The Grapes of Wrath
(John Steinbeck)

Chapter One

There is a drought in Oklahoma as it is summertime, and, without water, the crops begin to shrivel and die. The roads and crops have turned to dust which blows in the breeze, forcing the farmers to wear handkerchiefs over their faces so they do not breathe it in. The dust consumes everything, blocking the stars in the sky from being seen and creeping in through the cracks in the houses.

The farmers do not know what to do about their crops but stare at them and hope for a miracle because they are unable to support their families. The farmers’ wives are worried that their husbands will lose their minds over the destitute conditions, and they will be forced to look after and provide for their children all by themselves. They hope that their husbands can hold it together because as long as they stay “whole” the families will be okay.

Chapter Two

Tom Joad travels into town, seeing the desolate crops. He has just been released from McAlester State Penitentiary where he had served four years for manslaughter. He hitches a ride with a trucker who is not supposed to pick up hitchers, but does when Tom implores him to be a “good guy”. When Tom tells the trucker that he is heading back to his family’s farm the trucker comments that he is surprised they have not been run out of their home by the tractors yet. The tractors are coming through, at the request of bankers and landowners, and forcing the poor farmers out of their homes and off the land.

The driver notices that Tom has been gone for a long time and is returning home in a cheap suit and Tom admits to him that he has been in prison, which does not bother the trucker. Tom tells the driver that at least now he has a story to tell and he laughs. Tom is dropped off by the trucker on the road where his parents’ farm is.

Chapter Three

This chapter is about a turtle. The turtle is crossing the road in the scorching summer heat and has to deal with several obstacles, which may be indicative of the journey that the farmers are all about to take. The turtle gets a fire ant stuck in its shell and then as it is crossing the road a woman nearly hits it with her car, though she swerves to miss it. Next a young man driving a truck comes at the turtle but does not swerve, rather he drives straight at it attempting to hit it on purpose.

The truck nicks the turtle’s shell, but it does not kill the turtle, it just flips the turtle over on its back. The turtle kicks its legs and struggles to flip over, eventually succeeding, and goes back on its journey to cross the street.

Chapter Four

As Tom is walking down the road he sees a turtle, picks it up, wraps it in his coat, and takes it with him. He sees a man in raggedy clothing sitting under a tree and learns that the man’s name is Jim Casy. Jim remembers Tom from when he was just a boy, as Jim had been the preacher in the church the Joad family attended.

Tom offers Jim some whiskey from his flask and Jim tells Tom that he is no longer a preacher. He says that his sexual appetite was too strong to stay away from the young girls in his congregation, and he had a hard time balancing his urges with his responsibilities to the church and to God. Jim now believes that there is no Holy Spirit there is just the human spirit.

Jim asks Tom how his father is but Tom reveals that he has not spoken to his father in a long time as he was in prison for killing man in a bar fight. It was self-defense as the man stabbed him before he beat him with a shovel, but he was still convicted. He did not mind prison because he was fed three meals a day, but he did miss having women in his life. Jim asks if he can travel along with Tom and the two men head toward the Joad house, which they discover to be deserted.

Chapter Five

The farmers who are being pushed off their land are tenant farmers, which means that they rent farmland from landowners and bankers. In the conditions of the drought, the tenant farmers are not able to make any money to pay their rent and, therefore, are forced to leave. Despite whether the news is given in a kind or cruel manner, being asked to leave with nowhere to go is bad news.

The farmers have no idea how they are going to support their families without work but the landowners tells them to head out to California because they hear there are plenty of jobs out that way. The tractors arrive and roll over everything that is in their way, including the crops and even the houses if they deem it necessary.

The tractors are not driven by the landowners but by the farmers’ own neighbors who admit that they do the dirty work because the bankers pay them for it and they need to support their families too. The farmers wish they could fight what is happening, but it is useless.

Chapter Six

When the men arrive at the Joad farm, they find that it looks nearly untouched, and there are still tools and equipment around and it looks like the neighbors have left as well. A remaining neighbor, Muley Graves, walks toward Tom and Jim and tells them that the Joad’s have gone to Tom’s Uncle John’s house where they have all gotten jobs picking cotton, hoping to save enough money to buy a car that will take them to California. He tells the men that all of the land in that area had been bought by a company that got rid of the tenant farmers to save some money. Tom asks Muley if they can stay at his place for the night, and Muley tells them that he has no home anymore and his family has already left for California.

