The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck. Released in 1939, it recounts a family's migration during the Great Depression.
Characters[]
- Tom Joad - a younger scion of the Joad family recently paroled for manslaughter.
- Ma Joad
- Pa Joad
- Jim Casy - a former preacher who believes that all human beings are a part of one massive soul and that one reaches a sacred state from just being one with others.
- Rose of Sharon
- Grampa Joad
- Granma Joad
- Noah Joad
- Al Joad
- Mr. Wilson
- Sairy Wilson
- Muley Graves - a neighbor of the Joads who roams the bank-controlled fields.
- Miss Wainwright
- Floyd Knowles
- Jule Vitela
- Lisbeth Sandry
Publisher's summary[]
The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.
A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.
Summary[]
Chapter One[]
A summary of a day in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl - showing dust choking crops on a small farm.
Chapter Two[]
Tom Joad (recently released from prison) is picked up by a truck driver after guilting him into letting him ride in his truck. During the ride, the truck driver manages to find out some pieces of Tom's backstory - that he was arrested for homicide (most likely manslaughter, as he only got seven years) and is travelling to his family's farm (one of the few farms to stay afloat). Tom is somewhat angered by the driver's nosiness but leaves without starting a fight.
Chapter Three[]
A description of a turtle crossing a road.
Chapter Four[]
After finding a turtle (presumably the same turtle that was in Chapter Three), Tom finds a preacher who served the Joad family. This preacher (Jim Casy) has quit being a preacher. While walking to the Joad household, Tom and Casy discuss various things - such as why Casy left preacherhood and Joad family matters - before the duo reaches the Joad household to find it seemingly deserted.
Chapter Five[]
The banks (described as a "monster") send out tractors to plow farms owned by the bank - destroying the houses of people who already live on the land.
Chapter Six[]
Tom and Casy discover that the Joad house is extremely damaged - having been smashed into by a tractor. They are soon found by a neighbor (Muley Graves, who wanders the fields like a ghost and hunts small animals for sustenance). Muley tells Tom that his family left their homestead for the home of "Uncle John". The trio cooks a rabbit, hides from local police (as they are technically trespassing), and then finds a place to sleep for the night before Tom and Casy can set out for Uncle John's house.
Chapter Seven[]
A dialogue-based chapter about a used car salesman and the various cars he sells.
Chapter Eight[]
The next day, Tom and Casy walk to Uncle John's house. They are found by Tom's father and (after Casy gives Mass over the breakfast), they eat breakfast. Tom discovers that the family intends on leaving Oklahoma for California and is waiting for a younger member of the family (Al) to arrive before they can leave. Shortly after breakfast ends, Al arrives.
Chapter Nine[]
Another dialogue-based chapter, this one about families travelling to California figuring out what to do with their belongings.
Chapter Ten[]
Unfortunately for the Joads, the buyer of their saleable property stiffed them. The family members who left to offer their properties (including Al and the pregnant "Rose of Sharon") return to Uncle John's house. After this, the Joads (with Casy, who intends on going with the family) begin talks on when to leave for California. They then slaughter two remaining pigs and have a meal of pork. During this meal, Muley Graves visits the house but he refuses to leave with the Joads (even though he has relatives in California). Grampa Joad also stubbornly refuses to leave but the family simply drug him with cough syrup and put him in the truck as the family leaves for California.
Chapter Eleven[]
A very short chapter on the houses left behind by those travelling from Oklahoma to California.
Chapter Twelve[]
A slightly longer chapter on the tribulations of families travelling to California on Highway 66.
Chapter Thirteen[]
As the Joad family travels on Highway 66, they visit a service station. While at the station, Tom talks with a fat man about the state of the country and the family dog is fatally ran over by a car (disturbing Rose of Sharon). Later, after the Joads find a family (the Wilsons) stranded on the road, Grampa Joad dies from a stroke. The Joads decide to bury Grampa on the road (not wanting to give him a pauper's grave and not having enough money to give Grampa Joad a proper funeral). After burying Grampa Joad, Al fixes the stranded family's car and some of the Joads join the Wilsons.
