The Struggles Continue

 The Grapes of Wrath

 

Fourth Quarter

In this last quarter of the book, the Joads are offered work picking peaches in Tulare. The camp gate is surrounded by a large group of men shouting and waving. The Joads, escorted through the gate by state police, begin to work immediately. They are paid five cents a box, not sufficient to feed the family a day's meal. After the first day of picking, Tom wanders outside the ranch. He meets up with Jim Casy, who is leading a strike against the peach orchard owners who want to pay two-and-a-half cents a box. Tom learns his family is being paid five cents because they are working as strikebreakers. As the men talk, authorities sneak up, looking for Casy, the presumed leader of the strike. Without any reason, one of the men strikes Casy on the head, killing him. Without thinking, Tom begins beating Casy's killer. The other men intervene, and Tom's nose is broken. He escapes, hiding in the peach orchard until he can reach his house. 

Marked by his scarred face and broken nose, Tom becomes a fugitive, hidden by his family. The Joads flee the peach ranch at the first daylight. They find work picking cotton and share an empty boxcar with another family, the Wainwrights. Tom hides in a nearby cave where his mother leaves him food. The family is comfortable for a time, earning enough to eat meat daily. One day, however, young Ruthie gets in a fight with another child. She threatens to call her big brother who is hiding because he has killed two men. Ma rushes to tell Tom he must leave for his own safety. Tom agrees and leaves with plans to carry on the social work that Jim Casy has begun. 

                                        

 

 

 

 

Al gets engaged to sixteen-year-old Agnes Wainwright. As the cotton-picking slows,   the rains come. It rains steadily, and the water levels begin to rise. The night that Rose of Sharon goes into labor, the river threatens to flood the boxcar. Pa, Uncle John, Al, and the rest of the men try to build an embankment to contain the river but are unsuccessful. Rose of Sharon's baby is stillborn. 

     

After a few days, the rain subsides. Leaving Al and the Wainwrights, the remaining Joads abandon the boxcar for higher ground. They find shelter in an old barn already occupied by a boy and his starving father. The child tells the Joads that his father has not eaten in six days and is unable to keep down solid food. Rose of Sharon offers him the breast milk no longer needed for her own child. The others leave the barn as she cradles the dying man to her breast. 

The story ends up weirdly, we would’ve wanted to know what was going to happen after. Would Tom find his family? Would he be captured? Where would the family go? Many questions but few answers. 

 

 

 

 
Final thoughts  

 

What lessons did you draw from the novel?                                                                                                                                                        

Generosity can come in all forms, and that even in your own darkest days, generosity can be the most powerful thing you can give to someone else. We see this in two main ways in the novel - the journey across the country (the Joad family’s hospitality and loyalty even in the face of extreme hardship) and Rose of Sharon feeding the old man at the end. 

Also, we learned that in some situations, the working class has to organize to overcome the power of the moneyed class that controls business. In the novel, the workers do not make any progress until they force the landowners and business owners to pay them higher wages by going on strike. 

 

What element was most significant for you personally? 

The death of four family members (Grampa, Granma, Jim Casey, and Rosasharn’s newborn baby) is a significant element. We would think that death is absolutely heartbreaking but just imagine four, in a couple of months. We could also say that Noah and Connie leaving on their own is almost equivalent to death because their family might never see them again. Even though everybody was sad and Ma was feeling like “The family was falling apart”, what was left of the family didn’t wallow in self-pity and they did everything they could to make enough money to be able to at least eat. It just shows how they all are mentally strong and that the goal is to survive. 

 

 

What was the main message of the novel in your opinion? 

It’s that solidarity among citizens is more important in contrast to the competition, which is represented by the interests of big banks and wealthy landowners. The Joad family, who represent the poor migrant farmers heading west in search of jobs, come into conflict with police and powerful landowners, who attempt to take advantage of the Okies by offering them work with little pay and no job security. The Joad family, particularly Tom, learn the importance of community and unity by working with other families in similar situations.  

I think that Steinbeck really did show that what human beings were doing to one another through migrant labor was inhumane, and he depicted in detail what an individual can accomplish if and when he sets his mind to it all in the interest of the collective good, in harmony with nature. 

 

 

Do you see any links between elements in your novel and something in your world, more personal or as a society? Tell us about it. 

The “moving to California to start a new life” for the Joad’s makes me think of Mexicans who immigrate to the USA to live a better life. Just like the family from Oklahoma, they leave a lot behind them but they know it’s for a better life. 

Another link we can make is that today, megafarms and meat companies carve out sections of the market, divide and conquer farmers with debt, and control the food industry. We recognize in it the situation that farmers in the thirties had to deal with. 

There is also a similarity between the 1930s Dust Bowl that suffocated so many farms and families, forcing them to move or starve and recent California’s record wildfires that are coming back years after years. 

And finally, Steinbeck's "monster" banks still evict families, still take bailouts, and still indenture Americans with debt. While families with fortunes survived 2008's "Great Recession", the unfortunate majority had to scrape by, losing homes and jobs, with millions still struggling multiple years later.