Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath, chronicles the Joad’s family exodus from Oklahoma to

California in search for a brighter, economic future. The name Joad and the exodus to

California is parallel to the Biblical story of Exodus and the character Job, but at the time

was depicting the Okie Exodus. The Okies were farmers whose topsoil blew away due to

dust storms and were forced to migrate along Route 66 to California in search of work.

The Okies were resented for migrating in large numbers to areas in the West where work

was already hard to find and the sudden multitude of workers caused wages to be

lowered. The Joad’s reside in Oklahoma, referred to as the “Dust Bowl” of the U.S.

because of its lack of rain. The story takes place during the late 1930’s when the country

was in the midst of the Great Depression. The Joad family were sharecroppers evicted

from their homes because they failed to pay the bank their loan payments to the Shawnee

Land and Cattle Company.

On their journey, the Joad’s ran into a returning migrant from California who tells

them that the handbill they have looking for 800 pickers is a bunch of hogwash. He’d

rather starve in Oklahoma then starve in California. The migrant scolds them on their

naivety saying “Now, how many of you all got them handbills?...(The men respond that

they all have them) There you are, same yellow handbill. 800 Pickers Wanted. All right,

the man wants 800 men, so he prints 5,000 handbills and maybe 20,000 people see 'em.

And maybe two or three thousand people start West on account of that handbill. Two or

three thousand people that are crazy with worry headin' out for 800 jobs. Now does that

make sense?” He tells them that the growers are exploiting them, causing a surplus of

workers to drive down labor costs according to supply and demand. The significance of

his role in the movie, is that he let’s the Joad’s know everything they are moving West

for is false. Their journey is based on a lie, and the grass isn’t greener on the other side.

While stopping for gas, Mr. Joad heads into the diner to buy a loaf of bread. Mr.

Joad is a nickel short of the 15 cents that the bread cost, and against the waitresses

opinion the chef tells her to sell it to him for a dime. Not wanting charity, Mr. Joad tells

them to cut a nickel worth of bread off, but the chef refuses and makes him take it. The

Joad children stare in wonder at some of the candy in the diner, and the waitress out of

the goodness of your heart sold it to Mr. Joad for a penny rather then the dime it was

worth. Upon seeing the waitresses’ good will, two truckers eating at the diner leave the

waitress a generous tip. A little further up the road, the family is stopped at a checkpoint

by two policeman wanting to search their truck for any fruits or vegetables to prevent the

spread of rodents into the West. Though revealed later the grandmother was actually

dead at this point, Mrs. Joad tells the cops that her mother is ailing and must see a doctor.

The police immediately let them through and tell them where they can find a doctor.

Mrs. Joad knew that if the police saw the grandmother was dead that they would make