Reading the Grapes of Wrath (continued)

Less than a day into the journey, the Joads encounter their first pitfall. While stopped for gas, their dog is hit by another car on the highway. This does not bode well for the Joads, but they continue on, until they come across Ivy and Sairy Wilson broken down by the side of the road. They stop and decide to camp for the night, and, while resting in the Wilsons’ tent, Grampa has a stroke and dies. After burying Grampa, the Joads decide to continue on with the Wilsons, misery loves company, right?

Together the Joads and the Wilsons make progress, and eventually encounter the California desert. The lush green valleys they had heard so much about are nowhere to be seen. They meet a father and son traveling in the opposite direction, and the father tells them there are no jobs to be had, and no friendly faces for the migrant workers in California, and that they are headed back home to starve among friends.

Useful vocabulary to describe treatment of the migrant workers:

• Exploit - To take advantage of
• Beguile - To trick
• Leery - Suspicious
• Skeptical - Doubtful
• Insidious - Harmful but enticing

The Joads decide to continue on, but as they are leaving Tom’s brother Noah hangs back. Noah tells Tom he will not continue on with them; instead he is going to stay on the river. Ma Joad is devastated, and to make matters worse, Granma is sick and feverish. As they cross the desert, Granma dies but Ma Joad keeps silent so they can get into the valley without further discouragement.

Further along the road, the migrant workers have created a camp, called a Hooverville, and Tom becomes involved in a dispute between a land owner and a spokesman for the workers who is demanding a fair wage. The land owner, tired of arguing over basic workers’ rights, calls the police to haul the man off and a fight starts. Tom helps the man escape by knocking one of the officers unconscious – not wise for a man still on parole. Jim Casy takes the rap for Tom and is dragged away. Tom decides this is not the place for them, and they must move on quickly (even though it means leaving the missing Connie behind).