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.
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 proffts come from selling jalopies, not from new and
dependable cars. There are no guarantees, hidden costs and obvious flaws.
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withdrawn, with little pride and few urges.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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
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