Chapter Fourteen[]
A short chapter on politics.
Chapter Fifteen[]
A slightly longer chapter on a roadside diner.
Chapter Sixteen[]
While driving, the Joads' car breaks down. Tom plans on travelling with Casy on the road while the rest of the Joads stay in the Wilson's truck. Ma Joad refuses to follow this plan, and makes the plan fold. Instead, Tom and Al travel to a junkyard to find parts. While there, Tom tries to get a misanthropic one-eyed employee to change his view on the world.
After repairing the car, the family visits a campground to sleep. Though the proprietor refuses to let all the Joads enter, he lets a few stay while the rest drive around nearby. At the camp is a man returning from California who tries to warn the Joads about horrible conditions in California.
Chapter Seventeen[]
A short chapter on migrant communities.
Chapter Eighteen[]
The Joads reach California after driving through New Mexico and Arizona. They stay at a lake near the border; where a man tries to warn the Joads about conditions in California, Noah decides to stay behind, and a group of Jehovites pray for Granma Joad (who they believe is dying). The Joads are forced off of the lakeside by local cops (leaving the Wilsons behind).
While on the road, Granma Joad dies. Ma hides the death from border agents and the rest of the Joads only discover this once they reach the luscious fruit fields of California.
Chapter Nineteen[]
A short chapter on aggressions between the landed gentry of California and the recent immigrants.
Chapter Twenty[]
The Joads set up camp at a Hooverville. While at the camp, Al meets a man named Floyd Knowles who tells him of jobs in Northern California. This is right before Ma summons the Joads for dinner (a stew) while surrounded by other children in the Hooverville. To placate the children, Ma only gives a meager amount of stew to her own family and lets them have the rest.
Later in the day, a representative of a fruit picking company tries to hire workers from the Hooverville. Floyd stands up to the representative - who uses a corrupt sheriff to try to arrest Floyd. Floyd escapes as the sheriff shoots at him (shooting a woman through the hand). The sheriff is knocked out by Tom (who escapes into the woods) and Jim Casy (who stays behind to be arrested for everything). In the confusion, Rose of Sharon's husband Connie runs away.
As the dust settles, the Joads decide to leave the camp (which will most likely be destroyed). Right before they leave, Uncle John gets drunk and tries to kill himself (believing that he is a magnet for sins) but is stopped by Tom - who knocks him out and brings him into the family's vehicle. The Joads begin to drive south (towards a government camp that they heard about while in the Hooverville) but are nearly stopped and forced to go north by a militia of bigoted natives. Instead, Tom drives the car around the natives and the Joads begin their southward drive.
Chapter Twenty-One[]
Another short chapter on aggressions between the landed gentry of California and the recent immigrants.
Chapter Twenty-Two[]
The Joads find that the government camp has one vacancy and move into it. The next day, Tom leaves early to find work outside of the camp. While at this job, Tom discovers that the corrupt locals intend on staging a fight inside of the camp during a nightly dance to get it shut down.
Meanwhile, while Ma Joad frets about being visited by the government of the camp, Rose of Sharon is met by a fiercely Evangelical woman (Lisbeth Sandry) who tries to frighten Rose. The next time that the woman visits Rose (after Ma Joad is met by the "Ladies' Committee", Ma Joad yells at her and frightens her away. The Joad men (minus Tom) then return from fruitless efforts at job searching.
Chapter Twenty-Three[]
A chapter on the pastimes of the migrants.
Chapter Twenty-Four[]
The government of the camp discovers the plot and decides to hire men to watch for any attempt to start trouble at the dance. One of these men is Tom, who works with a Cherokee man named Jule Vitela. Jule spies out some potential troublemakers somewhat early in the dance. Later in the dance, three men try to start trouble but are stopped. This is followed by the cops breaking into the camp and trying to arrest people for "rioting". They fail. The troublemakers refuse to tell if they are working with corrupt locals or not and are booted out of the camp.
