The Grapes of Wrath Section 1 (Chapters 1-4)

The first chapter of the book provides a very visual background of the Midwest, specifically Oklahoma. It’s an explicit picture painted of a farming landscape that has gone bad, through a perfect storm of drought and poor ecological management. The ground is hard, the sun beats down, and dust chokes people. Farmers have little to do but watch their crops die in the parched and hardened clay.  

In spite of choking clouds of dust that darken the skies and created breathing problems, the farmers and their families are not yet ready to give up. To them, it’s just a crisis that needs a strategy, and they devote their time to figuring out solutions. The farmers wives, as well as their children, realize that the struggles are difficult, but they remain loyal to family, as strong partners. They believe that as long as the men are fighting for survival, things will be alright.  

The story opens with Tom Joad hitchhiking towards home, after a four-year stint in prison. He’s wearing a cheap suit that was issued to him by the prison upon release. Tom is weary from walking, and when he spots a truck parked in front of a roadside diner he decides to wait for the driver to emerge. When the driver arrives, Tom asks for a ride, but is denied, since the trucking company’s policy is to not allow passengers.  

Tom chides the driver, implying that the driver’s “rich bastard” boss shouldn’t be controlling the driver, and that if the driver bends the rules a little, he’d be a good guy, in addition to demonstrating that he is not submissive to his boss. The driver relents, and gives Tom a ride.  

Tom explains that he’s heading to his family’s 40-acre farm, where the sharecropper family had lived for many years. At one point in conversation, the driver expresses surprise that, as far as Tom knows, the family had not yet been forced to move, either by the Dust Bowl conditions or by losing the farm to a corporate conglomerate that would raze it with a tractor. The driver asserts that it’s happening to nearly every sharecropper. This is Tom’s first exposure to the idea of the developing crisis.  

Their conversation is awkward, as the truck driver appears to be a very intuitive type who derives that Tom just might be fresh out of prison. A few questions asked of Tom let Tom know that the driver has made this correct assumption, and the conversation grows even more uncomfortable, as the driver seems fearful, and Tom is annoyed that the driver was so intent on figuring Tom out. However, Tom assures the driver that he means him no harm, and as he bids the driver farewell at the end of the ride, he tells the driver what he’d been incarcerated for.  

Tom tells the driver, with a hint of pride, “I killed a guy. Seven years. I’m sprung in four for keepin’ my nose clean.”  

In Chapter 3, we get a description of a turtle walking along a lonely highway. This provides a background of the terrain, the weather, the day itself. More importantly, though, is the analogy it foreshadows, as a mean-spirited motorist attempts to run over the turtle. The turtle is merely nicked, but ends up on its back, foreshadowing the trials soon to face the Joad family.  

Tom has the truck driver drop him off at the small road leading to his family’s home, and he walks from there. Along the way, he encounters a turtle helplessly struggling after being flipped onto its back, and decides to bring it to his young siblings, since he hasn’t been able to afford any other gifts for them. He knows that a turtle will be appreciated. Later, he encounters Casy Casy, another pedestrian seeking relief from the midday sun under one of the very few trees in this part of Oklahoma. The two men recognize each other. They’d never been close, but Casy had been a preacher at one time, and remembers baptizing Tom as a child. Tom soon remembers Casy as well.  

The two men wait out the midday heat under the tree, talking and reminiscing. Tom learns that Casy has renounced preaching, feeling that he is unworthy to be a man of the cloth. Casy confesses that he’s always had a weakness for women, even using his position as a man of the cloth as a tool with which to seduce women. His guilt over this, along with his own realization that he has a plethora of sinful thoughts, has led him to believe that the spirit is no longer within him. He firmly believes that his line of communication with God has been permanently severed.  

In the course of conversation, Tom reveals to Casy that he was sent to prison for a self-defense killing that he does not regret. A man had stabbed Tom, and was trying to kill him, when Tom killed him with blows from a shovel.  

When the midday heat is behind them, Tom decides to resume walking. Casy mentions that he hasn’t seen Tom’s father in a long time, and that if it was okay with Tom, he’d like to join him on the journey. Tom welcomes the company, and the men head towards Tom’s family farm. When Tom eventually spots their destination, he can tell from a distance that something at the farm is not right.  

Analysis: 

These are the chapters that introduce the reader to background. First, we are given a visual image of the land, along with a description of the Joad family’s recent background. We learn of the forces at work, driving people from their homes.  

With the image of the turtle, we are given an analogy of what families, particularly the Joads, must face, along with how they will handle things. The turtle faces adversity, even meanness, but plunders onward, undeterred by tribulations.  

With background established, introduction to two main characters, and foreshadowing of trials to come, the scene is set.