The men share some rabbit for dinner that Muley has hunted and hide from the headlights of a police car for fear that they will be consider trespassers, despite the fact that it was Tom’s family’s farm. The men sleep in the cave where Muley has been staying though Tom opts to sleep outside and Jim has a hard time sleeping because his mind is too full of the information he learned that night.

Chapter Seven

With the families all heading west to find jobs in California there is a great need for cars and so used car lots start popping up all over the place. The men who own the dealerships know that the families are desperate for cars so they have no problem overpricing the vehicles because they know people will pay whatever prices they need to.

The men who are selling the cars are dirty and do whatever they can to conceal the problems that the run-down vehicles may have, such as putting sawdust in the gas tank to hide the sound of transmission problems. The tenant farmers know very little about cars as they have had no reason to own one before and thus they are unfamiliar with any problems that the cars may have. They buy the cars, problems and all, for outrageous prices because they do not know any better.

Chapter Eight

As the men head toward Uncle John’s house, Tom tells them that Uncle John is a very generous man because of the guilt that he feels over his wife’s death that occurred because of his refusal to get her a doctor. Despite his generosity, he finds it difficult to console himself of his guilt. At Uncle John’s house, the family is packing up to leave for California. Neither Pa nor Ma recognizes Tom and when they do they think that he has broken out of prison until he tells them that he has been paroled.

Ma worries that prison may have made Tom go crazy because she has heard that sometimes happens, but Tom assures her he is sane. At breakfast that day Granma, who is very religious, asks Jim to say a prayer even when he insists that he no longer preaches. At the house, Tom is reunited with his parents, grandparents, and younger brother Al. He learns that his uncle is in town with his two younger siblings, Ruthie and Winfield and his sister Rose of Sharon has married a local boy named Connie and is pregnant.

Chapter Nine

The narrator tells about the tenant farmers and the position they were put in when they were forced to move off their land. They had to go through all of their belongings and decide what was imperative for them to keep and what they could do without. They had to pawn whatever belongings they did not need to keep so they could fund their trip to California and also because they did not have room to bring everything with them.

The farmers cannot afford to charge a lot for what they are selling because they are in no position to turn down an offer, and thus end up taking bottom dollar for everything they are selling. They end up selling almost everything that they own for nothing more than some change and their wives are upset that they have been forced to part with their possessions for basically nothing.

Chapter Ten

Tom talks with Ma about California and they worry what conditions they will find there, though Ma seems to think they will be able to find work because she has heard good things. Grampa thinks that California will be a great place as well and full of more grapes than they can possibly eat. Pa has gone to town to sell what possessions he could and is frustrated when he comes back because he has only made eighteen dollars to help them on their journey.

The family has all decided that Jim Casy will travel with them, and he helps Ma salt the meat in preparation. Ma tells Casy that salting is work for a woman but Casy disagrees, saying that work is work in the present climate, no matter the gender of the worker. When Rose of Sharon get to the house the whole family is assembled and get ready to leave, only now Grampa says that he wants to stay like Muley and find a way to survive on the land. The family puts sleeping pills into Grampa’s water and wait for him to pass out before they pack him into the truck and head on their way.

Chapter Eleven

The land that is left behind when the farmers and their families move west is soon taken over by corporate farmers who work on the land but do not live on it. This causes a disconnect that did not happen with the farmers who lived on the land. The men who work the land now just drive over it with their tractors and go home at the end of the day causes them to have little respect and wonder for the land.

The farmers who lived on the land understood that land and knew what it needed to grow and thrive. They respected that land because they lived on it and nurtured it every single day. Because there is no one actually living on the land anymore, the houses remain empty and soon the only thing inhabiting them is animals.

Chapter Twelve

The journey to California down Highway 66 is a long one and full of traffic. It seems every car is packed full with tenant farmers, their families, and all of their possessions trying to find a job out west. The farmers worry that either they or their family members will not survive the journey and hope that their cars will make it the entire way. If a car does break down, the farmers have a hard time finding parts that are affordable because the salesmen all try to swindle the farmers, knowing they are desperate.

The people who do not know where the farmers have come from are suspicious to see so many people all heading in the same direction and with all of their belongings and some even tell the farmers to go back to where they came from because there is no room for them the further west they go. The farmers keep their optimism in the rare moments of hopefulness and helpfulness they see along the way.

