Mixed_National_Identity

Ch. 1 : Oklahoma’s cornfields have failed, and the women and children look to their men to see how they will react, while the men worry about how they will survive; Ch.2: Tom Joad is on his way home to his family’s farm, from prison, after serving four years for killing a man. On his way he meets a truck driver who tells him landowners and banks have been forcing farmers off their land; Ch. 3: A turtle tries to cross the highway, a women avoids hitting him, but a man steers right towards him and catches the end of his shell, although the turtle struggles to get back on his feet, he succeeds and keeps going; Ch.4: Tom runs into Jim Casy (his preacher from when he was little) on the side of the road. Casy informs Tom that he has stopped preaching and that he no longer believes in sin and virtue. They continue on and find that the Joad farm has been deserted; Ch. 5: Landowners and Banks are evicting farmers because of tenant farming (cut labor costs), the farmers try to fight back but they cannot fight the “invisible monsters.” The people driving the tractors that evict them are usually their neighbors; Ch.6: Casy and Tom find that the farm has been untouched which tells them that the neighbors have left too. Muley Graves comes and tells them that the family is living with Uncle John, and also shares his story about how his family left for California but he stayed behind because could not leave his land; Ch.7: Description of a used- car salesman telling his employees how to cheat the families leaving for California who are desperate, and do not know much about cars; Ch. 8: Tom is reunited with his family, but they fear that he has escaped from prison, but after he explains his parole, they are ecstatic and tell him they are leaving for California. Casy is forced to give a prayer at dinner where he says, “mankind is holy itself.” Ch.9: Describes how tenant farmers prepare for their journey to California, they sell all their belongings to people who pay extremely low prices; Ch. 10: Ma tells Tom that she is worried about what they will find in California, while Pa is in town selling some of their possessions ($18). Later the family holds a meeting and decides that Casy can go to California with them, before they leave grandpa decides that he wants to stay, but the family puts sleeping medicine in his coffee and then leave for California; Ch. 11: The narrator describes the relationship between land and the people who live there, and how once that relationship is lost the houses deteriorate; Ch.12: The narrator discusses the worries of travelers on highway 66, and how salesmen try to cheat them, and also the hostility they face from numerous people along the way; Ch.13:The Joad family stops at a service station, while they are resting their dog is hit and killed by a car, later that day they meet Ivy and Sairy Wilson who offer them their tent because Grandpa is sick. Grandpa has a stroke and dies, the Joads bury him in a field because they cannot afford a proper funeral, and then ask the Wilsons to join them on their journey; Ch.14: The people of the western states are afraid of what will happen if all the migrants join together to destroy them, with a revolt; Ch. 15: A man and two boys stop at a restaurant in need of bread, at first the waitress resist, but she then softens and gives them the bread and the boys candy, two truck drivers notice and leave her an extra large tip.