------The following is quoted from http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/grapeswrath/fullsumm.html

"Chapter One: Steinbeck begins the novel with a description of the dust bowl climate of Oklahoma. The dust was so thick that men and women had to remain in their houses, and when they had to leave they tied handkerchiefs over their faces and wore goggles to protect their eyes. After the wind had stopped, an even blanket of dust covered the earth. The corn crop was ruined. Everybody wondered what they would do. The women and children knew that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole, but the men had not yet figured out what to do.
Analysis: Steinbeck begins the novel with ominous portents of the hardship to come. He describes the coming of the dust in terms befitting a biblical plague. The dust storm overwhelms Oklahoma, clouding the air and even blocking out the sun. However, when the storm ends, it is only the beginning of the hardship for the Oklahoma farmers. A sense of hopelessness sets in almost immediately. There seems to be no solution for the farmers, who are resigned to their fate and find themselves baffled at what they may have to face. This chapter deliberately does not deal with the characters who will occupy the novel, for Steinbeck intends to place the book within a larger context. Tom Joad and his family, who will be the focus of The Grapes of Wrath, are not yet featured, for they are merely one of thousands of families to be affected by the events of the Depression. The first chapter serves to give the novel an epic sweep and to remind the reader that the book has a strong historical basis.

Chapter Two: A man approaches a small diner where a large red transport truck is parked. The man is under thirty, with dark brown eyes and high cheekbones. He wore new clothes that don't quite fit. The truck driver exits from the diner and the man asks him for a ride, despite the "No Riders" sticker on the truck. The man claims that sometimes a guy will do a good thing even when a rich bastard makes him carry a sticker, and the driver, feeling trapped by the statement, lets the man have a ride. While driving, the truck driver asks questions, and the man finally gives his name, Tom Joad. The truck driver claims that guys do strange things when they drive trucks, such as make up poetry, because of the loneliness of the job. The truck driver claims that his experience driving has trained his memory and that he can remember everything about a person he passes. Realizing that the truck driver is pressing for information, Tom finally admits that he had just been released from McAlester prison for homicide. He had been sentenced to seven years and was released after only four, for good behavior.
Analysis: The Oklahoma City Transport Company truck is both imposing and intrusive, a symbol of corporate domination as shown by the "No Riders" sticker so prominently displayed. Tom Joad immediately picks up on the idea of business as cold and heartless when he asks the truck driver for a ride. The novel is unsparingly critical of business and the rich: they serve only to keep truck drivers isolated and bored to the point of near insanity. There are several indications that Tom Joad is a recent prison release. His clothing is recently prison-issued: it does not quite fit him, it is far too formal ­ he walks down the road alone, wearing a suit, and is as yet spotless. He has few possessions with him. The truck driver immediately realizes Tom's recent circumstances; his probing questions, as Tom realizes, are meant to elicit the desired confession from him. The little information that Tom reveals about himself shows him to be a shrewd but uneducated man. He can barely write and does little more than hard labor, but he is clever enough to know how to manipulate the truck driver into giving him a ride. A persistent strain of anti-elitism runs throughout the novel. As well as the contempt that Tom and the truck driver show toward big business and the rich, they also sharply criticize those who use Œbig words.' According to them, only a preacher can use educated language, for they can be trusted. In other hands, the use of big words is merely to obscure and confuse.

Chapter Three: At the side of the roadside, a turtle crawled, dragging his shell over the grass. He came to the embankment at the road and, with great effort, climbed onto the road. As the turtle attempts to cross the road, it is nearby hit by a sedan. A truck swerves to hit the turtle, but its wheel only strikes the edge of its shell and spins it back off the highway. The turtle lays on its back, but finally pulls itself over.
Analysis: The turtle is a metaphor for the working class farmers whose stories and struggles are recounted in The Grapes of Wrath. The turtle plods along dutifully, but is consistently confronted with danger and setbacks. Significantly, the dangers posed to the turtle are those of modernity and business. It is the intrusion of cars and the building of highways that endanger the turtle. The truck that strikes it is a symbol of big business and commerce. The Joad family that will soon be introduced will experience similar travails as the turtle, as they plod along wishing only to survive, yet are brutally pushed aside by corporate interests.

Chapter Four: After getting out of the truck, Tom Joad begins walking home. He sees the turtle of the previous chapter and picks it up. He stops in the shade of a tree to rest and meets a man who sits there, singing "Jesus is My Savior." The man, Jim Casy, had a long, bony frame and sharp features. A former minister, he recognizes Tom immediately. He was a "Burning Busher" who used to "howl out the name of Jesus to glory," but he lost the calling because he has too many sinful ideas that seem sensible. Tom tells Casy that he took the turtle for his little brother, and he replies that nobody can keep a turtle, for they eventually just go off on their own. Casy claims that he doesn't know where he's going now, and Tom tells him to lead people, even if he doesn't know where to lead them. Casy tells Tom that part of the reason he quit preaching was that he too often succumbed to temptation, having sex with many of the girls he Œsaved.' Finally he realized that perhaps what he was doing wasn't a sin, and there isn't really sin or virtue ­ there are simply things people do. He realized he didn't Œknow Jesus,' he merely knew the stories of the Bible. Tom tells Casy why he was in jail: he was at a dance drunk, and got in a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the head with a shovel. Tom tells him that he was treated relatively well in McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. He even tells about how someone broke his parole to go back. Tom tells how his father Œstole' their house. There was a family living there that moved away, so his father, uncle and grandfather cut the house in two and dragged part of it first, only to find that Wink Manley took the other half. They get to the boundary fence of their property, and Tom tells him that they didn't need a fence, but it gave Pa a feeling that their forty acres was forty acres. Tom and Casy get to the house: something has happened ­ nobody is there.
Analysis: Jim Casy is the moral voice of the novel and its religious center. He is a religious icon, a philosopher and a prophet. His initials (J.C.) reveal that Steinbeck intends him to be a Christ figure espousing Steinbeck's interpretation of religious doctrine. He eschews dogma and scripture, even any semblance of a strict moral code. Instead, Casy finds the rules and regulations of Christian teachings too confining and not applicable to actual situations. The most striking case of this is his Œsins' with the women he converts. Casy originally felt tremendously guilty over his actions, worried about his responsibilities toward the women he was trying to convert to Jesus, yet finally came to the conclusion that "maybe it's just the way folks is." Casy's final more code is one without any definition. He denies the existence of virtue or vice, finding that "there's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing." His final conclusion is that all men and women are the Holy Spirit, connected by one common soul. Steinbeck thus focuses on the common people not just politically, with the themes of poverty during the Great Depression, but as a religious entity. Casy rejects the idea of Jesus as intangible. Casy does not and cannot know Jesus, but he does know common people and believes them to be the representation of god. Even Tom's stories demonstrate a dislike of concrete religious teachings. He mocks the pious religious Christmas card that his grandmother sent him while he was in prison. Tom's description of prison demonstrates the poverty under which he and his family live. For Tom, prison ensured that he would be fed and cared for. Now that he has reentered society, he has no such guarantee. The story of how Tom's family obtained their house further demonstrates his family's dire situation ­ to have a home, they literally have to carry one from another property. Yet Tom tells Casy this as a humorous anecdote; his poverty has become so ingrained that all that Tom can do is accept it.

