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Tom Joad is hitchhiking home after being released from the state prison on parole. He has served four years of a seven year sentence. He catches a ride with a truck driver who takes him to the road which leads to his family's farm. As he is walking the rest of the way, he meets Jim Casy, an itinerant preacher. He isn't a preacher anymore, because he used to meet some girl out on the grass to sleep with her. Casy explains that he has been away for some time trying to figure out some things, and has decided that since all things are holy, he need not be preacher any more but just live with the people because the people are holy. They decide to go together to Tom's place. When they arrive, they find that there's something wrong and that the place is deserted. They can't understand it. It looks as though all the neighboring farms are deserted. Soon they see someone coming. It is Muley Graves who tells them that Tom's folks are at his Uncle John's. Muley explains that he has already been pushed off his place, and his family has gone to California, but he couldn't leave the land that his Pa settled. Jim and Tom decide to sleep in the fields that night, although Muley leads them to a little cave. They walk on to Uncle John's the next day.
It is both ironic and a bit of foreshadowing that Tom refuses to sleep in the cave that Muley shows to them. In the last chapters of the novel, Tom is forced to hide in a cave where he lives for several days, and is only too glad to find his refuge.
When they arrive, they find the Joads making preparations for a trip. All of the family members are happy that Tom is here. They were afraid that they would never see him again. It is explained to Tom that the banks and large companies closed out all the small farmers, and now most of them are heading to California where there is supposed to be work.
This part presents the first hints of the "grapes" which stand symbolically for a new and better way of living. No one knows that the grapes of hope will become the grapes of wrath.
They sell all of their belongings, but get only 18 dollars for them. Therefore, the family is disappointed, tired and sad. After having a family conference, in which they decide that they don't want to leave Casy,, he joins them, because he has to be where people are. When they are about ready to leave, Grampa Joad doesn't want to leave. He "will stay right where he belongs". They have to give him a kind of sleeping medicine in order to get him away.
The first note of doubt appears in these chapters as Ma Joad questions her faith in things being so good out in California. Throughout the rest of the novel, about all they can do is to live from day to day.
When they stop on the first night of the journey west, Grampa begins to whimper and cry. Casy begins to recite the Lord's prayer, but Grampa has a stroke and dies immediately. The Joads, who have stopped next to some more migrants, the Wilsons, borrow a quilt from the Wilsons and bury Grampa with a bottle explaining who he is in case anyone ever dug him up. They then fix the Wilson's broken-down car, and the two families begin the trip together.
It is important to see the idea of family as a unit. The death of Grampa represents the breaking up of the smaller family unit, but at the same time, the "adoption" of the Wilsons indicates that the individual family is being replaced by the concept of a world family. This is what Casy has been preaching and his words are obviously being put into action.
Just as they reach California, Mrs. Wilson becomes so sick that she can't go any further, and the Joads give them some money and food and leave them.
Because the car breaks down, Tom and Casy want to come to California a little bit later. But Ma rebels and threatens she won't go without them. She will not agree to breaking up the family.
She makes her first strong stand in insisting that the family stay together. "All we got is the family unbroke."
When they reach the border of California, the Joads rest up before crossing the desert. A man asks them if they have been called an "Okie" yet. He explains that an "Okie" used to mean a person from Oklahoma, but now the word has a very negative meaning. At this place, Noah decides that he is not going with the family, because he just can't leave this nice river. Besides, Connie leaves Rose of Sharon, who feels she's ill.
As they began the trip across the great desert at night, Ma Joad realizes that Granma is dying. She explains to the old woman that the family must get across the desert because they are about out of money. Granma dies early in the night. When a guard stops them, Ma Joad tells the guard that they must get to a doctor because Granma is sick. The guard looks and let them pass. Ma tells the family to drive on, and in the morning when they are safely across, she tells the family that Granma is dead. They have to leave her to be buried a pauper because they don't have enough money for a funeral.
They arrive in a place where many other migrants are camping. Even though it is dirty and disorderly, they stop. But the men are unable to find work. A contractor comes through looking for workers, and when a friend of Tom's asks what they are paying, the friend is accused of being a "red" and is arrested. A fight ensues, and the sheriff tells the people that the whole camp will be burned. Suddenly Tom trips the deputy. Then Casy stands up and kicks the deputy in the neck. The contractor flees for help. Therefore, Casy sends Tom away, reminding him that he broke parole. When more officers arrive, he takes all the blame. The deputy doesn't think that Casy is the right person, but they arrest him anyway.
