American Literature books summary

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.

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withdrawn, with little pride and few urges.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

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.

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

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.

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 profft 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.

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.

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.

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

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