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Description edit
Forced from their home, the Joad family is lured to California to find work; instead they find disillusionment, exploitation, and hunger.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
A man gets out of prison for a murder which was in self defense. He returns to his sharecropper parents in Oklahoma. They have been kicked off their land. They need to go to California for work. The journey is one through the abuse of the poor in America prior to labor laws. The mother of... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Tom Joad: The protagonist. He is strong and quick to anger, though he usually keeps it in check.
- Ma Joad: Matriarch and leader of the Joad family. She's very concerned with keeping the family together.
- Pa Joad: Patriarch (though not as strong as Ma) of the Joad family. Is named Tom Joad Sr.
- Jim Casy: Ex-Preacher.
- Rose of Sharon: Oldest daughter of the Joad family. She is expecting a baby. Is married to Connie.
- Grampa Joad: Thomas "Pa" Joad's father. He is a bit crazy, but he is kind and knows what he's doing. He is 'part of the land.'
- Grandma Joad: Thomas "Pa" Joad's mother.
- Connie: Rose of Sharon's husband.
- Uncle John: Thomas "Pa" Joad's brother.
- Al Joad: Tom's younger brother. He looks up to Tom, and is proud of him. His interests are women and cars.
- Ruthie Joad: Youngest daughter of the Joad family.
- Winfield Joad: The youngest of the Joad family.
- Noah Joad: The oldest son of the Joad family. A little odd.
- Sairy Wilson: Sickly woman whom the Joad's meet and travel with along the way to California.
- Ivy Wilson: Sairy Wilson's husband; the Joads meet the Wilsons while sleeping along the side of the road.
- Floyd Knowles: Man in the Hooverville camp who gives Tom advice and explains why the workers haven't organized.
- Mrs. Wainwright: Shares a boxcar with the Joad family near the cotton fields where they work.
- Muley Graves: A friend of the Joads in Oklahoma; Muley stays behind despite the fact that his family heads west.
- Willie Eaton: Head of the Weedpatch camp entertainment committee.
- Jim Rawley: Manager of Weedpatch, a federal relief camp for migrant workers.
- Mrs. Sandry: A religious fanatic who harasses the Joads at the Weedpatch federal camp.
- Timothy Wallace: Brother of Wilkie; the Wallaces meet Tom when the Joads arrive at Weedpatch and invites Tom to the farm where they work.
- Wilkie Wallace: Brother of Timothy; the Wallaces meet Tom when the Joads arrive at Weedpatch and invites Tom to the farm where they work.
- Mr. Thomas: The manager of the farm where the Wallaces work.
- Jessie Bullitt: Chairwoman of the ladies committee at Weedpatch.
- Ezra Huston: Chair of the camp committee at Weedpatch.
- Joe Davis: Friend of the Joads in Oklahoma; Joe's son takes a job driving a tractor for the companies who are forcing the farmers off their land.
- Albert Rance: A farmer in Oklahoma who went on a vacation; when he returned, his neighbors had taken all he owned thinking he had moved west.
- Mr. Wainwright: Wife is Mrs. Wainwright. Shares boxcar with Joad family.
- Aggie Wainwright: The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright. Shares boxcar with Joad family.
Quotes edit
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“66 is the mother road, the road of flight”
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“From all of these the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads”
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“Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce”
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“Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten”
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“The last clear definite function of man--muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need--this is man. to build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the wall and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house, the dam; to take hard muscles from the lifting, to take the clear lines and form from conceiving. For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.”
Author -
“Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live--for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strokes stop while the great owners live--for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know--fear the time when Manself will not suffer an ddie for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.”
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“Sure I got sins. Ever'body got sins. A sin is somepin you ain't sure about.”
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“There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.”
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“I got thinkin’ how we was holy when we was one thing, an’ mankin’ was holy when it was one thing. An’ it on’y got unholy when one mis’able little fella got the bit in his teeth an’ run off his own way, kickin’ an’ draggin’ an’ fightin’. Fella like that bust the holi-ness. But when they’re all workin’ together, not one fella for another fella, but one fella kind of harnessed to the whole shebang—that’s right, that’s holy.”
