weedpatch, and there's room for them. Yippee. They
are about due for some good news.
The night guard is really nice to them, and tells Tom about how the camp thing works. There's a committee of elected
leaders who run the camp and who decide the rules. There are dances on Saturday nights. This place is a slice of
heaven.
The Joads are plum tuckered, and they go to sleep in their new campground.
Tom wakes up at the crack of dawn and sees that someone has a breakfast fire going a few campsites over. He
investigates.
A lady nursing a baby is cooking breakfast, and it smells g-o-o-d. She's making bacon, biscuits, and bacon gravy.
An older man and a younger man emerge from the tent wearing new clothes; they are father and son.
The men invite Tom to eat breakfast with them.
Tom hears about how the men have had twelve days of work and are living large. They offer to help Tom get a job
with them, laying pipe.
Tom practically spits jellybeans, he's so happy, and he leaves with the men to find work.
The men's names are Timothy and Wilkie Wallace. They are Tom's new BFFs.
Tom, Timothy, and Wilkie walk to Mr. Thomas's house, but Mr. Thomas has some bad news bears. He can't pay
them 30 cents an hour anymore. He has to pay them 25 cents an hour. The Farmers Association (which is run by the
Bank of the West) has just mandated that minimum wage will be 25 cents an hour.
Mr. Thomas is livid about this new wage cut, but he can't help it. If he continues to pay his employees 30 cents an
hour, it will send ripples through the community and will cause unrest. The banks may not give him his annual loan as
a result, and he needs the loan. He's just a smalltime farmer with 65 acres.
One more thing, Mr. Thomas says, the Farmer's Association is going to send some rabble-rousers to the Weedpatch
dance this Saturday night. The police can't come into the camp without a warrant, and so they're going to be all
covert and will try to shake things up and make it so they can get a warrant.
You see, the government camp is getting too comfortable and too happy. The Farmers Association doesn't want the
migrant workers to organize – it would be too dangerous for the landowners if the hungry, angry migrant workers
developed an organized community. They might revolt. So just watch out for rabble-rousers, Mr. Thomas says.
The men dig a ditch, and Tom really likes his shovel.
Tom finally learns what a "red" is: "a red is any son-of-a-bitch that wants thirty cents-an-hour when we're paying
twenty-five!" (22.202).
Meanwhile, back at the camp, Ruthie and Winfield play with the flushing toilets.
The camp manager visits with Ma Joad, and he's a really nice guy. He tells her the Ladies Committee of the camp will
be paying her a visit soon.
Ma goes to wash up in the sanitary unit (a.k.a. bathroom), but she accidentally uses the Men's room instead of the
Women's room. A nice man helps her out.
Ma is in a frenzy to get the Joad campsite cleaned up for the Ladies Committee. She tells everyone to go clean up.
Rose of Sharon reports back that there are real, live showers with hot water in the sanitary unit. She has taken a
shower, and it was awesome.
Ma Joad runs to take a shower, too.
Rose of Sharon is feeling better about herself, until a strange woman comes by and warns her not to sin by dancing
too close with anyone or by acting in any plays. The strange woman tells Rose of Sharon that two young women in
the camp delivered stillborn babies because they sinned too much. She tells Rose of Sharon that the camp manager
is the devil.
What a charming lady.
Fortunately, the camp manager is close by, and, when the woman leaves, he tells Rose of Sharon that she's just a
batty old woman who likes to make people miserable.
Rose of Sharon is freaked out.
Ma returns from her shower and tells Rose of Sharon to snap out of it.
The Ladies Committee visits the campsite, and they show Ma Joad how to use the sanitary unit.
The old creepy woman returns to visit the Joad camp and talks about the stillborn babies again. Ma chases her away
with a stick, and the woman starts to howl and pray, her eyes roll back, and she falls on the ground.
Uncle John, Al, and Pa Joad return home, but they have not found any work. Every farm has signs that say there's no
work to be had.
Uncle John wonders whether Tom might have left the family for good, but Ma knows in her heart that he's found work
and will return soon.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 23 Summary
The migrant workers are always looking for pleasure; looking for ways to ease their minds and to escape their
sorrows and fears.
Sometimes families will sit around telling stories about the days they used to fight and kill Native Americans for their
land.
One man describes the sadness he felt when he killed a Native American.
Sometimes, people will save up enough money to go see movies in town, and then they'll come back and give a full,
detailed report of the film.
Other times, getting drunk can help you temporarily forget your troubles and daydream harmlessly in your head.
And then there's the harmonica. People like to learn new tricks on their harmonicas.
The guitar's really fun to play too – but you need calluses on your left fingers and a callus on your right thumb.
The fiddle is something else – someone once heard that the older the fiddle, the better the sound.
The people like to dance, too. There's a Texan boy dancing with a Cherokee girl, and they are dancing really fast.
The Texan boy and the Cherokee girl disappear into the darkness together.
