The Ultimate Goal: Finding a Job

 

The Ultimate Goal: Finding a Job

05/10/2020

By Benjamin Allard, Jonathan Boivin, William LePottier, Marc-Alexandre Normandin and Catherine Plourde

In the third quarter of the book, several actions important to the unfolding of the book take place. First, Ma and Pa Joad leave Granma's body in the coroner's office for lack of money. After this sad event, the Joads finally arrive in California and go to Hooverville, a labor camp full of people who want the same things as the Joad family; a job, and money to survive. At work camps, the Joads notice that California is not like the leaflet told them. A few days later, a man in a new Chevrolet arrives to recruit workers for a fruit-picking job in Tulare Country. The salary presented by the man is very low and unhappy, Tom Joad begins to fight in the crowd with the other unhappy people. Tom hits a police officer. Casy agrees to be the culprit because if Tom gets caught by the police, they will notice that Tom has broken his parole by leaving Oklahoma. Other police officers arrive and arrest Casy. The labor camp is shut down.  

Uncle John is surprised by Casy's sacrifice and begins to drink alcohol. Nothing is going well for the Joad family. Later, Californians change their attitude towards the Okies, because they are afraid that they will steal all their jobs. The Californians put all the Okies together in camps. The Joads will therefore settle in the Weedpatch camp, a government camp run by migrants. Tom meets Timothy and Wilkie Wallace, two people from the camp who invite Tom to come to the ranches they work to see if Tom can have a job. The owner of the ranch, Mr. Thomas, tells Tom he can come to work, but the wages will be drastically lowered, as the Farmers' Association sets the maximum wage for workers at 25 cents an hour. The man apologizes to Tom because he knows that the workers deserve a higher salary, but the association refuses it. Back at camp, the Joads meet Jim Rawley, the camp manager, a kind and smiling man. Mr. Rawley's coming brings good humor to the worker's camps.

 

When they are out of work, the people in the camp dance and make music. When they have a job and a salary, they buy alcohol and party. Good humor reigns in the camp and makes you forget the bad hours of the Okies before. However, after the good evenings of joy, the Association of Farmers land in the camp and plans to close the camp. In California, small farmers have to shut down their farms because, like in Oklahoma, the owners of the big farms take over the agricultural industry. Finally, after a month of waiting in the camp, the Joads have run out of supplies and their money is really low. Ma tries to convince others to leave the camp. They bid farewell to the camp members. Leaving the camp, the Joads meet a man dressed in a suit, who offers them work to picking peaches only 35 miles away. Even if the pay is almost zero, the Joads agree, because five cents per box is already better than nothing. Tom meets Jim Casy, and he explains to Tom that he works to organize the jobs of migrant workers. Casy explains to Tom that the owner of the company of peaches wants to lower the salary to 2.50 cents a box. During their conversation, a policeman arrives and calls Jim Casy a communist for no reason. Tom is really angry and kills the police officer. The Joads, therefore, quit work and go to work to harvest cotton.

Thoughts:

We find this part of the book very inspiring because it demonstrates how people in the 1930s have to be perseverant and resilient in order to survive. In 2020, we all complain, even though we have a house, we eat three times a day, and we can go to school. This part of the book makes me realize how unimportant our everyday problems are. Also, we may think that the behaviors of some members of the Joad family are exaggerating, but try to imagine yourself working for someone who doesn't even pay you enough to eat three times a day. While the farm owners fill their pockets with money, the other workers work dozens of hours a day so that they cannot eat at night. It must be really frustrating and it is for this reason that we must not judge the comportment of some characters in the book, they are no longer capable of these inequalities