Summary Route 66 is the main road of exodus for those fleeing from the harsh economic and environmental conditions of the Dust Bowl, stretching from the Mississippi to Bakersfield, California. Chapter 12 is a generalized vision of the harrowing journey west made by the displaced families. Thousands of people travel […]
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Summary As the dispossessed stream out of the Plains land, the houses of the tenant farmers are left vacant. The only life left in the area is the shiny metal sheds that house the tractors. However, unlike the horse that continues to live after a day’s work, the tractor is […]
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Summary Ma shares with Tom her worries that the stories about California sound too good to be true. Granpa, however, can’t wait to get to California where he will pick fruit and let the juice run down his body. Casy asks Ma and Tom if he can go west with […]
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Summary The tenant people pick through their belongings, deciding what few precious items can be taken on the journey west. That which does not fit must be left behind or sold for a few miserable dollars. Buyers haggle over the tangible evidence of the tenants’ existence: farming tools, dishes, furniture. […]
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Summary Casy and Tom leave for Uncle John’s house at daybreak. While walking, Tom describes Uncle John to Casy, coloring him as a lonely, somewhat touched older man. As Tom and Casy approach John’s property, they see the family preparing for their trip west. Tom surprises Pa as he works […]
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Summary The disadvantaged farmers face even bleaker prospects as they attempt to sell their household goods and buy vehicles to carry them westward. Fast-talking salesmen, looking to capitalize on the tenants’ desperation and naivete, sell them barely-running jalopies at hugely inflated prices. The salesmen pour sawdust into the engine to […]
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Summary Tom and Casy see that the Joad house has been pushed off its foundations. They check to see whether a note has been left for Tom, but only find clear evidence that the house has been deserted. The house has not been rummaged or looted, an indication that something […]
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Summary Representatives of the company come to tell the tenants that they must get off the land. Sharecropping is no longer profitable, so the bank has bought the land to farm. The men representing the company are mean or nice or cold because they are ashamed of what they are […]
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Summary As the truck returns to the highway, Tom walks down the road toward his family’s farm. The hot sun beats down on him, so he takes off his shoes and wraps them in his coat. Spying the horned turtle from the previous chapter, he picks it up and wraps […]
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Summary A land turtle navigates through a dry patch of ground toward a slanted highway embankment full of oat beards and foxtails. Resolute and unswerving, the turtle fights its way up the slope to the highway and begins to cross the hot pavement. A speeding car swerves onto the shoulder […]
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