Chapter Five: This chapter describes the coming of the bank representatives to evict the farmers. Some of the men were kind because they knew how cruel their job was, while some were angry because they hated to be cruel, and others were merely cold and hardened by their job. They are mostly pawns of a system that they can merely obey. The tenant system has become untenable for the banks, for one man on a tractor can take the place of a dozen families. The farmers raise the possibility of armed insurrection, but what would they fight against? They will be murderers if they stay, fighting against the wrong targets. Steinbeck describes the arrival of the tractors. They crawled over the ground, cutting the earth like surgery and violating it like rape. The tractor driver does his job simply out of necessity: he has to feed his kids, even if it comes at the expense of dozens of families. Steinbeck dramatizes a conversation between a truck driver and an evicted tenant farmer. The farmer threatens to kill the driver, but even if he does so, he will not stop the bank. Another driver will come. Even if the farmer murders the president of the bank and board of directors, the bank is controlled by the East. There is no effective target which could prevent the evictions.
Analysis: Even more than the coming of the dust, the arrival of the bankers is an ominous event. For Steinbeck, the banks have no redeeming value. They are completely devoid of human characteristics ­ they are monstrosities that "breathe profits" and can never be satiated. Steinbeck explicitly states that bank is inhuman, and the bank owner with fifty thousand acres is a "monster." A bank is made by me but is something more than and separate from people, a destructive force that pursues short term profits at the expense of the land, destroying it through cotton production that drains the land of its resources. Steinbeck describes the movement of the tractors over the ground as indiscriminate and hostile. The tractors move arbitrarily over all land, violently slicing the ground with their blades. Steinbeck first equates the plowing with surgery, but goes further to compare it with rape: a cold and passionless intrusion into the land unconnected with human emotion. According to Steinbeck, it is a personal connection to the land that determines ownership. A man who does not reside on his land and walk upon it cannot own it; rather, the property controls the man and he becomes the servant of the land. In this critique of the bank, the behavior of the employees is largely excusable. They are "caught in something larger than themselves," controlled by the mathematics of bank operations and slaves to the company that has ensnared them. The situation that the bank poses for the farmers leaves them no options. They cannot defend the land, for they would be murdering men who are not responsible for their fate. They can only leave. The tractor drivers face a similar situation. Despite the consequences to others, they have to work somehow to feed their families. They are not responsible for what they do, for they are controlled by larger forces. The conversation between the tenant farmer and the tractor driver illustrates how diffuse the controlling corporate system is. If a farmer wanted to stop the bank, he could not target one individual or even a small group; even if a farmer murdered the bank president, it would not stop the process of evictions. The people are helpless.

Chapter Six: Casy and Tom approached the Joad home. The house was mashed at one corner and appeared deserted. Casy says that it looks like the arm of the Lord had struck. Tom can tell that Ma isn't there, for she would have never left the gate unhooked. They only see one resident (the cat), but Tom wonders why the cat didn't go to find another family if his family had moved, or why the neighbors hadn't taken the rest of the belongings in the house. Muley Graves approaches, a short, lean old man with the truculent look of an ornery child. Muley tells Tom that his mother was worrying about him. His family was evicted, and had to move in with his Uncle John. They were forced to chop cotton to make enough money to go west. Casy suggests going west to pick grapes in California. Muley tells Tom and Casy that the loss of the farm broke up his family ­ his wife and kids went off to California, while Muley chose to stay. He has been forced to eat wild game. He muses about how angry he was when he was told he had to get off the land. First he wanted to kill people, but then his family left and Muley was left alone and wandering. He realized that he is used to the place, even if he has to wander the land like a ghost. Tom tells them that he can't go to California, for it would mean breaking parole. According to Tom, prison has not changed him significantly. He thinks that if he saw Herb Turnbull, the man he killed, coming after him with a knife again, he would still hit him with the shovel. Tom tells them that there was a man in McAlester that read a great deal about prisons and told him that they started a long time ago and now cannot be stopped, despite the fact that they do not actually rehabilitate people. Muley tells them that they have to hide, for they are trespassing on the land. They have to hide in a cave for the night.
Analysis: When Tom and Casy return to the Joad home, it appears foreign and unfriendly. The home is empty, but for Tom the situation is unnatural. There are signs that the family has left, but suspiciously everyone seems to have left as well. Muley Graves echoes the previous chapter's idea that no matter who a man might kill, he cannot stop the banks. Eventually Muley enters a state of resignation, forced to accept his fate. The character is essentially a ghost, living on the outskirts of society and wandering the land, bereft of his wife and children. He demonstrates the dehumanizing quality of the banks' intrusion. He is a man without any impetus for living. When Tom tells Muley and Casy that he has not been rehabilitated by his jail term, it is a warning that, despite his calm demeanor he is still a man capable of violence. This foreshadows later developments; if Tom is provoked, there is still the possibility that he could react viciously. Neither Tom nor Muley believe in the rehabilitating power of prisons. According to Muley, the only type of government force that can manipulate human behavior is the capitalist system, the idea of the Œsafe margin of profit.' This reinforces the idea that the corporate system is the real controlling force of society, now more powerful than any citizen or group of citizens yet without concern for them. Even spending the night on the property places Tom, Casy and Muley in danger. They are trespassing, and must hide in a cave in order to protect themselves from patrolling deputies. Muley makes the apt comparison of them to hunted animals, forced into subterfuge and unable to even show themselves in the open.

Chapter Seven: The car dealership owners look at their customers. They watch for weaknesses, such as a woman who wants an expensive car and can push her husband into buying one. They attempt to make the customers feel obliged. The profits come from selling jalopies, not from new and dependable cars. There are no guarantees, hidden costs and obvious flaws.
Analysis: This chapter critiques yet another part of the business system. The owners of the car dealerships mean solely to exploit impoverished buyers. They do not profit from selling cars that will last, but rather from finding the most ill-used vehicle, giving it the appearance of reliability, and pawning it off on desperate farmers wishing to get to California. There is no compassion in the car sales, but rather a perpetual cycle of exploitation. This indicates what the Joad family must certainly have experienced to get their car to go west, yet places it in a larger context. The chapter makes it clear that they are not the only family to experience this.

Chapter Eight: Tom and Casy reach Uncle John's farm. They remark that Muley's lonely and covert lifestyle has obviously driven him insane. According to Tom, his Uncle John is equally crazy, and wasn't expected to live long, yet is older than his father. Still, he is tougher and meaner than even Grampa, hardened by losing his young wife years ago. They see Pa Joad fixing the truck. When he sees Tom, he assumes that he broke out of jail. They go in the house and see Ma Joad, a heavy woman thick with child-bearing and work. Her face was controlled and kindly. She worries that Tom went mad in prison. This chapter also introduces Grampa and Granma Joad. She is as tough as he is, once shooting her husband while she was speaking in tongues. Noah Joad, Tom's older brother, is a strange man, slow and withdrawn, with little pride and few urges. He may have been brain damaged at childbirth. The family has dinner, and Casy says grace. He talks about how Jesus went off into the wilderness alone, and how he did the same. Yet what Casy concluded was that mankind was holy. Pa tells Tom about Al, his sixteen-year old brother, who is concerned with little more than girls and cars. He hasn't been at home at night for a week. His sister Rosasharn has married Connie Rivers, and is several months pregnant. They have two hundred dollars for their journey.
Analysis: The members of the Joad family are tough people, crude and hardened by life experience. Uncle John has gone nearly mad from losing his wife to illness, Pa Joad is sullen and withdrawn, and Grampa is too angry and bitter to even stay in the house. Only Ma Joad retains some level of warmth and compassion. She worries that Tom may have gone insane in prison. However, even she has changed, as Tom remarks, for until recently she never had her house pushed over or had to sell everything she owned. Even Granma and Grampa Joad are mean, tough people. Casy's speech at dinner is yet another example of Steinbeck's glorification of the common person. For him, the population as a whole exemplifies what is holy. It is only when people diverge from the common good that they become unholy. This is further bolstered by Ma Joad's musings that there might be hope if everybody became angry enough to rise up against the moneyed interests. Steinbeck takes a largely socialist viewpoint, championing the common good over individual interests.

Chapter Nine: This chapter describes the process of selling belongings. The items pile up in the yard, selling for ridiculously low prices. Whatever is not sold must be burned, even items of sentimental value that simply cannot be taken on the journey for lack of space.
Analysis: The sale of the items is a demeaning process, for the farmers must accept ridiculously low prices for their now outdated possessions. Steinbeck is explicit about the meaning of the sales: he states that "you're not buying only junk, you're buying junked lives." This is yet another example of the dehumanizing effects of the Depression foreclosures. The situation is hopeless: there is no possibility for starting over, for the people who are leaving are now imbued with bitterness and loss. They must even give up those objects that have sentimental value out of simply necessity, yet another example of the loss of human characteristics.