Chapter Thirteen

Young Al is in charge of driving the truck, and he does so masterfully. He asks Ma if she is worried about what they find in California and she says she will not know until they get there. When they stop for gas, the attendant immediately assumes they have no money for it because most people do not and end up begging for it. The rich people, he says, go to the fancier stations that are in town and simply pass his by because it is old and decrepit.

While the family is resting at the gas station, their dog is hit by a car and killed. The gas station attendant tells them he will bury the dog for them, and they go on their way. As they head through Oklahoma City the younger kids seem embarrassed by the sights they are seeing, which are unfamiliar to them being from the country, and Rose of Sharon and her husband crack up laughing when they see what city people wear for clothing.

They soon meet Ivy and Sairy Wilson who are stranded on the side of the road and offer their tent to Grampa to rest in when he gets sick. Grampa soon has a stroke and dies, and the family takes the time to bury him, even though it is illegal. The Joad’s suggest that the Wilson’s ride with them to California and they agree.

Chapter Fourteen

The further west the farmers travel the more they realize that the people there have no idea what is happening in the Midwest. They know that something must have happened because they are witnessing a flood of migrant workers coming through, though they are not sure the reason.

The roadways are completely overrun with farmers making their way toward California and people are resting on the side of the road wherever they can find a spot and setting up camp for the night. Some people are even staying in the ditches if they can find room. The people who live out west fear this large group of people coming through because they wonder if they will band together and stage a revolt in an attempt to take over. Although the farmers are weak, when weak people all come together they form one strong unit.

Chapter Fifteen

At one diner along Highway 66, there is a waitress named Mae and a cook named Al. Mae likes working on the highway because truckers come in often and they leave her big tips. One day when a couple of truckers come in they discuss with Mae and Al the farmers who are heading toward California. Mae tells them that she heard the farmers are a bunch of thieves.

At that moment, a man wearing ragged clothing comes in with his two boys and asks Mae if he can buy a loaf of bread from her for ten cents. Mae tells him that she is not running a grocery store and if she was going to sell him bread she would ask fifteen cents for it. Al tells Mae to just give the people some bread, obviously feeling bad for them, and so she does. When Mae sees the kids looking at the nickel candy she sells their father two pieces of it for only a penny. The truckers are pleased with Mae for being so generous to the people and leave her an especially large tip that day.

Chapter Sixteen

The Joads and the Wilsons travel diligently for two days, but on the third day there is a problem as the Wilsons’ car breaks down. Although Tom and Jim offer to stay with the Wilsons and fix the car, Ma does not want to leave them behind so the whole family waits. Tom and Jim find the parts they need in a car lot and spend some time speaking with the attendant who pities himself for his job.

While camping out that night, Pa strikes up a conversation with one of the other farmers. He tells him to head to California because he heard that’s where the jobs are, but the farmer tells him there are no jobs in California. The farmers there only need about 800 workers, but about 25,000 see the handbills they have printed up. He said he brought his family out to California, and could not find any work so his wife and children starved to death. Jim tells Pa not to get down about it because they may have better luck than that guy did.

Chapter Seventeen

The hordes of cars that are heading toward California and filled with separate families come together in the face of their journey. These separate families and separate cars all become one large community because they are all heading toward the same place and the same goal. Each little community formed by many families makes up their own society with their own rules to live by and their own code of conduct. The farmers realize that they are no longer individuals but have joined a much larger group of people known as migrant men.

Chapter Eighteen

The Joads and Wilsons, still traveling together, arrive in California and find a river to bathe in. They meet a father and his son who are returning from California because they have been unable to find any work there. They tell the Joads that there are millions of acres of land just being wasted and the landowners are openly hostile to the migrant workers and call them “Okies” to their faces.

The Joads decide to try their luck and continue on, regardless, though Noah wishes to stay behind and live off fish which he thinks is just fine because his family does not really love him much anyway. Tom tries to convince Noah to stay with them, but the rest of the family is too preoccupied with Granma’s rapidly deteriorating health. As she lies hallucinating, a woman tries to come in and pray for her soul but Ma turns her away.

