When Tom goes to see the protestors, he meets Casy again who reveals that they are striking over wage cuts. They end up as strike-breakers on a peach farm with protesters outside and with pitiful pay and conditions.
However, the Joads must move due to lack of work. The camp even has a Saturday night dance, which agents of the landowners try to disrupt, causing a riot and giving the police an excuse to destroy the camp. Conditions there are better, with running water and protection from the police. The family then moves to a government camp. This causes an altercation in which the officer is punched and Tom is forced to hide, with Casy taking the blame and being arrested for the incident. Floyd asks him how much he will pay them. A police officer tries to arrest Floyd when he challenges a labor contractor who wants workers for picking in the north. A man named Floyd tells Tom about the exploitation suffered by the migrants, and how any resistance to it is met with police violence. They then stop at a miserable and squalid migrant camp. When the Joads cross into California, they find that Granma died on the way. The Wilsons stay behind as Sairy Wilson, Mr Wilson’s wife, is dying.
They also reveal how much the locals hate the migrants. They meet a man and a boy returning home eastwards who tell them how badly the migrants are paid in California. The Joads stop by a river just outside the California border. Waiting in a nearby camp, they encounter a strange “ragged man.” He tells them that he is returning from California, where his wife and children starved to death. After debating whether Tom, Al, and Casy should stay behind while the others go ahead, they agree that they will all wait while those three get parts to fix the car. However, on the road, the car breaks down. Al, Tom’s brother, offers to help with their car after they let the Joads’s dying Grampa in their tent. Travelling west on highway 66 the Joads meet a couple, the Wilsons, whose car has broken down. They sell whatever they cannot take with them and then set off.
Arriving next at his Uncle’s, Tom discovers that the family bought a truck and are planning to migrate to California for work. Muley tells Tom that his family have moved to his Uncle John’s place having been evicted by the banks like the rest of the local farmers. Tom finds that his old family home has been abandoned and encounters a man called Muley, seemingly the only person left in his village. On the way he meets Casy, the ex-preacher of the community. Tom Joad has just been released from prison and is travelling to his parents’ house in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. This guide uses the Penguin Classics edition of the text published in 2000.
0 kommentar(er)