Chapter Ten: Ma Joad tells Tom that she is concerned about going to California, worried that it won't turn out well, for the only information they have is from flyers they read. Casy asks to accompany them to California. He wants to work in the fields, where he can listen to people rather than preach to them. Tom says that preaching is a tone of voice and a style, being good to people when they don't respond to it. Pa and Uncle John return with the truck, and prepare to leave. The two children, twelve-year old Ruthie and ten-year old Winfield are there with their older sister, Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) and her husband. They discuss how Tom can't leave the state because of his parole. They have a family conference that night and discuss a number of issues: they decide to allow Casy to go with them, since it's the only right thing for them to do. They continue with preparations, killing the pigs to have food to take with them. While Casy helps out Ma Joad with food preparation, he remarks to Tom that she looks tired, as if she is sick. Ma Joad looks through her belongings, going through old letters and clippings she had saved. She has to place them in the fire. Before they leave, Muley Graves stops to say goodbye. Noah tells him that he's going to die out in the field if he stays, but Muley accepts his fate. Grampa refuses to leave, so they decide to give him medicine that will knock him out and take him with them.
Analysis: This chapter illustrates the Joad family dynamic. The numerous relatives across three generations make any order difficult, as the family meeting demonstrates. The Joad family has Grampa as the nominal head, yet he exerts no special influence. If any member of the family leads the others, it is Ma Joad, who dominates by moral force. It is she who issues the final verdict allowing Casy to go with them to California. While Tom Joad is the main character in The Grapes of Wrath, it is Ma Joad who is the story's moral center, reminding everyone that they have greater concerns than just their own interests ­ it would be wrong if them to refuse food or shelter to anyone. Ma Joad appears to be the principal victim of the move to California. Casy notices that she looks ill from the recent events, and only she is the only one who appears to have regrets. For the others, it is an unfortunate move, yet she must leave behind the memories that she treasures. Even Grampa, when he refuses to leave, does so out of bitter energy. Ma Joad, in contrast, has a Œgreat weariness.' Grampa's refusal to leave highlights how important the land is for these people. For him, it is unimaginable to leave the area where he was born and raised. Yet he has no option. If he were to remain, he would essentially cease to exist as a human, like Muley Graves.

Chapter Eleven: The houses were left vacant. Only the tractor sheds of gleaming iron and silver were alive. Yet when the tractors are at rest the life goes out of them. The work is easy and efficient, so easy that the wonder goes out of the work and so efficient that the wonder goes out of the land and the working of it. In the tractor man there grows the contempt that comes to a stranger who has little understanding and no relation to the land. The abandoned houses slowly fall apart.
Analysis: This chapter provides one more critique of the new means of cotton production overtaking the farms. The fate of the tractors contrasts sharply with that of the farmers who once worked there. The tractors and their drivers have no connection to the land, little understanding and no relationship with it. The farmers, in contrast, have a deep and long-standing affection for the land on which they lived and worked, part of the reason why Grampa, in the previous chapter, refused to leave Oklahoma. Steinbeck also continues to remind the reader that the tractors are inhuman. He creates a mock metaphor in which the tractors Œgo home at the end of the day' and Œgo to sleep' to demonstrate how far that experience is from an actual human one. Steinbeck even explicitly states how "dead" the tractors are, comparing one to a corpse.

Chapter Twelve: Highway 66 is the main migrant road stretching from the Mississippi to Bakersfield, California. It is a road of flight for refugees from the dust and shrinking land. The people streamed out on 66, possibly breaking down in their undependable cars on the way. Yet the travelers face obstacles. California is a big state, but not big enough to support all of the workers who are coming. The border patrol can turn people back. The high wages that are promised may be false.
Analysis: Steinbeck foreshadows a number of the problems that the Joad family will face on their travels. He highlights the problems that people often have with their cars and the possibility of breakdowns, a problem the Joad family may soon face considering their unreliable vehicle. Also, the chapter begins to make it clear that the final destination in California may not be a panacea for the Joad's problems. Even if they reach the California border, they may be turned back. So many others are doing the same that there is bound to be an overcrowded job market for migrant workers in California. Arrival in California does not necessarily mean that the Joad's problems will be solved or that they will be in an even marginally better situation than they were in Oklahoma.

Chapter Thirteen: The Joads continue on their travels. Al remarks that they may have trouble getting over mountains in their car, which can barely support its weight. Grampa Joad wakes up and insists that he's not going with them. They stop at a gas station where the owner automatically assumes they are broke, and tells them that people often stop, begging for gas. The owner claims that fifty cars per day go west, but wonders what they expect when they reach their destination. He tells how one family traded their daughter's doll for some gas. Casy wonders what the nation is coming to, since people seem unable to make a decent living. Casy says that he used to use his energy to fight against the devil, believing that the devil was the enemy. However, now he believes that there's something worse. The Joad's dog wanders from the car and is run over in the road. They continue on their journey and begin to worry when they reach the state line. However, Tom reassures them that he is only in danger if he commits a crime. Otherwise, nobody will know that he has broken his parole by leaving the state. On their next stop for the night, the Joads meet the Wilsons, a family from Kansas that is going to California. Grampa complains of illness, and weeps. The family thinks that he may suffer a stroke. Granma tells Casy to pray for Grampa, even if he is no longer a preacher. Suddenly Grampa starts twitching and slumps. He dies. The Joads face a choice: they can pay fifty dollars for a proper burial for him or have him buried a pauper. They decide to bury Grampa themselves and leave a note so that people don't assume he was murdered. The Wilsons help them bury Grampa. They write a verse from scripture on the note on his grave. After burying Grampa, they have Casy say a few words. The reactions to the death are varied. Rose of Sharon comforts Granma, while Uncle John is curiously unmoved by the turn of events. Casy admits that he knew Grampa was dying, but didn't say anything because he couldn't have helped. He blames the separation from the land for Grampa's death. The Joads and the Sairy Wilson decide to help each other on the journey by spreading out the load between their two cars so that both families will make it to California.
Analysis: The first stop that the Joads make reinforces the idea that they may not find work when they reach California because of a filled labor market. Yet even with the dire situation that the Joads face, they are nevertheless better off than some travelers, at the very least able to pay for gas. Casy reiterates the idea that the nation faces a nearly unconquerable enemy. Although he does not explicitly identify this identity, its characteristics indicate that it is the capitalist system that was earlier vilified. He identifies the enemy as a system that precludes normal people from making a decent living. For Casy, this Œevil' is too powerful to effectively combat, a battle more strenuous than that against the devil. Even early in the journey the Joads suffer a tragic loss, if one less significant than an actual family member. The family dog becomes the first victim on the journey. Its early demise, dying before the Joads even reach the Oklahoma border, foreshadows further losses that the family may suffer. Steinbeck further foreshadows problems that the Joads may face when Tom mentions parole violations. He is only in danger if he commits another crime. That danger may eventually arise. The death of the dog is followed by the death of an actual family member. Despite his tough veneer of anger and bitterness, Grampa dies from a stroke. Since he was the one family member most adamantly opposed to leaving their home, it was likely the separation that hastened his demise. Casy makes a direct correlation between Grampa's death and their journey, reinforcing the idea that these people have a significant personal relationship with they farmed. Throughout the novel, Casy frequently must perform the duties of a preacher. Despite his conviction that he no longer believes in preaching, he is forced into performing the role, whether praying for Grampa as he suffers his stroke or saying a few parting words after his burial. This seems to indicate that Casy is best suited for the role of a preacher, despite his disenchantment with religion. In his parting words for Grampa Joad, Casy does reiterate his belief that people are the source of holiness. The agreement between the Joads and the Wilsons to aid each other on the way to California is a significant plot development, for it is in collective interests that these families find their strength. This is the first building block in a collectivist scheme that Steinbeck seems to support in which working class people come together for their collective interests.