A preacher assembles congregants in an irrigation ditch and they pray for the souls of the sinners who watch movies,
drink alcohol, make music, dance, and get busy.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 24 Summary
It's Saturday morning, and everyone's worked themselves into a frenzy as they gear up for the dance tonight.
The dance floor is going to be lit for the first time tonight.
The camp leaders are getting ready for the potential party poopers – men sent by the Farmer's Association to bust up
the party and start a fight. If a fight went down, the police would have a reason to barge in and arrest people, and that
is exactly what they want to do.
This dance needs lots of bouncers.
Tom is recruited to be a bouncer. Lucky him. He gets to hang out at the entrance with a super cool man named Jule
Vitela, who is half Cherokee.
Tom notices three sketchy guys and does a little investigation. The sketchy guys are indeed sketchy.
Tom and his fellow bouncers catch the three sketchy guys right before they start to cause trouble.
Huston, who's kind of like the pseudo-head-of-security at Weedpatch, gives the sketchy guys a talking to, and then
the bouncers let them go free.
Pa, John, and other men of the camp are gathered together to chat about how dire circumstances are these days.
Pa tells the story of a group of "mountain men" who work in the rubber plants in Akron, Ohio. They formed a union,
and the factory owners and townspeople were so mean to them and hated the idea of a union so much that they tried
to run the migrant workers out of town. The workers armed themselves with guns and other weapons, and they
turned on the town. The town never gave them trouble ever again.
A man who is known as Black Hat suggests to the group that they form a union and that they start to arm themselves.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 25 Summary
Spring in California is prettier than just about anything you can imagine. It's a paradise. The state grows full and rich
with fruit.
There are blossoms everywhere.
Farmers are like surgeons, like artists. They know how to cultivate the land, to watch for disease, to graft trees, to
nurture their produce.
But the economy is so poor, that 40 five-pound barrels of pears sell for a mere $5.
The farmers with small farms can't make a profit, can't afford to give their food away.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are starving all across California.
Landowners spray kerosene on the oranges so that people won't steal them.
All over California, beautiful food is rotting.
All over California, people are dying from hunger.
There is a "growing wrath" among the people; in their souls "the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy"
(25.19).
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 26 Summary
The Joads have been at Weedpatch for one month, and they still haven't found work.
They've been feasting upon fried dough. Yum.
Ma is worried about Winfield and Rose of Sharon – they don't look too hot.
The family decides to leave Weedpatch and move north to Tulare, where cotton pickers are needed.
The Joads take their time saying goodbye to the camp: Pa and Uncle spend some time on the toilet, Al rolls around
with his new girlfriend, Tom smokes a cigarette with Jule and Wilkie, and Winfield punches a kid for calling him an
"Okie."
At the crack of down the next morning, the Joads leave Weedpatch.
Soon after, they run over a nail and pop a tire.
As they are fixing the tire, a man pulls over and asks the Joads if they are looking for work. He tells them that the
Hooper ranch, 40 miles north, is looking for people to pick peaches.
As they approach the Hooper ranch, there's some kind of hullabaloo a-brewing.
Police stop them behind a line of several other, beat-up cars.
Motorcycles escort the cars into the gates of Hooper ranch.
Outside of the gates, people are screaming and yelling.
The Joads are assigned a little shack to stay in, and it is really dirty and smelly.
Pa, Tom, John, and Al head straight for the fields. They are told they can earn five cents per bucket of peaches that
they pick.
When they've earned a dollar, Ma goes to the little grocery store in the peach camp and buys food.
Dinner time! Everyone is starving. Mmm, hamburgers.
Tom tries to figure out what all of the hullabaloo with the angry, yelling people was about.
A guard at the peach camp gates tells him the angry, yelling people were picketers, and then he tells Tom to walk in
the other direction.
Tom sneaks under the barbed wire fence that surrounds the peach camp. He's feeling a little Sherlock Holmes-ish; he
wants to figure out what is going down, why people were yelling and screaming outside the gates of the peach camp.
Down the road a ways from the peach camp, Tom spies a tent with a lit lantern. He pays a visit.
Guess who is there? You'll never guess. Reverend Jim Casy.
Casy is chilling with his cronies, and he tells Tom stories about the time he spent in jail. He tells Tom that it's powerful
when oppressed men get together and fight their oppressors.
The men hear footsteps in the surrounding darkness, so they head for the creek.
Tom and Casy try to be all stealthy and quiet as they move along the creek bed, but suddenly they are flooded by
flashlights.
A man carrying a brand new pick axe recognizes Casy, strikes at his head, and kills him instantly.
Something hits Tom's face, and he can feel his cheek torn open.
Tom pulls the pick-axe from Casy's head and strikes at the murder. He has very good aim.
Tom runs away from the men with flashlights and pick-axes.
Tom sneaks back into the peach camp. His clothes are soaking wet from having swum across a ditch. His face hurts,
because he has a broken nose and a torn cheek.
Tom goes to bed.
The next day, everyone goes to work in the fields except Tom and Rose of Sharon. Tom can't go out for fear he'll be
recognized by the guards and taken to jail.
