The emotional and physical backbone of the family, Ma’s primary obligation is to take care of her family, to provide them with nourishment, comfort, healing, and support. Her family will only know fear and pain through her, so she works hard to deny these emotions in herself. Likewise, they look […]

Read more Character Analysis Ma Joad

While many have long believed that Jim Casy embodied Steinbeck’s main philosophical beliefs, Tom Joad, completely flawed and human, is the novel’s main character. Tom is the character who shows the most development, experiencing what Peter Lisca calls an “education of the heart.” This education, gained through experience, intuition, and […]

Read more Character Analysis Tom Joad

Summary Pa and Uncle John, realizing that the rising water will eventually flood the cars, ask the other boxcar dwellers to work together to build an embankment to stem the water. They know it will take the strength of all the men working together. If some refuse, all will have […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 30

Summary The gray clouds bring torrents of rain to the land. Eventually, the earth can hold no more water and the streams rise, flowing into fields, which in turn become lakes. The migrant workers helplessly watch the rising water. As the lands flood, their cars are incapacitated, and worst of […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 29

Summary The Joads are one of the first families to get work picking cotton, so they are able to live in one of the boxcars. They share this dwelling with another family, the Wainwrights. The Joads are able to earn enough money to have meat each night and are able […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 28

Summary Cotton pickers are wanted. Even if a worker doesn’t have a bag, he can buy one and pay for it with his pickings. Many of the migrants are comfortable picking cotton, remembering home. Sometimes the scales are crooked, and sometimes they’re not. For the most part, people are paid […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 27

Summary After spending a month in the Weedpatch camp, the Joad men have been unable to find any sort of work. The family is running out of food, and Rose of Sharon’s baby is due soon. Ma decides that they need to leave the camp to search for work. Her […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 26

Summary The California land is ripe with growing produce. The toil and ingenuity of many men create this bountiful harvest: Growers strive to learn better techniques for yielding succulent fruit, and chemists experiment with pesticides to protect crops from insects and disease. But the large landowners drive the price of […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 25

Summary On a Saturday, the entire camp prepares for the evening’s dance. The Central Committee meets to discuss ways to prevent the Farmers Association from stirring up trouble. The men at the gate of the camp will look out for anyone suspicious, and extra members are added to the entertainment […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 24

Summary The migrant people search for pleasures as they search for food and work, a necessity for survival during the hard times. They tell stories to one another, some made-up, some from the movie pictures. Those with a little money get drunk to deaden the pain of their situation. Others […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 23