Chapter Fourteen: The Western States are nervous about the impending changes, including the widening government, growing labor unity, and strikes. However, they do not realize that these are results of change and not causes of it. The cause is the hunger of the multitude. The danger that they face is that the people's problems have moved from "I" to "we."
Analysis: This chapter makes an explicit political statement concerning the migration to the west coast. The owners and controlling powers fear the changes that are imminent and that threaten their interests. However, the owners are the cause of this change. By forcing the farmers from their land, they have created the hunger that afflicts them. Steinbeck once again considers the definition and function of a man. According to him, a man is defined by what he creates and what work he does, and most importantly, by his ability for improvement. He warns against the time when mankind does not strive for improvement, even when that struggle leads to sacrifice. This is an attempt to create a larger perspective on mankind greater than the collective interest of individuals. According to Steinbeck, mankind is distinguished because men's actions can go beyond oneself. This adheres to the collectivist viewpoint throughout the novel. This chapter also makes clear the adversary relationship between the owners and the working classes. The owners exploit individual interests in order to thwart the collective good. By forcing men to consider only their self-interest, the owners prevent the possibility that the collective interest may form and foment revolution.

Chapter Fifteen: This chapter begins with a description of the hamburger stands and diners on Route 66. The typical diner is run by a usually irritated woman who nevertheless becomes friendly when truck drivers ­ consistent customers who can always pay ­ enter. The more wealthy travelers drop names and buy vanity products. The owners of the diners complain about the migrating workers, who can't pay and often steal. A family comes in, wanting to buy a loaf of bread. The one owner, Mae, tells them that they're not a grocery store, but Al, the other, tells them to just sell the bread. Mae sells the family candy for reduced prices. Mae and Al wonder what such families will do once they reach California.
Analysis: Instead of viewing the plight of the migrant families from the perspective of the Joads, this chapter gives another, somewhat less sympathetic perspective to their situation. For the people who own the diners and other small businesses along Route 66, the migrant workers are little more than a burden on them, asking these people, who are simply attempting to make a living, for handouts and charity. The men and women who work at the diners on Route 66 view the migrant families with a conflicting sense of loathing and compassion. They see these travelers as shiftless and threatening, yet do take pity on them. Mae and Al sell them a loaf of bread and Mae even sells the children candy for a much reduced price. Yet part of this compassion stems from impatience. It is easier to give the migrant families what they want and send them on their way.

Chapter Sixteen: The Joads and the Wilsons continue on their travels. Rose of Sharon discusses with her mother what they will do when they reach California. She and Connie want to live in a town, where he can get a job in a store or a factory. He wants to study at home, possibly taking a radio correspondence course. There is a rattling in the Wilson's car, so Al is forced to pull over. There are problems with the motor. Sairy Wilson tells them that they should go on ahead without them, but Ma Joad refuses, telling them that they are like family now and they won't desert them. Tom says that he and Casy will stay with the truck if everyone goes on ahead. They'll fix the car and then move on. Only Ma objects. She refuses to go, for the only thing that they have left is each other and she will not break up the family even momentarily. When everyone else objects to her, she even picks up a jack handle and threatens them. Tom and Casy try to fix the car, and Casy remarks about how he has seen so many cars moving west, but no cars going east. Casy predicts that all of the movement and collection of people in California will change the country. The two of them stay with the car while the family goes ahead. Before they leave, Al tells Tom that Ma is worried that he will do something that might break his parole. Granma has been going crazy, yelling and talking to herself. Al asks Tom about what he felt when he killed a man. Tom admits that prison has a tendency to drive a man insane. Tom and Al find a junkyard where they find a part to replace the broken con-rod in the Wilson's car. The one-eyed man working at the junkyard complains about his boss, and says that he might kill him. Tom tells off the one-eyed man for blaming all of his problems on his eye, and then criticizes Al for his constant worry that people will blame him for the car breaking down. Tom, Casy and Al rejoin the rest of the family at a campground not far away. To stay at the campground, the three would have to pay an additional charge, for they would be charged with vagrancy if they slept out in the open. Tom, Casy and Uncle John eventually decide to go on ahead and meet up with everyone else in the morning. A ragged man at the camp, when he hears that the Joads are going to pick oranges in California, laughs. The man, who is returning from California, tells how the handbills are a fraud. They ask for eight hundred people, but get several thousand people who want to work. This drives down wages. The proprietor of the campground suspects that the ragged man is trying to stir up trouble for labor.
Analysis: Rose of Sharon stands as a stark contrast to the rest of the characters in The Grapes of Wrath. She is the only adult character who retains some sense of hope for their future; she believes in the possibility of living a decent life with her husband and eventual child. The other characters expect little more from California than meager survival, while Rose of Sharon hopes to live the traditional American dream. She is the one beacon of hope within the Joad family. Even her younger brother, Al, does not have a similar optimism. He is defensive and combative, consistently worried that others will blame him for problems with the car. Ma Joad once again reveals herself to be the center of the Joad family when she demands that they not leave Tom and Casy behind, even temporarily. She leaves the family no option but to remain together, even threatening violence against anybody who opposes her. In doing so, she reiterates the idea that the strength that these people have is in unity. Steinbeck makes it quite clear by the end of the chapter that once the Joads reach California they may not find work. Casy mentions that he has seen numerous others travel westward, but has seen nobody travel back east, and the ragged man that the Joads meet at the campground confirms this fear. Even worse than a crowded labor market is the fact that the presumed opportunities for jobs are a fraud, inducing too many workers in order to drive down wages. The ragged men even suggests that the Joads will face a worse fate in California than they did in Oklahoma. For revealing this information, the ragged men is automatically pegged as a labor agitator, a derisive label consistently given to those who expose social injustices. The one-eyed man serves as yet another picture of the American experience. He is garish and grotesque and his introduction is a break from the realistic depiction of the novel. The one-eyed man reveals his life story almost immediately, a device that is far from dramatically realistic but serves to give him some layering. He is one of the many workers the Joads encounter, but he is not insignificant. Steinbeck gives him some personality and history to emphasize the importance of all working people, whether or not they are the focus of this particular story. His appearance also demonstrates once again that Tom is forthright and direct. He will not shy away from standing up to a person, a quality that gives him an air of authority but may prove dangerous.

Chapter Seventeen: A strange thing happened for the migrant laborers. During the day, as they traveled, the cars were separate and lonely, yet in the evening a strange thing happened: at the campgrounds where they stayed the twenty or so families became one. Their losses and their concerns became communal. The families were at first timid, but they gradually built small societies within the campgrounds, with codes of behavior and rights that must be observed. For transgressions, there were only two punishments: violence or ostracism. Leaders emerged, generally the wise elders. The various families found connections to one another
Analysis: This chapter focuses on the society of the migrant workers, a somewhat idealized society that forms spontaneously. It is an essentially communal society, one with rules and regulations determining polite behavior and enabling the various, disparate families to find common interests. In essence, Steinbeck uses the campground life to build a utopian society in which ostentatious display of wealth is shunned, equality reigns and no real ruling class emerges. The closest to a ruling class that emerges is the elderly, who rule from wisdom and experience.

