Tom Joad - The
novel’s protagonist, and Ma and Pa Joad’s favorite son. Tom is good-natured
and thoughtful and makes do with what life hands him. Even though
he killed a man and has been separated from his family for four years,
he does not waste his time with regrets. He lives fully for the
present moment, which enables him to be a great source of vitality
for the Joad family. A wise guide and fierce protector, Tom exhibits
a moral certainty throughout the novel that imbues him with strength and
resolve: he earns the awed respect of his family members as well
as the workers he later organizes
into unions.
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in-depth analysis of Tom Joad.
Ma Joad - The
mother of the Joad family. Ma is introduced as a woman who knowingly
and gladly fulfills her role as “the citadel of the family.” She
is the healer of the family’s ills and the arbiter of its arguments,
and her ability to perform these tasks grows as the novel progresses.
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in-depth analysis of Ma Joad.
Pa Joad - Ma
Joad’s husband and Tom’s father. Pa Joad is an Oklahoma tenant farmer
who has been evicted from his farm. A plainspoken, good-hearted
man, Pa directs the effort to take the family to California. Once
there, unable to find work and increasingly desperate, Pa finds
himself looking to Ma Joad for strength and leadership, though he
sometimes feels ashamed of his weaker position.
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in-depth analysis of Pa Joad.
Jim Casy - A
former preacher who gave up his ministry out of a belief that all
human experience is holy. Often the moral voice of the novel, Casy
articulates many of its most important themes, among them the sanctity
of the people and the essential unity of all mankind. A staunch
friend of Tom Joad, Casy goes to prison in Tom’s stead for a fight
that erupts between laborers and the California police. He emerges
a determined organizer of the migrant workers.
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in-depth analysis of Jim Casy.
Rose of Sharon - The
oldest of Ma and Pa Joad’s daughters, and Connie’s wife. An impractical,
petulant, and romantic young woman, Rose of Sharon begins the journey
to California pregnant with her first child. She and Connie have
grand notions of making a life for themselves in a city. The harsh
realities of migrant life soon disabuse Rose of Sharon of these
ideas, however. Her husband abandons her, and her child is born
dead. By the end of the novel, she matures considerably, and possesses,
the reader learns with surprise, something of her mother’s indomitable
spirit and grace.
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in-depth analysis of Rose of Sharon.
Grampa Joad - Tom
Joad’s grandfather. The founder of the Joad farm, Grampa is now
old and infirm. Once possessed of a cruel and violent temper, Grampa’s
wickedness is now limited almost exclusively to his tongue. He delights
in tormenting his wife and shocking others with sinful talk. Although
his character serves largely to produce comical effect, he exhibits
a very real and poignant connection to the land. The family is forced
to drug him in order to get him to leave the homestead; removed
from his natural element, however, Grampa soon dies.
Granma Joad - Granma
is a pious Christian, who loves casting hellfire and damnation in
her husband’s direction. Her health deteriorates quickly after Grandpa’s
death; she dies just after the family reaches California.
Al Joad - om’s
younger brother, a sixteen-year-old boy obsessed with cars and girls.
Al is vain and cocky but an extremely competent mechanic, and his
expertise proves vital in bringing the Joads, as well as the Wilsons,
to California. He idolizes Tom, but by the end of the novel he has
become his own man. When he falls in love with a girl named Agnes
Wainwright at a cotton plantation where they are working, he decides
to stay with her rather than leaving with his family.
Ivy and Sairy Wilson - A couple traveling to California whom the Joads
meet on Highway 66, just before Grampa’s death.
The Wilsons lend the Joads their tent so that Grampa can have a
comfortable place to die. The Joads return the couple’s kindness
by fixing their broken-down car. Hoping to make the trip easier,
the two families combine forces, traveling together until Sairy Wilson’s
health forces her and Ivy to stop.
Connie - Rose
of Sharon’s husband, Connie is an unrealistic dreamer who abandons
the Joads after they reach California. This act of selfishness and
immaturity surprises no one but his naïve wife.
Noah Joad - Tom’s
older brother. Noah has been slightly deformed since his birth:
Pa Joad had to perform the delivery and, panicking, tried to pull
him out forcibly. Slow and quiet, Noah leaves his family behind
at a stream near the California border, telling Tom that he feels
his parents do not love him as much as they love the other children.
Uncle John - Tom’s
uncle, who, years ago, refused to fetch a doctor for his pregnant
wife when she complained of stomach pains. He has never forgiven
himself for her death, and he often dwells heavily on the negligence
he considers a sin.
Ruthie Joad - The
second and younger Joad daughter. Ruthie has a fiery relationship
to her brother Winfield: the two are intensely dependent upon one
another and fiercely competitive. When she brags to another child
that her brother has killed two men, she inadvertently puts Tom’s
life in danger, forcing him to flee.
Winfield Joad - At
the age of ten, Winfield is the youngest of the Joad children. Ma
worries for his well-being, fearing that without a proper home he
will grow up to be wild and rootless.
Floyd Knowles - The
migrant worker who first inspires Tom and Casy to work for labor
organization. Floyd’s outspokenness sparks a scuffle with the police
in which Casy is arrested.
Muley Graves - One
of the Joads’ Oklahoma neighbors. When the bank evicts his family,
Muley refuses to leave his land. Instead, he lets his wife and children
move to California without him and stays behind to live outdoors.
When he comes upon Tom at the abandoned Joad farm, he directs the
young man to his Uncle John’s.
Agnes Wainwright - The daughter of the couple who shares the Joads’
boxcar toward the end of the novel. Agnes becomes engaged to Al,
who leaves his family in order to stay with her.