In this chapter, Casy's role changes. Now he moves from thought to action. He offers himself as a sacrifice for Tom. In the meantime, the family has lost its dog, Grampa, Noah, Granma, Casy and Connie and have had to leave the Wilsons. The family is seemingly breaking up. But the people will continue, because they will help each other.
The Joads pack up and leave. They find a vacancy in a government camp which is protected from the sheriff. Here there is law and order. Despite, the Land Owners want to destroy the camp. The Joads are still unable to find work. In the evening, there's a dance, but the committee is looking that nobody starts any troubles.
There's an exact reason why the Land Owners want to destroy the camps. With a little effort, these people could organize all over California. The Owners know this and destroy the camps to prevent this organization.
Soon they are out of money and food and must move on in search of work. They hear of work in peach orchard. When they arrive, they are escorted into the camp by policemen. There are many men standing outside the camp, some yelling and waving. The Joads begin picking peaches immediately so they can have something to eat that night. Later Tom slips outside to investigate the situation involving the yelling men. He finds his friend, Jim Casy, who has been in prison, and Casy tells Tom that they are striking against the owners of the orchard who cut the wages in half. While they are talking, some men come looking for Casy who is apparently the leader of the strike. The men advance on Casy and immediately kill him. Tom becomes angry and kills one of the men. He flees and gets back to the camp, but has to hide because his nose is broken. The Joads' wages are cut in half the next day because the strike is broken. They leave and find a place where they can pick cotton and where Tom can hide in a nearby thicket.
Tom is beginning to broaden his view of life. Previously, he was concerned only for his own pleasure. Then he has devoted himself to the family's benefit. He is becoming involved in a larger humanity. Tom goes alone to investigate the strange things near the camp and his concern leads him into Jim Casy. Casy is now emerging as a Christ figure, because he has been in jail instead of figuring some things out like in earlier days. But Casy dies as did Christ, saying "You don't know what you're a-doin'."
As they are escaping from the camp, a small cave is made out of mattresses for Tom to hide in. There's a bit of irony here, since in the first chapters, Tom refused to sleep in the cave that Muley showed him.
One of the Joad children gents into a fight and threatens to call her brother Tom, bragging that he has killed a man. Ma hears about the child's threat and goes to Tom and tells him that he must leave. Tom is going to carry on with the work that Casy was doing, and he takes a little money from Ma Joad and leaves. When Tom emerges, there is the suggestion that he will become the disciple who will carry on Casy's work. Tom realizes the importance of Casy's message only after Casy died for these ideas. Ma recognizes that they should face only one day at a time. She says to Pa and Uncle John "Just live the day - We ain't gonna die out". I think she's full of hope.
As soon as the cotton picking is over, the rains set in. Just as the Joads are thinking about leaving, Rose of Sharon, who has a cold and high fever, goes into labor pains. Pa and some other men try to build an embankment to keep out the rising water. But the embankment collapses. The baby is born, but it is dead. The water continues to rise, and comes into the boxcar where they are living. Pa Joad builds a platform inside the boxcar where they stay for two more days.
As soon as the rains slacken a little, Ma Joad says that the family must find some drier place. Carrying the children on their backs, they wade through the water until they come to the highway. Down the road to find a barn with some dry hay. They also discover a man dying from starvation. The man's son tells them that his father hasn't eaten for six days. The Joads have no money and no food. Ma suggests to Rose of Sharon that she feed the dying man from her breast which Rose of Sharon gladly does.
Rose of Sharon had dreamed of having her own place when the baby was born. But the conditions under which she actually gives birth to the baby serve to destroy all of her dreams. For all of Ma's efforts to hold the family together, it continues to fall apart. Now Al is separated from the family (he decided to stay with Agnes), but at the same time, Ma now realizes that there is something greater than the family. She now comes around Casy's (and later Tom's) views. At the end of the novel, the Joads have no money, no food and they have lost their car and property. They have no place to live and no work. But in spite of these negative things, the novel ends on a positive note. Rose of Sharon is giving live to a dying stranger. There is the realization of the need of each individual to help another regardless of who he is.
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