Reading the Grapes of Wrath (continued)

The Joads finally hit a patch of good luck and find Weedpatch, a migrant-run camp where they are treated like human beings (a nice change of pace). The camp is clean and organized, but there is still no work. After lots of searching, only Tom comes back with a job, but camp festivities help them stay positive. He soon hears that the owners are using a planned dance as a way to have the police shut down the camp if a fight occurs. He stops the fight before it can draw the police and begins to realize that helping the workers create a life for themselves benefits more than just his family. His thoughts turn to the people he has seen and the experiences they have endured.

• Solidarity - Unity
• Converge - Come together
• Convene - Meet together
• Contentious - Quarrelsome
• Discordant - Quarrelsome

Although the conditions are better in Weedpatch than other camps, there is no work – and no work means no food. The Joads are forced to pack up and try another crop - peaches are paying five cents a box. Although they pick all day, pooling their money together still only nets them a dollar.

Near the camp Tom meets up with Jim Casy, who since being released has been trying to help the workers fight for fair wages and livable conditions. As Jim fills Tom in on his experiences, two policemen appear and attack Jim right in front Tom. Jim is killed, and Tom lashes out at the officers and killing one before fleeing. He knows that shouldn’t bring his trouble back to his family, but Ma makes him stay.

The entire family packs up, moving to another farm down the road while Tom finds a place near them to hide out. The plan is for Tom to rejoin them when he doesn’t look so suspicious- broken nose and black eyes look like trouble- but Tom’s little sister, Ruthie, makes that impossible when she taunts a bully by saying that her brother is a murderer. Tom takes off on his own, and the family looks again for work.