In Chapter 8, after Tom and Jim Casy arrive at Uncle John’s farm, the family convinces the ex-preacher to say grace over their breakfast. Casy hesitates, but eventually offers these words. -
““We’re Joads. We don’t look up to nobody. Grampa’s grampa, he fit in the Revolution. We was farm people till the debt. And then—them people. They done somepin to us. Ever’ time they come seemed like they was a-whippin’ me—all of us. An’ in Needles, that police. He done somepin to me, made me feel mean. Made me feel ashamed. An’ now I ain’t ashamed. These folks is our folks—is our folks. An’ that manager, he come an’ set an’ drank coffee, an’ he says, ‘Mrs. Joad’ this, an’ ‘Mrs. Joad’ that—an’ ‘How you getting’ on, Mrs. Joad?’” She stopped and sighed. “Why, I feel like people again.””
After the Joads arrive in the Weedpatch government camp in Chapter 22, Ma discusses the effects of life on the road. -
“Once California belonged to Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in. And such was their hunger for land that they took the land—stole Sutter’s land, Guerrero’s land, took the grants and broke them up and growled and quarreled over them, those frantic hungry men; and they guarded with guns the land they had stolen. ... The Mexicans were weak and fed. They could not resist, because they wanted nothing in the world as frantically as the Americans wanted land. Then, with time, the squatters were no longer squatters, but owners; and their children grew up and had children on the land. And the hunger was gone from them, the feral hunger, the gnawing, tearing hunger for land, for water and earth and the good sky over it, for the green thrusting grass, for the swelling roots. They had these things so completely that they did not know about them any more.”
Chapter 19 -
“The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it.”
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“They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. <referring to the banks>”
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In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
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Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole.
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And this you can know—fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.
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The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it.
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How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it.
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when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.
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If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin,3 were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into “I,” and cuts you off forever from the “we.”
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“I figgered about the Holy Sperit and the Jesus road. I figgered, ‘Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe,’ I figgered, ‘maybe it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit—the human sperit—the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ Now I sat there thinkin’ it, an’ all of a suddent—I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.”
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Imperturbability could be depended upon. And from her great and humble position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty. From her position as healer, her hands had grown sure and cool and quiet; from her position as arbiter she had become as remote and faultless in judgment as a goddess. She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone.
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There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain’t nice, but that’s as far as any man got a right to say.’ ”
Highlighted by 225 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- Oklahoma: The novel opens with the Joad family preparing for departure at their home in Oklahoma.
- Weedpatch: A federally run camp in California for migrant workers.
- Route 66
- California
- Mcalester
- Texas
- Sallisaw
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- New Mexico
- Bakersfield
- Hudson
- Needles
First Sentence edit
To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.
Table of Contents edit
Introduction
Suggestions for further reading
A note on the text
Chapters 1 - 30
Glossary edit
- Hooverville: A makeshift migrant camp, often in an abandoned boxcar; named after Herbert Hoover during the Depression.
- Okie: Derogatory term for people from Oklahoma.
- Feral: wild and menacing
- protrude: extend out or project in space
- inevitability: the quality of being unavoidable
- waddle: walk unsteadily
- cringe: draw back, as with fear or pain
- faucet: a regulator for controlling the flow of a liquid from a reservoir
- wizened: lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
- braggart: a very boastful and talkative person
- trudge: walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
- comport: behave well or properly
- nebulous: lacking definite form or limits
- integrate,: make into a whole or make part of a whole
- corrugated: expel or eject without recourse to legal process
- jabber: talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
- parch: cause to wither or parch from exposure to heat
- nondescript: a person is not easily classified and not very interesting
- swerve: the act of turning aside suddenly
- wince: make a face indicating disgust or dislike
- huddle: a disorganized and densely packed crowd
- slovenly: make timid or fearful
- unkempt: not neatly combed
- ooze: the process of seeping
- undefined: not precisely limited, determined, or distinguished
- agitate: exert oneself continuously, vigorously, or obtrusively to gain an end or engage in a crusade for a certain cause or person; be an advocate for.
- holster: a belt with loops or slots for carrying small hand tools
- flail: an implement consisting of handle with a free swinging stick at the end; used in manual threshing.