Chapter Eighteen: When the Joads reach Arizona, a border guard stops them and nearly turns them back, but does let them continue. They eventually reach the desert of California. The terrain is barren and desolate. While washing themselves during a stop, the Joads encounter migrant workers who want to turn back. They tell them that the Californians hate the migrant workers. A good deal of the land is owned by the Land and Cattle Company that leaves the land largely untouched. Sheriffs push around migrant workers, whom they derisively call "Okies." Noah tells Tom that he is going to leave everyone, for they don't care about him. Although Tom protests, Noah leaves them. Granma remains ill, suffering from delusions. She believes that she sees Grampa. A Jehovite woman visits their tent to help Granma, and tells Ma that she will die soon. The woman wants to organize a prayer meeting, but Ma orders them not to do so. Nevertheless, soon she can hear from a distance chanting and singing that eventually descends into crying. Granma whines with the whining, then eventually falls asleep. Rose of Sharon wonders where Connie is. Deputies come to the tent and tell Ma that they cannot stay there and that they don't want any Okies around. Tom returns to the tent after the policeman leaves, and is glad that he wasn't there; he admits that he would have hit the cop. He tells Ma about Noah. The Wilsons decide to remain even if they face arrest, since Sairy is too sick to leave without any rest. Sairy asks Casy to say a prayer for her. The Joads move on, and at a stop a boy remarks how hard-looking Okies are and how they are less than human. Uncle John speaks with Casy, worried that he brings bad luck to people. Connie and Rose of Sharon need privacy. Yet again the Joads are pulled over for inspection, but Ma Joad insists that they must continue because Granma needs medical attention. The next morning when they reach the orange groves, Ma tells them that Granma is dead. She died before they were pulled over for inspection.
Analysis: The arrival in California is anticlimactic at best. The Joads cross the border only to enter the harsh California desert. They still must journey farther to reach the orange groves. There is further evidence that California will not prove the solution to the Joad's problems. The migrant workers are loathed, and there still remains the problems of the wealthy corporate interests. The rich owners are characterized as paranoid, vindictive and cowardly. Steinbeck even makes the explicit contrast between the cowardly owners and Grampa, a fearless old man even in his final days. The rich owners have wealth, but they suffer from loneliness and fear. In this manner they are worse off than even the most impoverished. The family loses yet another member once they reach California when Noah decides to leave. However, this loss is voluntary, as Noah, Tom's brother who has been frequently ignored, decides that he will stay at the river and support himself by fishing. This loss demonstrates the sense of hopelessness that has set in. Noah, like Muley Graves, decides to leave society instead of being crushed by it. Although Granma seems to be at the brink of death during the beginning of this chapter, she eventually pulls through. Once again Ma takes charge, ordering the Jehovites to leave them alone. She even confronts the deputies who threaten her, effectively intimidating them. The deputies are the first example of the contempt toward "Okies" that was mentioned earlier in the chapter. This hatred is made even more explicit by the boy at the gas station, who remarks that the Okies are less than human. The various members of the Joad family become more tense and irritable as the journey continues. Rose of Sharon and Connie begin to feel a sense of claustrophobia, bothered by the lack of privacy, while Uncle John worries irrationally that he may be the cause of the family's troubles. Uncle John, like Sairy Wilson, wishes to use Casy as a preacher, a designation he loathes but nevertheless accepts. Casy's protestations that he is not a preacher and does not believe in god seem excessive. He refuses to be called a preacher because he has doubts, and others approach him as a preacher expecting certainty. The death of Granma Joad is significant for it demonstrates just how much Ma Joad can bear. The event forces her to confront and intimidate several police officers and hide Granma's fate from the rest of the family.

Chapter Nineteen: California once belonged to Mexico and its land to the Mexicans. But a horde of tattered feverish American poured in, with such great hunger for the land that they took it. Farming became an industry as the Americans took over. They imported Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Filipino workers who became essentially slaves. The owners of the farms ceased to be farmers and became businessmen. They hated the Okies who came because they could not profit from them. Other laborers hated the Okies because they pushed down wages. While the Californians had aspirations of social success and luxury, the barbarous Okies only wanted land and food. Hoovervilles arose at the edge of every town. The Okies were forced to secretly plant gardens in the evenings. The deputies overreacted to the Okies, spurred by stories that an eleven year old Okie shot a deputy. The great owners realized that when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away and that when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need.
Analysis: Steinbeck traces what he sees to be the sorry history of California, fraught with slavery and oppression. Americans took the land from the Mexicans, put Asian workers into virtual slavery, and finally condemned the Okies who were forced to build shantytowns. Yet Steinbeck predicts that the conclusion of this history will be the overthrow of the capitalist owner class. He relies on Marxist-Leninist predictions that capitalist imperialism creates its demise through its own success. Eventually the accumulation of wealth in too few hands will deprive of the population to such a degree that they have no choice but to revolt. He also reiterates themes previously developed, such as the contempt for Okies from ordinary Californians and particularly authority figures such as the police.

Chapter Twenty: The Joads take Granma to the Bakersfield coroner's office. They can't afford a funeral for her. They go to a camp to stay and ask about work. They ask a bearded man if he owns the camp and whether they can stay, and he replies with the same question to them. A younger man tells them that the crazy old man is called the Mayor. According to the man, the Mayor has likely been pushed by the police around so much that he's been made bull-simple (crazy). The police don't want them to settle down, for then they could draw relief, organize and vote. The younger man tells them about the handbill fraud, and Tom suggests that everybody organize so that they could guarantee higher wages. The man warns Tom about the blacklist. If he is labeled an agitator he will be prevented from getting from anybody. Tom talks to Casy, who has recently been relatively quiet. Casy says that the people unorganized are like an army without a harness. Casy says that he isn't helping out the family and should go off by himself. Tom tries to convince him to stay at least until the next day, and he relents. Connie regrets his decision to come with the Joads. He says that if he had stayed in Oklahoma he could have worked as a tractor driver. When Ma is fixing dinner, groups of small children approach, asking for food. The children tell the Joads about Weedpatch, a government camp that is nearby where no cops can push people around and there is good drinking water. Al goes around looking for girls, and brags about how Tom killed a man. Al meets a man named Floyd Knowles, who tells them that there was no steady work. A woman reprimands Ma Joad for giving her children stew. Al brings Floyd back to the family, where he says that there will be work up north around Santa Clara Valley. He tells them to leave quietly, because everyone else will follow after the work. Al wants to go with Floyd no matter what. A man arrives in a Chevrolet coupe, wearing a business suit. He tells them about work picking fruit around Tulare County. Floyd tells the man to show his license -­this is one of the tricks that the contractor uses. Floyd points out some of the dirty tactics that the contractor is using, such as bringing along a cop. The cop forces Floyd into the car and says that the Board of Health might want to shut down their camp. Floyd punched the cop and ran off. As the deputy chased after him, Tom tripped him. The deputy raised his gun to shoot Floyd and fires indiscriminately, shooting a woman in the hand. Suddenly Casy kicked the deputy in the back of the neck, knocking him unconscious. Casy tells Tom to hide, for the contractor saw him trip the deputy. More officers come to the scene, and they take away Casy, who has a faint smile and a look of pride. Rose of Sharon wonders where Connie has gone. She has not seen him recently. Uncle John admits that he had five dollars. He kept it to get drunk. Uncle John gives them the five in exchange for two, which is enough for him. Al tells Rose of Sharon that he saw Connie, who was leaving. Pa claims that Connie was too big for his overalls, but Ma scolds him, telling him to act respectfully, as if Connie were dead. Because the cops are going to burn the camp tonight, they have to leave. Tom goes to find Uncle John, who has gone off to get drunk. Tom finds him by the river, singing morosely. He claims that he wants to die. Tom has to hit him to make him come. Rose of Sharon wants to wait for Connie to return. They leave the camp, heading north toward the government camp.
Analysis: The cruelty of the California police is prominently in this chapter, beginning with the introduction of the Mayor. He has been subjected to continuous torture by the police, which has driven him insane. The reason for this torture is simple: it is an attempt by the police to prevent the migrant workers from settling in California. If they were to settle down, they could vote and have political power. If they have no permanent residence, they cannot organize and threaten the ruling business elites. Yet anybody who opposes their designs is automatically labeled a labor agitator and placed on the blacklist, preventing him from working anywhere. The police can even murder migrant workers, for they have no name and no property, and thus no power. The family loses one more member when Connie Rivers abandons his pregnant wife. He leaves out of selfishness; he believes that he would have been better off staying in Oklahoma and that he can make a better life for himself away from the Joads. What he does out of self-interest is tantamount to treason for the Joads. Connie reveals himself to be arrogant in his belief that he can aspire to a middle-class lifestyle. Ma Joad, in contrast, remains the center of authority, generous and just. She gives away some food to starving children when her family can ill afford to spare food themselves, and even defends Connie, claiming that it is useless to criticize him for leaving. Connie's selfish behavior is reflected in Uncle John's similar actions. He has also held out from the family, keeping five dollars for himself in order to get drunk. However, when he wishes to behave selfishly, he still makes some sacrifice for the family, giving up more than half of his money. Furthermore, his behavior is spurred by a heavy sense of guilt rather than a lack of concern for the others. There is some indication of hope for the Joad family. The government camps are safe terrain for them, where they cannot be bothered by intimidating police officers and can expect some comforts. The sudden outbreak of violence is not an unexpected event, considering the previous accounts of the California deputies' cruelty and Tom's warning that he is still capable of committing violent acts. Yet the fight is somewhat softened: Tom does little more than trip the deputy, while Casy knocks the man unconscious. It is the deputy who causes the real havoc, inadvertently shooting an innocent woman. Still, the outcome of the event is significant for Jim Casy. He takes Tom's place as the scapegoat for the crime, sacrificing himself to save Tom. His role in the novel as a spiritual martyr is fulfilled.