Chapter Twenty-Five[]
A short chapter on waste in farming.
Chapter Twenty-Six[]
To find work, the Joads leave the government camp and begin travelling north. They soon find a job at a peach farm that is surrounded by protestors but discover conditions there less-than-ideal. Tom becomes curious about the protestors and sneaks out of the farm one night. He discovers that Jim Casy is one of the protestors and that jobs at the farm only have a livable wage because they are meant to break the strike.
Shortly after this talk, the protestors are attacked by one of the militias. Casy is killed by being bashed in the head but Tom kills Casy's murderer. The next day, the Joads discover this (and that wages have returned to starvation-levels of poverty) and leave the farm, hiding Tom to save him from being lynched. Winfield (the youngest Joad son) also falls seriously ill but is saved with milk.
Chapter Twenty-Seven[]
A short chapter on cotton picking.
Chapter Twenty-Eight[]
The Joads find work picking cotton in a small roadside camp picking cotton. Tom hides in the brush near the camp while the rest of the Joads live in a railcar made into a house. This existence (compared with that in the peach farm) is an idyllic existence but is soon threatened when Ruthie (one of the younger Joad kids) blabs about Tom. As such, Tom has to flee from the rest of the Joads (though he says he will always be with them).
Meanwhile, the rest of the Joads briefly visit a different field of cotton with another family (the Wainrights) to find a job due to cotton season starting to close. Right before the Joads take part in the picking, it is revealed that Al is in love with one of the Wainwright girls and is due to be married. Rose of Sharon takes part in the picking but falls ill after the picking. The Joads rush back to their railcar house as it begins to rain.
Chapter Twenty-Nine[]
A chapter on deaths caused by flooding and illness.
Chapter Thirty[]
Rain falls heavily on the roadside camp. To avoid the rain, Pa Joad (along with several other men at the camp) begin work on building a bank. During the building of the bank, Rose of Sharon goes into labor. Unfortunately for the Joads, both end badly - with a tree destroying the bank and Rose of Sharon giving birth to a stillborn baby. Pa has Uncle John bury the baby, but Uncle John puts the baby on the roadside to serve as a witness.
To escape flooding, the Joads pile their belongings up on top of their car. Leaving Al behind to guard their belongings, the various Joads trek to an abandoned barn to find shelter from the storm. Inside of the barn is a young man and his sick, elderly father. To save the man, Ma has Rose of Sharon feed him milk from her breasts. The novel ends with this scene.
Notes[]
- Before writing the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck wrote two other fiction works with a similar subject. One was a novel called "The Oklahomans", which was abandoned while the other was a satirical work called "L'Affair Lettuceberg" that Steinbeck destroyed - seeing it as a disgusting work filled with bile.
- Steinbeck also wrote a series of articles (dubbed The Harvest Gypsies, later published in a single volume as Their Blood is Strong) on the extremely harsh conditions felt by migrant workers in California before all three of these works.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose Names are Unknown | Sanora Babb | 2004 (written in the 1930s) | A novel that is extremely similar to The Grapes of Wrath |
| Their Blood is Strong | John Steinbeck | 1938 | A nonfiction work on the Great Depression written by Steinbeck |
| As I Lay Dying | William Faulkner | 1930 | A Modernist novel showing a family travelling across the countryside of America |
| Factories in the Fields | Carey McWilliams | 1939 | A comtemporary nonfiction work on the Great Depression in California |
| Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | 1937 | A novella by the same author with similar themes |
| The Worst Hard Time | Timothy Egan | 2006 | A nonfiction book on the Great Depression |
| Call Down the Thunder | Dietrich Kalteis | 2019 | A novel with a similar setting |
| The Immigrants | Howard Fast | 1977 | A novel about immigrants in California |