- zoom: move with a low humming noise
- babble: to talk foolishly
- scuttle: container for coal; shaped to permit pouring the coal onto the fire
Series & Lists edit
This is book 12 of 93 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: The Board's List. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Sons and Lovers, and followed by The Way of All Flesh.
This book is in Readers Digest Press. (edition-based publisher list)
This is book 99 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Pillars of the Earth, and followed by A Walk to Remember.
This book is in Hopeless Romantic. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 1 of 11 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 1939. (authoritative list)
Followed by All This, and Heaven Too.
This is book 8 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels In 1940. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Oliver Wiswell, and followed by Night In Bombay.
This is book 34 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Dhalgren, and followed by The Stain.
This is book 7 of 99 in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Journey to the End of the Night, and followed by For Whom the Bell Tolls.
This book is in National Endowment for the Arts The Big Read Books. (authoritative list)
This is book 11 of 96 in The Art of Manliness' Essential Man’s Library. (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Picture of Dorian Gray, and followed by Brave New World.
This book is in Penguin's Top 100 Classics. (authoritative list)
This is book 97 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
Preceded by A Walk to Remember, and followed by The Pillars of the Earth.
This book is in 100 Fantabulous Book Challenge. (community list)
This book is in Steinbeck Essentials. (edition-based publisher list)
This book is in Steinbeck Centennial Editions. (edition-based publisher list)
This book is in Book Lover's Cook Book, The. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century. (edition-based publisher list)
This is book 21 of 96 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Beloved, and followed by Midnight's Children.
This is book 22 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Gravity's Rainbow, and followed by Slaughterhouse-Five.
This is book 29 of 196 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
Preceded by A Prayer for Owen Meany, and followed by Alice in Wonderland.
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This is book 9 of 96 in Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
Preceded by One Hundred Years of Solitude, and followed by Trainspotting.
This is book 28 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Crime and Punishment, and followed by Alice in Wonderland.
This is book 54 of 91 in The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, 2004. (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Red Badge of Courage, and followed by Petersburg.
This is book 87 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Other Boleyn Girl, and followed by A Tale of Two Cities.
This is book 592 of 1272 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Party Going, and followed by Finnegans Wake.
This is book 1940 of 83 in Pulitzer Prize Winners - Fiction. (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Yearling.
This is book 4 of 214 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Catch-22, and followed by Lolita.
This book is in Most Surprising Banned Books. (community list)
This book is in Best Books of All Time. (community list)
This is book 91 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Scarlet Letter, and followed by Hamlet.
This book is in Big Fat Books. (community list)
This book is in Top American Novels of All Times. (community list)
This is book 28 of 37 in First Edition Library. (edition-based publisher list)
Preceded by East of Eden, and followed by Of Mice and Men.
Authors & Contributors edit
- John Steinbeck (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Shirley Knight (Performer) - as Ma Joad in L.A. Theatre Works full cast production on audio CD
- Jeffrey Donovan (Performer) - as Tom Joad on audio full cast production
- Robert Pescovitz (Performer) - as Pa Joad in audio CD full cast production
- Richard Masur - Director of full cast production on audio CD by L.A. Theatre Works
- Daniel Chacon (Performer) - as Al Joad - audio CD full cast performance
- Frank Galati (Adapter) - adapted for full cast audio performance
- Francis Guinan (Performer) - as Jim Casy
- Rod McLachlan (Performer) - as Uncle John
- Kate Williamson (Performer) - as Gramma, 3rd narrator
- Michael Weston (Performer) - Noah Joad, Boy
- Fredo Wayne (Performer) - as Grampa, Mayor of Hooverville
- Emily Bergl (Performer) - as Rose of Sharon
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: The Viking Press-James Lloyd
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1939
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 476
Publisher: The Viking Press-James Lloyd
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1939
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 476
Awards edit
- California Book Award (1939: General Literature, Silver)
- Pulitzer Prize (1940: Novel)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3537.T3234 G8
- Dewey: 813.52
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
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Movie Connections edit
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940) (IMDb): Directed by John Ford. Staring Henry Fonda and John Carradine
Books That Cite This Book edit
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