Chapter Twenty-One: The hostility that the migrant workers faced changed them. They were united as targets of hostility, and this unity made the little towns of Hoovervilles defend themselves. There was panic when the migrants multiplied on the highways. The California residents feared them, thinking them dirty, ignorant degenerates and sexual maniacs. The number of migrant workers caused the wages to go down. The owners invented a new method: the great owners bought canneries, where they kept the price of fruit down to force smaller farmers out. The owners did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin one.
Analysis: This chapter reiterates previously stated themes, developing some of the tactics that the great owners used in order to make profits at the expense of working class farmers. Steinbeck also makes it clear that the result of this will be a working class uprising, the product of perpetual poverty and oppression.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Joads reach the government camp, where they are surprised to find that there are toilets and showers and running water. The watchman at the camp explains some of the other features of the camp: there is a central committee elected by the camp residents that keeps order and makes rules, and the camp even holds dance nights. The next morning, two camp residents (Timothy and Wilkie Wallace) give Tom breakfast and tell him about work. When they reach the fields where they are to work, Mr. Thomas, the contractor, tells them that he is reducing wages from thirty to twenty-five cents per hour. It is not his choice, but rather orders from the Farmers' Association, which is owned by the Bank of the West. Thomas also shows them a newspaper, which has a story about a band of citizens who burn a squatters' camp, infuriated by presumed communist agitation, and warns them about the dance at the government camp on Saturday night. There will be a fight in the camp so that the deputies can go in. The Farmers' Association dislikes the government camps because the people in the camps become used to being treated humanely and are thus harder to handle. Tom and the Wallaces vow to make sure that there won't be a fight. While they work, Wilkie tells Tom that the complaints about agitators are false. According to the rich owners, any person who wants thirty cents an hour instead of twenty-five is a red. Back at the camp, Ruthie and Winfield explore the camp, and are fascinated by the toilets ­ they are frightened by the flushing sound. Ma Joad makes the rest of the family clean themselves up before the Ladies Committee comes to visit her. Jim Rawley, the camp manager, introduces himself to the Joads and tells them some of the features of the camp. Rose of Sharon goes to take a bath, and learns that a nurse visits the camp every week and can help her deliver the baby when it is time. Ma remarks that she no longer feels ashamed, as she had when they were constantly harassed by the police. Lisbeth Sandry, a religious zealot, speaks with Rose of Sharon about the alleged sin that goes on during the dances, and complains about people putting on stage plays, which she calls Œsin and delusion and devil stuff.' The woman even blames playacting for a mother dropping her child. Rose of Sharon becomes frightened upon hearing this, fearing that she will drop her child. Jessie Bullitt, the head of the Ladies Committee, gives Ma Joad a tour of the camp and explains some of the problems. Jessie bickers with Ella Summers, the previous committee head. The children play and bicker. Pa comforts Uncle John, who still wants to leave, thinking that he will bring the family punishment. Ma Joad confronts Lisbeth Sandry for frightening Rose and for preaching that every action is sinful. Ma becomes depressed about all of the losses ­ Granma and Grampa, John and Connie ­ because she now has leisure time to think about such things.
Analysis: The government camp proves a shocking interruption to the consistent maladies and hardships that have plagued the Joad family throughout the novel. The people are polite and well-mannered toward the Joads. Ma Joad is even shocked to hear Jim Rawley call her "Mrs." The few problems in Weedpatch, such as the theft of toilet paper, are handled in a fair and organized manner. The camp represents a communal society in which everyone has an equal share and an equal voice. While not a perfect place, as shown by the unwelcome proselytizing of Lisbeth Sandry, the government camp nevertheless is a comfortable community where the Joads can live respectably. The degree of comfort that Weedpatch affords is reflected in the return to a normal rhythm that occurs among the Joads. Ruthie and Winfield can play like small children once again. Uncle John settles into his manageable routine of depression. The impressionable Rose of Sharon begins to fret about her child; without Connie she no longer dreams of a middle-class life, but instead focuses on the immediate fate of her soon-to-be-born child. Ma Joad even realizes how great an interruption the journey to California was. For the first time, she can comprehend the losses that the family has suffered and mourn the two deaths and two desertions. Before reaching the camp, her only concern had to be her own survival; the most important luxury that Ma Joad receives at the camp is introspection. The degree of poverty to which the Joads and other migrant workers are subjected is further reflected by the amazement that the characters show to the simple amenities in the camp. Ruthie and Winfield have never used a toilet before, while Jessie Bullitt tells Ma Joad how some camp residents have trouble with some of the camp's appliances. Once again the banking elite causes needless hardship for the migrant workers. The Farmers' Association that the banks control dictates that wages be reduced. It becomes clear that the Farmers' Association is responsible for most of the hardship and oppression. They control the state deputies who intimidate the migrant farmers. The Farmers' Association is opposed to treating the migrant workers fairly, for if they expect to be treated well they will demand more. They even plan underhanded tactics to subvert the government camps, for when the workers are in government camps they are more difficult to control. This chapter explicitly states their plan: to sabotage the government camp they will instigate a fight that will allow the deputies to enter and disrupt Weedpatch.

Chapter Twenty-Three: The migrant workers looked for amusement wherever they could find it, whether in jokes or stories for amusement. They told stories of heroism in taming the land against the Indians, or about a rich man who pretended to be poor and fell in love with a rich woman who was also pretending to be poor. The workers took small pleasures in playing the harmonica or a more precious guitar or fiddle, or even in getting drunk.
Analysis: This chapter demonstrates some of the simple details of the life of a migrant worker. These workers looked for amusement and diversion, for it proved a respite for their hardships. Some of these amusements are less innocent: drunkenness was common, for it softened loneliness and pain. It essentially serves as a form of suicide, dulling the man into a drunken stupor and then finally sleep. Steinbeck even writes that "death was a friend, and sleep was death's brother.' While not specifically describing Uncle John, this description of drunkenness does seem to fit with the character's depression and does give some explanation for his behavior in previous chapters.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The rumors that the police were going to break up the dance reached the camp. According to Ezra Huston, the chairman of the Central Committee, this is a frequent tactic that the police use. Huston tells Willie Eaton, the head of the entertainment committee, that if he must hit a deputy, do so where they won't bleed. The camp members say that the Californians hate them because the migrants might draw relief without paying income tax, but they refute this, claiming that they pay sales tax and tobacco tax. At the dance, Willie Eaton approaches Tom and tells him where to watch for intruders. Ma comforts Rose of Sharon, who is depressed about Connie. Tom finds the intruders at the dance, but the intruders begin a fight and immediately the police enter the camp. Huston confronts the police about the intruders, asking who paid them. They only admit that they have to make money somehow. Once the problem is defused, the dance goes on without any problems.
Analysis: This chapter continues to illustrate the society within Weedpatch, showing how information goes from the elected leaders to the camp residents and how they maintain order. The interaction between the residents is fair and orderly; the hierarchy that has emerged among the various heads of committees and residents is one based on mutual respect. The committee leaders do not issue orders; at most, they offer advice and counsel to the residents. The orderly workings of Weedpatch society are reflected in the manner in which they deal with the intruders during the dance. There is no outbreak of violence, as Steinbeck had earlier foreshadowed. The committee members deal with the situation calmly, defusing the situation and refusing to allow the deputies and the intruders at the dance to instigate a violent riot. The rationale that the intruders give for their behavior is one that Steinbeck has frequently rejected as a justification for action. They claim that they accepted the bribes given to start the riot simply to support themselves. This motive of self-interest has frequently been rejected by Steinbeck as untenable, whether used by a tractor driver or a small business owner. Individualist concerns are characterized as selfish and detrimental to the public good, in contrast to selfless collective behavior. The intruders are the most extreme example of this selfish attitude.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Spring is beautiful in California, for behind the fruitfulness of the trees in the orchards are men of understanding who experiment with the seeds and crops to defend them against insects and disease. Yet the fruits become rotten and soft. The rotten grapes are still used for wine, even if contaminated with mildew and formic acid. The rationale is that it is good enough for the poor to get drunk. The decay of the fruit spreads over the state. The men who have created the new fruits cannot create a system whereby the fruits may be eaten. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation, a sorrow that weeping cannot symbolize. Children must die from pellagra because the profit cannot be taken from an orange.
Analysis: In this chapter, Steinbeck extends his metaphor of ripening and decay among the elite business class. The wealthy owners lavished great expense to ensure that the fruits grown on their farms were ripe and healthy, impervious to disease, yet were the engineers of the eventual rot. By accumulating too much and forcing the prices of the fruit too high when others had too little, they ensured that nobody would be able to buy the fruit. They have engineered their own demise. Yet there are more important victims in this tragedy. Children die from disease, for their parents cannot afford the fruit. They are literal victims of the profit margin.