Rose of Sharon is going a wee bit batty, and she thinks that the sin of Tom's murders is going to ruin her baby.
Winfield gets skitters, or diarrhea, from eating too many peaches. He is really sick.
The landowners have stopped paying the workers five cents per bushel of peaches and are now paying a mere two
and half cents per bushel.
The family decides that they need to get Tom out of harm's way. They leave that night, nestling Tom between their
two mattresses in the truck bed.
The Joads drive north, and they see signs saying that there is work for cotton pickers.
Tom decides to separate himself from the family in order to make them safer. He goes to camp in the bushes. Nearby
is a row of old boxcars that serve as makeshift homes for the cotton pickers.
That night the Joads sleep in their car. They've decided to look for work in the cotton fields.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 27 Summary
Little yellow handbills are strewn all over California, boasting of plenty of work for cotton pickers.
A picker who fills a giant bag full of cotton can earn eight cents for it.
The bags are weighed by a clerk. Corruption abounds. Some pickers put rocks in their bags in order to make it weigh
more. Some clerks don't keep accurate records of the amount a worker has picked.
Cotton gets everywhere, especially up your nose.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 28 Summary
The Joads settle in one end of a boxcar, and it is super comfy.
Money starts rolling in from the cotton picking, and the Joads get to buy things like overalls and pork chops. They are
living large.
A bully steals Ruthie's Cracker Jack from her, and Ruthie gets into a fight with said bully. She tells her that her
brother Tom can kill her brother, because he's already killed two men. In other words, Ruthie spills the Tom beans.
When Ma realizes that the Tom beans have been spilt, she goes in search of Tom, bringing him some pork chops
and potatoes.
Ma and Tom hang out in his palace of bushes. Tom tells her he's been doing a lot of thinking about Reverend Casy.
Tom wants to help organize the migrant workers. He wants to try to bring justice to the starving hordes of people in
California.
Ma and Tom say goodbye.
On her way back to camp, Ma encounters a man who tells her that a small cotton farm down the road will need
pickers the next morning. Ma tells him she and her family will be there bright and early.
Ma returns to the boxcar, and guess what? Al and Aggie Wainwright (the daughter of the family who lives in the other
end of the boxcar) are engaged! Time for pancakes.
The next morning, the Joads and the Wainwrights drive to the cotton farm down the road.
Rose of Sharon insists on picking cotton, too, even though she's kind of sick and weak and very pregnant.
Tons of workers show up to pick cotton, and there's not really enough work to go around.
On the drive home, it starts to rain, and Rose of Sharon starts to get a chill.
Everyone huddles together in the boxcar, building up the fire, and trying to keep dry.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 29 Summary
The winter rains hit California hard, soaking and flooding the fields and orchards.
Rain means no work for the migrant workers; no work means no food for the thousands of starving families.
People can't get dry, diseases thrive, and the cars die from having been soaked with water.
Many grow desperate for food, resorting to robbery in order to survive.
Landowners and merchants gather guns and tighten their security to protect themselves from the wrath of the
workers and their families.
Eventually the rain stops, but the families know there will be no work until springtime.
The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 30 Summary
The rain keeps pounding down on the camp, and the creek out in front of the boxcars begins to swell.
Rose of Sharon is feverish and sick.
Pa convinces a bunch of men to help him dig troughs to keep the creek's water from rising. They dig tirelessly.
Rose of Sharon goes into labor, and Ma and Mrs. Wainwright help her through her contractions.
The men outside continue to dig away, but a big cottonwood tree is swept up by the creek-turned-mini-raging-river,
and it floats downstream. The tree gets stuck a little ways down, making the water rise even faster.
The men are freaked out by the flood, and they are also freaked out by Rose of Sharon's ear-piercing screams.
Eventually, the ear-piercing screaming stops. Pa goes inside the boxcar to check out the situation.
Mrs. Wainwright shows Pa the blue corpse of a baby.
At this point, the water has climbed up to the boxcars and cars and is inches thick.
Al tries to start the Joad truck, but the engine has been killed by the water.
Other campers become furious at Pa Joad for convincing them to stay and fight the flood with levy-building tactics.
Now, no one's car will start, and everyone is stranded.
Pa and Al build a platform in the boxcar to keep the family
dry. The water level is now ankle deep in the boxcar.
Ma, Pa, John, Rose of Sharon, Ruthie, and Winfield decide
to find a drier and safer place.
Al decides to stay with the Wainwrights and to look out for
the Joad possessions.
The Joads stumble across a barn, and they go inside to take
shelter from the rain.
Inside, they find a little boy sitting next to man who is
starving to death. The boy tells them that his father has not
eaten anything in six days.
Ma and Rose of Sharon exchange a meaningful look, and
then Rose of Sharon asks everyone to leave her alone with
the man in the barn.
Rose of Sharon lies down next to the half-starved man, she
puts his mouth to her breast, and she lets him drink her
breast milk.
A mysterious smile comes across Rose of Sharon's face.
THE END.