Saturday the 10th of July
Route No. 66 - Steinbeck
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Tom Joad said:
"I'll be all around in the dark.
I'll be ever'-where - wherever you can look.
Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat,
I'll be there.
Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy,
I'll be there.
I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad
I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready.
An' when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise, and livin' in the houses they build
I'll be there, too."
Notice: If you cannot hear the voice of Henry Fonda, try to opdate the file
Bruce Springsteen sings:
The highway is alive tonight
Where it's headed everybody knows
I'm sitting here in the campfire light
Waiting on the ghost of Tom Joad
Tom Joad said:
Mom, whereever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Whereever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom
I'll be there.
migration from the Oklahoma dust bowl to
the promised land of California
In stark and moving detail, John Steinbeck depicts the lives of ordinary people striving to preserve their humanity in the face of social and economic desperation.
When the Joads lose their tenant farm in Oklahoma, they join thousands of others, traveling the narrow concrete highways toward California and the dream of a piece of land to call their own.
Each night on the road, they and their fellow migrants recreate society: leaders are chosen, unspoken codes of privacy and generosity evolve, and lust, violence, and murderous rage erupt.
A portrait of the bitter conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of a woman's quiet, stoical strength, The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature, one that captures the horrors of the Great Depression as it probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America.
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Chapter Summary (If you want all the chapters - Mail to: Knud-Erik Bornhardt)
Chapter 18
They drive through the rest of New Mexico and Arizona (driving all night) and arrive at the Colorado River by dawn.
At Needles the men take off their clothes and bathe in the river, joined by a father and son who're going back to the panhandle.
He tells how the land is already owned and not worked, how sheriffs push you around, and people call you Okie.
How a newspaperman with a million acres is afraid of dying.
In the shade Noah tells Tom he's going downriver to stay.
A Jehovite wants to hold a meeting in Granma's tent, to see her on her way to Jesus, but Ma says no.
A sheriff tells Ma he'll run them out if they're there tomorrow; she runs him off with an iron pan.
Wilson announces they're not going on (Sairy's deathly ill).
Around four the Joads start.
The Needles gas station attendant tells them he wouldn't have the nerve to cross desert in their Jalopy, then tells his helper:
"Them goddamn Okies got no sense and no feeling. They ain't human."
Around midnight, near Daggett, is the agricultural inspection. a say's Granma's real sick so they are allowed to push on.
They hit Mojave at dawn.
They go through Tehachapi Pass and see the valley.
Pa: "I never knowed there was anything like her."
Ma: "Thank God! The fambly's here."
She tells them Granma died before the inspection stop.
They drive on down into the valley.
Chapter 19
California goes from Mexicans to American landgrabbers to businessmen.
With Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Filipino slaves the farmers grow fewer and richer. Many have never seen the farms they own.
The owners hate Okies; so do the workers. Life in Hoovervilles.
"Pray God some day a kid can eat.
And the association of owners knew that some day the praying would stop."
Chapter 20
Granma's corpse is left with the county in San Bernardino.
They camp in a Hooverville across a bridge, where a Floyd Knowles explains the labor gimmicks, the handbills, the blacklist.
Casy to Tom: "Almighty God never raised no wages."
Casy thinks of leaving, but Tom tells him to stay.
Connie tells Rosasharn he'd been better of driving tractor back home.
Ma cooks a stew with fifteen hungry kids looking on; she learns about the camp at Weedpatch and the Sat'dy night dance.
Al helps Floyd with the valves.
A woman scolds Ma for sharing the stew with her kids.
Floyd thinks there's work in Santa Clara Valley.
Contractor says they need workers in Tulare County; the deputy with him says they're gonna clean out the camp.
Floyd slugs the deputy when he tries to arrest him, runs away; the deputy shoots a woman's knuckles off; Tom kicks the deputy unconscious as Floyd runs for the willows.
Casy tells Tom to hide.
Casy takes the blame and rides off with the deputies.
Rosasharn says Connie's gone away. Casy's noble act makes Uncle John get drunk.
The family decides to leave before the camp gets burned.
Tom goes looking for Uncle John and brings him back after knocking him out.
Their truck is stopped by armed men who tell them to go to Tulare;
Tom pulls off till they're gone (they burn the camp) and he heads south on 99.
Mail to: Knud-Erik Bornhardt
eller mail to: Jorn-Orla Bornhardt.
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Opdated the 4th of August 1999