The Grapes of Wrath. Chapters 1 -10. Plot Summary

The Grapes of Wrath: Chapters 1 -10

The Grapes of Wrath is a powerful novel by John Steinbeck, which charts the journey of the Joad family as they attempt to make a new life in California in the 1930's.  The Joads are forced to leave their home in Oklahoma, due to a combination of factors. It is the time of the Great Depression and families are economically squeezed all over America. Coupled with this is a drought that is a disaster for farms in the heartland of the country. Going West is the only hope for thousands of 'Okies'. The promise of work and dignity in the fertile valleys of California proves to be a lie propagated by wealthy landowners in search of cheap labor. 

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• Grapes of Wrath Plot summary Chapters 11- 20
• The Grapes of Wrath: Chapters 21- 30

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Chapter 1

The book opens with a description of the gradual onset of drought in the mid-West.  Steinbeck poetically captures the slow-moving nature of environmental disaster - 'The clouds appeared, and went away, and in a while they did not try any more.' The weather fails to break. The days get hotter and dryer. A layer of dust coats the fields and the crops begin to wither. Families all over the region are forced to assess their options. But hope remains - 'Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole.'

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Chapter 2

Chapter two introduces the reader to Tom Joad, the central figure of the story.Tom has just been released from prison and is attempting to hitch a lift home from a diner in Oklahoma. When the driver appears, he tells Tom he is forbidden to pick up hitchhikers, by pointing to the sign on the truck which reads - 'No Riders.' Tom is persuasive: 'sometimes a guy'll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.' The driver agrees and places his own sense of decency ahead of his employer's rules.  On the road, the driver tells of how most share-croppers, like Tom's family, have been 'tractored out', by the big companies. He guesses Tom's been to prison. Unrepentant, Tom explains that he's done his time. The driver talks of education and moving up in the world. 

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Chapter 3

The Grapes of Wrath has a number of chapters that don't deal directly with the narrative, but instead offer parables, context or another perspective on the story. This chapter is one of those. It tells the story of a turtle on the road. The turtle struggles slowly, but resolutely in his mission to cross the highway.  A driver approaches and sees the turtle. The woman swerves and carries on. Moments later, a trucker nears and cruelly moves to clip the turtle, flipping it 'like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway.' Undeterred, the turtle gets back on its feet and tries again. 

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Chapter 4

Tom walks the last part of his journey home. On the way he encounters a turtle (the same turtle?). He picks it up, wraps it in his coat and continues.  Soon he encounters  a man he knows - once the local preacher - a man named Jim Casy: "Jus Jim Casy now. Ain't got the call no more. Got a lot of sinful idears—but they seem kinda sensible." Casy left the faith, because he couldn't reconcile his sexual urges with his vocation. He know believes that the human spirit is the holy spirit  - that 'sinful' sexual drives are natural. Casy says that individual souls are part of a larger soul. Tom agrees. Tom explains that he's been doing time in McAlester for a manslaughter that was in self-defense, and that he'd do it all again.  The two men walk together sharing stories. When they arrive, the house is deserted. 

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Chapter 5

This chapter zooms out of the story to explain the mechanism that displaces so many farmers. The dust settles on the crops and the croppers must borrow to stay above water. When crops fail again, neighbors are employed by the bank to reclaim the land. Some are kind and some are mean, but all work because they need to feed their own families - 'a bank or a company...don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money.' Likewise, the croppers are victims of 'progress' - 'The tenant system won't work any more. One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families.' They are forced off the land. The men were troubled. 'And the women went on with the work, but all the time they watched the men squatting in the dust—perplexed and figuring..' The tractors take orders from the bank. The bank take orders from the East. No-one is culpable. No-one is held to account.   

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Chapter 6

Tom and Jim Casy inspect the Joad house. It has been pushed in on one side by a tractor working for the bank. With no family to gift it to, Tom releases the turtle, who continues on his original path. Muley Graves, Tom's old neighbor, appears. The Joads, he tells them, have gone to Uncle John's and are preparing to leave for California, where Muley's family have gone too. Casy chastises him for leaving his family, but Muley has a connection to the land he could not break.  The men share a rabbit dinner. Tom realizes he will break his parole if he leaves Oklahoma. When the three are forced to hide to evade a trespassing charge, Tom knows there is nothing more for him here. 

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Chapter 7

This chapter is written from the perspective of the crooked used-car salesmen who swindle the newly homeless farmers. The easy marks are sold 'Cadillacs, La Salles, Buicks, Plymouths, Packards, Chevvies, Fords, Pontiacs', all used, all over-priced, sawdust in the engine to mask the broken transmissions, balding tires and odometers rolled back. This is the American dream, the great cars, the open road, the journey westward, but this dream is a nightmare, populated by the desperate poor, pawning their precious goods for pennies to buy vehicles that won't even get them out of state.  

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Chapter 8

On the way to Uncle John's, Tom describes to Jim how, once, John had refused his wife a doctor, believing the illness to be passing. She died. John has never been the same - grieving but never again stingy. The whole family are introduced. Pa worries that Tom has escaped prison. Ma is a 'citadel', the foundation of the family. Granma and Granpa's fighting keeps them in love.  An older brother, Noah, is mentally distant. 16 yr old Al, is good with cars and girls. Sister Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) is pregnant with her husband, Connie's child. The two youngest, Ruthie and Winfield, have gone with their Uncle John to sell the last of the family's belongings. 

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Chapter 9

Chapter 9 describes the emotional attachment that can't be reduced to the cold economics of supply and demand. The farmers have to shed their belongings and bring seed money on their long journey. But with so many in the same situation, the traders can offer what they like. They have no such attachment and have their own way of pursuing the American dream -  'Well, take it—all junk—and give me five dollars. You're not buying only junk, you're buying junked lives. And more—you'll see—you're buying bitterness. Buying a plow to plow your own children under, buying the arms and spirits that might have saved you. Five dollars, not four. I can't haul 'em back—Well, take 'em for four.'

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Chapter 10

The reason everyone is leaving for California is because of the flyers. Leaflets have appeared all over the mid-west looking for farmers to work the rich soil of the Golden State. Ma worries that they're chasing a dream, but Granpa can't wait to gorge on grapes until the juice pours down his chin.  The family decides to take Jim Casy along and together, they prepare to leave. The pigs are killed and the meat is salted. Uncle John returns with the meager $18 he got for all their things. The truck is loaded up and they prepare to hit the road.  At the last moment, Granpa decides he wants to stay with the land, like Muley Graves. They drug him with sleeping medicine and load him on the truck. Their long journey begins. 

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