Chapter Twenty-Six: One evening, Ma Joad watches Winfield as he sleeps; he writhes as he sleeps, and he seems discolored. In the month that the Joads have been in Weedpatch, Tom has had only five days of work, and the rest of the men have had none. Ma worries because Rose of Sharon is close to delivering her baby. Ma reprimands them for becoming discouraged. She tells them that in such circumstances they don't have the right. Pa fears that they will have to leave Weedpatch. When Tom mentions work in Marysville, Ma decides that they will go there, for despite the accommodations at Weedpatch, they have no opportunity to make money. They plan to go north, where the cotton will soon be ready for harvest. Regarding Ma Joad's forceful control of the family, Pa remarks that women seem to be in control, and it may be time to get out a stick. Ma hears this, and tells him that she is doing her job as wife, but he certainly isn't doing his job as husband. Rose of Sharon complains that if Connie hadn't left they would have had a house by now. Ma pierces Rose of Sharon's ears so that she can wear small gold earrings. Al parts ways with a blonde girl that he has been seeing; she rejects his promises that they will eventually get married. He promises her that he'll return soon, but she does not believe him. Pa remarks that he only notices that he stinks now that he takes regular baths. Before they leave, Willie remarks that the deputies don't bother the residents of Weedpatch because they are united, and that their solution may be a union. The car starts to break down as the Joads leave ­ Al has let the battery run down ­ but he fixes the problem and they continue on their way. Al is irritable as they leave. He says that he's going out on his own soon to start a family. On the road, they get a flat tire. While Tom fixes the tire, a businessman stops in his car and offers them a job picking peaches forty miles north. They reach the ranch at Pixley where they are to pick oranges for five cents a box. Even the women and children can do the job. Ruthie and Winfield worry about settling down in the area and going to school in California. They assume that everyone will call them Okies. At the nearby grocery store owned by Hooper Ranch, Ma finds that the prices are much higher than they would be at the store in town. The sales clerk lends Ma ten cents for sugar. She tells him that it is only poor people who will help out. That night, Tom goes for a walk, but a deputy tells him to walk back to the cabin at the ranch. The deputy claims that if Tom is alone, the reds will get to him. While continuing on his walk, Tom finds Casy, who has been released from jail. He is with a group of men that are on strike. Casy claims that people who strive for justice always face opposition, citing Lincoln and Washington, as well as the martyrs of the French Revolution. Casy, Tom and the rest of the strikers are confronted by the police. A short, heavy man with a white pick handle swings it at Casy, hitting him in the head. Tom fights with the man, and eventually wrenches the club from him and strikes him with it, killing him. Tom immediately fled the scene, crawling through a stream to get back to the cabin. He cannot sleep that night, and in the morning tells Ma that he has to hide. He tells her that he was spotted, and warns his family that they are breaking the strike ­ they are getting five cents a box only because of this, and today may only get half that amount. When Tom tells Ma that he is going to leave that night, she tells him that they aren't a family anymore: Al cares about nothing more than girls, Uncle John is only dragging along, Pa has lost his place as the head of the family, and the children are becoming unruly. Rose of Sharon screams at Tom for murdering the man ­ she thinks that his sin will doom her baby. After a day of work, Winfield becomes extremely sick from eating peaches. Uncle John tells Tom that when the police catch him, there will be a lynching. Tom insists that he must leave, but Ma insists that they leave as a family. They hide Tom as they leave, taking the back roads to avoid police.
Analysis: The comfortable situation that the Joads find in Weedpatch must inevitably come to an end, as the Joads realize that they cannot find work in that area. The Joads must then settle for accommodations at the Hooper Ranch, where they no longer have the amenities of the government camp nor the sense of a strong community. The retreat from the strong society of the government camp is reflected in the breakdown of the Joad family. Even Ma Joad realizes that the family is breaking apart, despite her best efforts to keep everybody together. Al has little concern for anybody else, and indicates that he is ready to leave himself. Pa Joad has lost his status as head of the household; he cedes entire control to Ma, the only one strong enough to keep the family together. Pa Joad makes a significant comment about gender roles, lamenting the fact that he no longer runs the family, but Ma makes it clear that the roles have only changed because he no longer fulfills his duties as husband and father. Since Ma is the only Joad who fulfills her obligations to the rest of the family ­ she is the caretaker and moral center ­ she gains the right to make decisions for the rest of the family. This is the major loss that Pa suffers; he no longer has the right to make decisions for the family, and must subordinate himself to his wife. Yet even Ma Joad is not strong enough to prevent the gradual disintegration of the Joad household. Al appears ready to abandon the Joads next; he is more concerned with finding a girl and a steady job working on cars than with helping his family support themselves. In his dreams of successful, steady employment he resembles the callous Connie. Rose of Sharon in turn descends into a paranoid religious hysteria. She fears for the safety of her child, and holds delusions that the murders her brother has committed will permanently scar the child with sin. This relates to the earlier influence of Lisbeth Sandry, the religious zealot who warned Rose of Sharon against sin. Even the two children begin to noticeably suffer: Winfield becomes sick from deprivation. The conditions at the Hooper Ranch are worse than those at the government camp, but still more manageable than they could be. The Joads have a roof over their heads and are paid sufficient wages. However, the store owned by the ranch artificially raises prices for items, for it is the only nearby store where the workers can buy groceries, and the wages are high initially only because of a strike. Ma Joad makes the significant observation at the grocery store that it is only the poor who will help out other impoverished people; the clerk at the grocery store will help her, but the owners of the grocery store will exploit the workers through inflated prices. The strike is the catalyst for another tragedy for the Joad family. When Tom finds the striking workers, he is reunited with Jim Casy, who has been released from jail and found a new purpose as a labor activist. His lost religious zeal has been transformed into working-class activism, charged by his experiences in jail and traveling to California. Casy is a crusader for the cause; the indecision over his role as a preacher earlier in the novel has been replaced by a fiery conviction concerning the justice of his cause. There is a strong political text to the final scenes with Casy, who compares their cause to that of Lincoln, Washington and the patriots of the French revolution. Steinbeck makes it clear that these activists are facing certain doom, but they will be vindicated eventually. Casy, who sacrificed his freedom for Tom earlier in the novel, makes a final sacrifice in this chapter, the victim of a brutal murder at the hands of the police. Casy has now been a martyr for the Joad family and now for the entire class that the Joads represent. The effect of this martyrdom is that Tom must now leave Hooper ranch to escape capture from the police. Although he wishes to go alone, Ma Joad once again binds the family together. She chooses to risk the safety of the entire family to preserve whatever unity the family has left.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Those who want to pick cotton must first purchase a bag before they can make money. The men who weigh the cotton fix the scales to cheat the workers. The introduction of a cotton-picking machine seems inevitable.
Analysis: Steinbeck exposes several additional frauds in the farming system. The owners who hire the cotton pickers seem intent on making sure that the pickers receive less compensation than they deserve, and place them in debt initially by making them pay for cotton bags beforehand. The system is made to maximize profit, no matter the cost to the worker. The only solution that the workers have is confrontation: they must stand up to the men who weigh the cotton to ensure that they are paid fairly.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Joads now stay in a boxcar that stood beside the stream, a small home that proved better than anything except for the government camp. They were now picking cotton. Winfield tells Ma that Ruthie told about Tom ­ she got into an argument with some other kids, and told them that her brother was on the run for committing murder. Ruthie returns to Ma, crying that the kids stole her Cracker Jack ­ the reason that she threatened them by telling about Tom ­ but Ma tells her that it was her own fault for showing off her candy to others. That night, in the pitch black, Ma Joad goes out into the woods and finds Tom, who has been hiding out there. She crawls close to him and wants to touch him to remember what he looked like. She wants to give him seven dollars to take the bus and get away. He tells her that he has been thinking about Casy, and remembered how Casy said that he went out into the woods searching for his soul, but only found that he had no individual soul, but rather part of a larger one. Tom has been wondering why people can't work together for their living, and vows to do what Casy had done. He leaves, but promises to return to the family when everything has blown over. As she left, Ma Joad did not cry, but rain began to fall. When she returned to the boxcar, she meets Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright, who have come to talk to the Joads about their daughter, Aggie, who has been spending time with Al. They're worried that the two families will part and then find out that Aggie is pregnant. Ma tells them that she found Tom and that he is gone. Pa laments leaving Oklahoma, while Ma says that women can deal with change better than a man, because women have their lives in their arms, and men have it in their heads. For women, change is more acceptable because it seems inevitable. Al and Aggie return to the boxcar, and they announce that they are getting married. They go out before dawn to pick cotton before everyone else can get the rest, and Rose of Sharon vows to go with them, even though she can barely move. When they get to the place where the cotton is being picked, there are already a number of families. While picking cotton, it suddenly starts to rain, causing Rose of Sharon to fall ill. Everybody assumes that she is about to deliver, but she instead suffers from a chill. They take her back to the boxcar and start a fire to get her warm.
Analysis: The Joads settle once again into a temporary home ­ this time a boxcar ­ but find their routine disrupted one more time when Ruthie reveals the secret about Tom. Significantly, the cause of her fight with the other children was arrogance; by eating her candy out in the open, she offended the other children who were starving. Tom's decision to leave the family is a bittersweet event, but entirely inevitable. By remaining with the family he endangers them and cannot contribute. When Tom does decide to leave the Joad family, he does so with a new purpose that is a combination of political and spiritual belief. He accepts Casy's belief that there is no individual soul, but instead a collective soul of which each person only has a part, and vows to continue Casy's struggle for better treatment of the workers. This is a turning point for Tom. He previously consigned himself to individualist action for himself and his family, but now wishes to work for the common good. It is Ma Joad who bids farewell to Tom, proving once again to be the center of the Joad family. She also demonstrates a change in this chapter; she advises Tom to go alone rather than attempting to keep the family together at all cost. She has realized that family unity is insignificant without the greater society unity for which Tom will strive. Furthermore, even though Tom is the character for whom she has shown the most affection, she finds that she cannot weep over her departure. Rather, at the moment in which she realizes she cannot cry, the rainfall begins, a natural phenomena reflecting her emotional state. Steinbeck suggests in this chapter that women such as Ma Joad are better equipped to handle change and pain than the men. During the course of the novel, it is the men who have railed against their fate: Uncle John and Connie deserted the family, while Grampa died when he was forced to leave Oklahoma. Ma Joad, in contrast, has accepted the changes she has faced. She explains that women can accept change because for them, it is inevitable. They do not have the illusion that they control their own destinies, unlike men. They thus are less shaken when they are presented with hardship. The immaturity that Al Joad has displayed throughout the novel takes a more dangerous edge in this chapter. Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright confront the Joads with the possibility that he could get their daughter pregnant, leaving her without support. When the two kids announce their engagement, despite the celebration by the families it is not joyous news, for it Steinbeck contrasts the engagement with the pregnancy of Rose of Sharon, who is ready to deliver her child without her husband or any means of support.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The migrant families wondered how long the rain would last. The rain damaged cars and penetrated tents. During the rain storms some people went to relief offices, but there were rules: one had to live in California a year before he could collect relief. The greatest terror had arrived ­ no work would be available for three months. Hungry men crowded the alleys to beg for bread; a number of people died. Anger festered, causing sheriffs to swear in new deputies. There would be no work and no food.
Analysis: The migrant workers must face yet another hardship, this one perhaps the worst of all. With the coming of the rains is the end of the harvest season. The migrant workers face starvation, yet cannot receive any government relief. For Steinbeck, the treatment of these workers is not only inhumane, but below even the treatment of livestock; he makes the point that no farm owner would leave his horse to starve when it was not used. However, the farm owners are doing just that for the migrant labor force.

