The Grapes of Wrath: Chapter 13

Chapter thirteen is a very important chapter because the Joad family is finally on the road to California. The family has to worry about the car breaking down and they have to make sure that they are never too far from a town. Good thing Al and Tom are good with cars in case anything goes wrong.

Once again though, the subject of whether or not California is as great as they say it will be comes up, this time it is between Al and Ma Joad. Al says “Ain’t you thinkin’ what’s it gonna be like when we get there? Ain’t you scared it won’t be nice like we thought?” and Ma Joad replies with “No, no I ain’t. You can’t do that. I can’t do that. It’s too much—livin’ too many lives. Up ahead they’s a thousan’ lives we might live, but when it comes, it’ll on’y be one. If I go ahead on all of ‘em, it’s too much. You got to live ahead ‘cause you’re so young, but—it’s jus’ the road goin’ by for me. An’ it’s jus’ how soon they gonna wanta eat some more pork bones” (Steinbeck 124). This shows that it’s not just Ma Joad and Tom that are worried, so maybe something is wrong and they can just feel it. It also shows how strong willed Ma Joad is and how her top priority is still caring for the family, she does not have time to worry about the future.

Then there’s the gas station where the owner reveals how many people come through begging and trading for gas, demonstrating not only how many people are being pushed off the land, but also how many have no money left and are barely scraping by (Steinbeck 126).

The next big event would be the death of Grampa Joad. In hindsight, it might not have been a great idea to drug a man of his age, but I guess they did not think it would harm him, and maybe it didn’t have anything to do with his death, who knows. It also could be seen now that maybe the dog dying earlier in the chapter was foreshadowing his death, maybe not. The most important part, I think, was when Casy was talking about how he knew the old man was dying, and he explained that “Grampa didn’ die tonight. He died the minute you took ‘im off the place. Oh, he was breathin’, but he was dead. He was that place, an’ he knowed it” (Steinbeck 146). This shows how much of a connection that the farmers had with the land, that they might even die just for leaving it.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.