A little later a policeman tells the family that they must move, and they are forced to leave Noah behind, as he has run off, and also the Wilsons because Sairy has fallen ill and cannot travel any longer. During the night, they are stopped by a routine inspection and Ma pleads with the policeman to let them go through so Granma can get medical attention. After the officer leaves, Ma reveals to the others that Granma has actually been dead for quite some time now.

Chapter Nineteen

Though the California land is now ruled by the farmers, it once belonged to Mexico. When squatters came on to the land in search of a new place to live, they claimed the land as their own as soon as they began to farm on it. These squatters are descended from a line of wealthy farmers who defend their land with security measures and pay their workers low wages to make as much money for themselves as possible.

The California landowners see the migrant workers, who they call “Okies”, as a danger because they were once just like them. Hungry men who want to support their families are dangerous because when they band together they can take over the land, as the California landowners know from experience.

The Okies, however, do not want to take over the land they just want to earn enough money to support their families. The workers settle in to camps that they have built though if one of them tries to start their own small garden and the authorities find out it will be destroyed.

Chapter Twenty

The Joads are forced to leave Granma’s body with the coroner because they do not have the money to give her the burial she deserves. They settle in to Hooverville, which is a large camp full of migrant workers who are unable to find jobs. Tom wonders why the workers do not rise up against the landowners as there as so many of them and he is told that those who threaten to rise up will be blacklisted and hauled off by police. Rose of Sharon is frustrated by the situation they are in, thinking she and Connie should have just stayed in Oklahoma because she does not want to have the baby in a tent.

After a scuffle that Tom and Jim get involved in, Jim is taken off by police, reminding Tom that he cannot get in trouble because he has already violated his probation by leaving the state. Jim’s sacrifice makes Uncle John feel guilty about his wife’s death again, and he goes off to find a drink.

Tom knows the family needs to leave camp before they get into more trouble and gathers everyone, though Connie is nowhere to be found and Rose of Sharon is beside herself with emotions, wondering if he will return. As they come up on a town, they meet people with shotguns, who will not allow the Okies through. Ma believes that everything will be okay.

Chapter Twenty-One

The migrant workers are brought together by their struggles. Despite the fact that the landowners do not want the migrant workers to develop enough strength to band together, they are pushing them together by treating them as outcasts. They see a fire in the eyes of the Okies and know that they need to keep them in line and terrorize them if they want to keep the power. The people who own the larger farms make it their mission to become as powerful as possible and to leave many people destitute. The richer and more powerful the landowners are the more people are left unable to care for their families.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Joads happen upon a government sponsored camp called Weedpatch where there are no police officers to abuse them. Everything is clean, and there are toilets and showers, a luxury the Joads have no had thus far. Tom meets two people named Timothy and Wilkie Wallace who say they will bring him to the ranch they work at and try to get him a job.

Mr. Thomas, the man who runs the ranch, tells Tom that because of the Farmers’ Association he is not allowed to pay his men any more than twenty-five cents per hour, though he knows they deserve more. He tells Tom that investigators are planning to come into Weedpatch and start a riot on Saturday night, which will give police the right to come in, start trouble, and get rid of the migrant workers.

As the men look for work the women are introduced to life in the camp. A religious woman named Mrs. Sandry tells Rose of Sharon that she cannot participate in the sinning activities that happen in camp or her baby will be born dead and bloody. Pa and the others do not find any work that day but Ma remains optimistic about their situation because Tom has found work.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The camp communities become very social times when the people are not working or looking for work. In the downtime, the migrant workers play music together and share stories. Sometimes, when they can scrape up the money they will buy some alcohol and have a few drinks together which serves as a temporary means of distraction from the scary and unfortunate realities of their situation.

The few preachers that are part of the community give sermons to anyone who wishes to listen and reprimand those who have committed sin, even participating in mass baptisms for those who wish to be saved. The migrant workers have many means for escaping reality and distracting themselves.

Chapter Twenty-Four

It is Saturday night and there is a camp dance scheduled, it is also the night that Mr. Thomas warned the riot would happen. A man named Ezra who is in charge of the camp has men stand watch for investigators to prevent the riot from happening. Rose of Sharon refuses to participate in any of the dancing because of the warning my Mrs. Sandry about the effects of sinning on the baby.