Chapter Thirty: After three days of rain, the Wainwrights decide that they have to keep on going. They fear that the creek will flood. Rose of Sharon goes into labor, and the Joads cannot leave. Pa Joad and the rest of the man at the camp build up the embankment to prevent flooding, but the water breaks through. Pa, Al and Uncle John rush toward the car, but it cannot start. They reach the boxcar and find that Rose of Sharon delivered a stillborn baby. They realize that the car will eventually flood, and Mr. Wainwright blames Pa Joad for asking them to stay and help, but Mrs. Wainwright offers them help. She tells Ma Joad that it once was the case that family came first. Now they have greater concerns. Uncle John places the dead baby in an apple box and floats it down the flooded stream as Al and build a platform on the top of the car. As the flood waters rise, the family remains on the platform. The family finds a barn for refuge until the rain stops. In the corner of the barn there are a starving man and a boy. Ma and Rose of Sharon realize what she must do. Ma makes everybody leave the barn, while Rose of Sharon gives the dying man her breast milk.
Analysis: The Joads are caught between two opposing events in this chapter. They face the possibility of flooding from the nearby creek, but cannot leave because Rose of Sharon goes into labor. The one solution to their dilemma depends on community action: the rest of the families must pitch in to build up the embankment, which will stop the flooding. Most selfishly suggest leaving, reasoning that they have no obligation to help Rose of Sharon, while only the Joads help the effort and defend themselves. Without this help, the stream still floods and the family is forced to take shelter on top of their car. Mrs. Wainwright's comment that there are now greater concerns than family correspond to Steinbeck's collectivist stance in The Grapes of Wrath. This indicates that it has taken such great poverty and hardship for them to realize that the small, isolated groups of families must come together for united action. The birth of Rose of Sharon's child carries significant symbolic meanings. For Rose of Sharon, the child has represented the possibilities for the future, yet the baby is stillborn. The event has clear parallels to the Joad's journey to California: they faced incredible hardship and pain striving for a better future, yet their sacrifices lead to nothing. The fate of the baby is even a perverse reversal of religious imagery. Uncle John places the dead child in a box and sends it down the river, an obvious allusion to Moses. The final scene in The Grapes of Wrath is one meant to instill some modicum of hope. The debilitated Rose of Sharon breastfeeds the starving man in the barn to sustain him. She gives what was meant for her baby to a complete stranger, an example of selfless sacrifice for the sake of community instead of individual well-being. Yet it took a deep personal loss, the delivery of a stillborn child, to enable Rose of Sharon to aid the man. She cares for the anonymous man with the same love as she would her child, eschewing her selfish individual concerns for a communal good. "

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