The Grapes of Wrath: Chapter 6

Chapter six is an important chapter because it is the first time that both Tom Joad and Jim Casy find out why there is nobody around.

It’s weird to think in today’s world of someone going back home from being in prison, and their whole family was gone and the house abandoned. Back in the time the book is though, they would have no idea unless the family sent a letter to the prison, and many people back then couldn’t or did not like to write all that much. It turns out that Tom Joad’s dad did not like to write, but “he wouldn’. Didn’t like to. It give him the shivers to write” (Steinbeck 42). That’s also very strange to think about, because in today’s world, almost everybody in the United States can write.

Later when Joad was telling the story about how one time one of the neighbors left on vacation with his whole family, and the rest of the farmers thought he moved, so they took all that they could from the house, and when the guy came back, he drove around and got all of his stuff back, except a pillow that Joad’s grandpa took, and he was not going to give it back, he said his grandpa said “If Albert wants this pilla so bad, let him come an’ get her. But he better come shootin’, ‘cause I’ll blow his goddamn stinkin’ head off if he comes messin’ aroun’ my pilla” (Steinbeck 44). This also shows how different times were then, when people settled their disputes personally, and why they sometimes turned violent.

There is nobody in the book so far that represents the fighting spirit of Americans as much as Muley Graves. He is the only one left still on the farms. He says “I’ll be aroun’ till hell freezes over. There ain’t nobody can run a guy name of Graves outa this country” (Steinbeck 45). He’s been hunting for his own food and hiding whenever the police come looking for him, like they do when they see the men’s fire. He has even knocked out the Deputy and shot out the headlights of the police car to get back at them for trying to kick him off of the land (Hemingway 58).

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