Tom notices three men who look suspicious and when one of them tries to cause trouble by cutting in to dance with another man’s date, Tom and some other men remove them from the camp. The men say they were paid very well to start a riot within the camp. One of the men in the community tells a story about a group of men in the mountains who rose up against the townspeople when they were threatened to be run out of town. The townspeople never bothered them again.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The springtime in California is very nice, but the beautiful weather does not deter from the harsh realities of the migrant workers’ lives. The few farmers who still run small farms are slowly being pushed out of business by the wealthier owners of the larger farms. The owners of the smaller farms cannot do anything against those who own the larger farms and are forced to just sit around and watch as their crops dry up and they run out of money. The men are growing irritable because the wine in the vats at the vineyards is starting to go bad, which leads to a feeling of resentment amongst all.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Joads have been in the camp for almost a month, but their supplies are running low and they are unable to find work so they decide it is time to leave. While they are out on the road their truck gets a flat and they are approached by a man in a suit, offering them a job picking peaches thirty-five miles away.

When they get there they find there are many people there for the same job, and they will be paid only five cents per box of peaches picked, but they do it because they need to eat. By the end of the day the entire family has made only one dollar and are still hungry after the meal it buys them.

Tom sees a commotion by the road and goes to investigate, where he finds Jim Casy who has just been released from custody. Jim is heading a migrant workers organization to get them fair wages. Policemen come, realize who Jim is, and start a fight that ends with Jim being killed by a policeman with a blow to head from a pickax. Tom turns the pickax on the policeman that killed Jim and kills him in return.

Tom rushes back to his family and tells them what has happened, offering to leave so as not to cause trouble, but Ma insists that they stay together. The family moves away from the peach farm and finds work picking cotton, bringing food to Tom in his hiding spot whenever they get some.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

There are signs all over the place advertising work picking cotton. Cotton picking pays pretty well, but if the workers do not have their own sacks to put the cotton in they must buy them on credit and then they must use their wages to pay for their sack, which can take some time.

There are too many workers picking the cotton for anyone to really make any money doing it. Some of the farm owners have even rigged the scales they use to weight the cotton so they do not have to pay their workers as much money. The migrant workers, learning to play just as dirty as the farm owners, will at times put stones in their cotton sacks to cheat the farm owners that are already cheating them.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

While picking cotton, the Joads live in a boxcar that they share with another family called the Wainwrights. They begin making more money than they have ever made since arriving in California and are able to buy food and clothing for the whole family and even treats the children to Cracker Jacks. Another girl is jealous of Ruthie’s Cracker Jacks, and tries to steal them but Ruthie threatens the girl, saying her brother has killed two people.

Ma goes off to where Tom is hiding and tells him that his secret is no longer safe, and he must move. Tom tells Ma that he is going to carry on Jim’s work, organizing the migrant workers, but he will take better care to stay out of harm’s way. Ma hears of a crop that needs to be picked and goes to the boxcar to share the news with the family where she learns they have more news to celebrate – Al and Agnes Wainwright are going to get married. The families head to the field where they find that all of the cotton has already been picked.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rain begins coming down incessantly and it ruins the crops and the camps. People’s vehicles begin washing away in the flooding, rivers overflow, and stuff begins to get lost in the mud. Because no one can work the migrant workers are forced to beg for food wherever they can find it. The women become worried that their husbands will begin to break under the pressure of not having jobs and watch them, hopeful that they can keep it together. The men do not live in fear for long but instead become angry at their situation and the women know that the men will be just fine as long as they have something to be angry about.

Chapter Thirty

After three days of rain, there is no sign of it stopping, and Rose of Sharon goes into labor. The family has to stay in the boxcar because their truck has flooded, and the men have built a dam to keep the water outside of their shelter. While building the dam a tree uproots itself and crushes what has been built, ruining all of their efforts. Pa goes into the boxcar to tell Ma what has happened, and learns that Rose of Sharon has delivered her baby and it is stillborn.

Uncle John goes off to bury the baby, which he does by placing it in the water and watching it float away. After six days of rain the boxcar begins to flood and Ma tells the family they must find a dryer place to live. Al stays behind with his bride-to-be and her family and the rest of the Joads walk until they find a dry barn. In the barn, they find a man who is dying and his son.

The man is starving to death as he has given all food he could find to his son. He cannot digest any solid food and Ma looks at Rose of Sharon, who immediately understands what she must do. Rose of Sharon, who is producing milk having just given birth, asks everyone to leave the barn and she breastfeeds the man in the hopes that he will survive off her nutrients.