Summary: Chapter 19
The narrator describes how California once belonged to
Mexico but was taken away by hungry American squatters who believed
that they owned the land because they farmed it. The descendants
of these squatters are the wealthy farmers who defend their land
with security guards and protect their wealth by paying their laborers extremely
low wages. They resent the droves of “Okies” flooding into the state
because they know that hungry and impoverished people are a danger
to the stability of land ownership. For their part, the Okies want
only a decent wage and freedom from the threat of starvation. Settling
in workers’ camps, they try their best to look for work. Sometimes
one of the them tries to grow a secret garden in a fallow field,
but the deputies find it and destroy it.
Summary: Chapter 20
Because they do not have enough money for a proper burial,
Ma and Pa Joad leave Granma’s body in a coroner’s office. They rejoin
the family at Hooverville, a large, crowded, and dirty camp full
of hungry families unable to find work. One young man, Floyd Knowles, tells
Tom that when he encounters police, he must act “bull-simple”: he
must speak ramblingly and incoherently in order to convince the
policeman that he is an unthreatening idiot. Floyd says that there
are no jobs. Tom wonders why the men do not organize against the
landowners, but Floyd says that anyone who discusses such possibilities
will be labeled “red” and dragged off by the police. Men who attempt
to organize are put on a “blacklist,” which ensures that they will
never find work. Casy discusses the injustice of the situation with
Tom and wonders what he can do to help the suffering people. Connie
tells Rose of Sharon that they should have stayed in Oklahoma, where
he could have learned about tractors. She reminds him that he intends
to study radios and that she “ain’t gonna have this baby in no tent.”
Ma cooks a stew that attracts a bevy of hungry children. After feeding
her family, she hands over the meager leftovers, which the children
devour ravenously.
A contractor arrives in a new Chevrolet coupe to recruit
workers for a fruit-picking job in Tulare County. When Knowles demands
a contract and a set wage for the fruit pickers, the man summons
a police deputy, who arrests Knowles on a bogus charge and then begins
threatening the others. A scuffle ensues. Knowles runs off, and
the deputy shoots at him recklessly, piercing a woman through the
hand. Tom trips the deputy, and Casy, coming from behind, knocks
him unconscious. Knowing that someone will need to be held accountable,
Casy volunteers, reminding Tom that he has broken parole by leaving
Oklahoma. Backup officers arrive and arrest Casy. The sheriff announces
that the whole camp will now be burned.
Uncle John is distraught by Casy’s sacrifice. Uncle John
had spoken with Casy about the nature of sin, and now that the former preacher
is gone, John’s wife’s tragic death lies heavy upon him. He tells
the family that he must get drunk or he will not be able to bear his
sorrow. They allow him to go buy alcohol. Rose of Sharon asks if
anyone has seen Connie, and Al says that he saw him walking south
along the river. Pa insists that Connie was always a good-for-nothing,
but Rose of Sharon is beside herself with grief at his absence.
Meanwhile, convinced that his family needs to leave the camp before
further trouble erupts, Tom rounds up Uncle John, knocking the man
unconscious in order to get him on the truck. The Joads depart,
leaving word at the camp store for Connie in case he returns. Coming
upon a nearby town, the family is turned away by a crowd of pick-handle
and shotgun wielding men, who have stationed themselves by the road
to keep Okies out. Tom is enraged, but Ma Joad reminds him that
a “different time’s comin’.”
Summary: Chapter 21
The hostility directed toward the migrants changes them
and brings them together. Property owners are terrified of “the
flare of want in the eyes of the migrants.” California locals form
armed bands to terrorize the “Okies” and keep them in their place.
The owners of large farms drive the smaller farmers out of business,
making more and more people destitute and unable to feed themselves
or their children.
Analysis: Chapters 19–21
Chapters 19 and 21 act like a refrain in
their repetition of the novel’s social criticism. Both present history—especially
California’s history—as a battle between the rich and the poor.
Founded by squatters who stole the land from Mexicans, California
has been the setting for a series of desperate measures taken by
“frantic hungry men.” The landowners fear that history will repeat
itself, and that the migrant farmers, who crave land and sustenance,
will take their livelihood from them. The migrants, however, seeing
acre upon acre of unused land, dream of tending just enough of it
to support their families. The migrants’ simple desire to produce,
and the landowners’ resistance, receives particularly poignant illustration
in the tale of the man who plants a few carrots and turnips in a
fallow field.
Chapter 20 finds the Joads in Hooverville, where harsh
reality further intrudes upon their idealistic vision of solidarity.
The Joads have already encountered fellow migrants who do not share their
desire to cooperate. The men who have failed to make a living in
California, for example, show little interest in joining forces
with the family. Disillusioned by their experiences, these men openly doubt
and even mock the Joads’ optimism. This unfriendliness, combined
with an intensifying scarcity of resources, makes it increasingly
difficult for the Joads to honor bonds other than those of kinship.
The scene in which Ma Joad prepares her stew offers a powerful illustration
of this. Here, the scarcity of food forces her to walk a thin line
between selfish interest in her own family and generosity toward
the larger community. Yet, while Ma looks to the needs of her family
first, she does manage to do what she can to alleviate some of the
hunger of the onlooking children. Her compassion toward these strangers,
whom she nonetheless considers her people, elevates her above the
bleak and hateful circumstances that surround her.
While Ma expresses her devotion to community by sharing
her stew with her fellow migrants’ children, Tom and Casy begin
to express this devotion in more overtly political ways and with
a sense of often violent outrage. The incident surrounding Floyd
Knowles and the fruit-picking contractor signifies the beginning
of the two men’s involvement in the burgeoning movement to organize migrant
labor, to protect workers against unfair treatment and unlivable
wages. Although the men have always possessed a sense for injustice,
they do not act on their convictions until they witness Floyd Knowles’s
impassioned speech against unfair labor practices. While the hardships
facing the family serve to kindle devotions in some, they serve
to rupture loyalties in others. Connie’s decision to abandon his
wife and unborn child affects Rose of Sharon deeply and constitutes
a turning point for her. His departure disabuses the girl of all
notions of a charmed life in the big city and forces her to come
to terms with the conditions in which she lives.
