Essay About Joads Family Exodus And Name Joad

The Grapes of Wrath
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The Grapes of Wrath, chronicles the Joads family exodus from Oklahoma to
California in search for a brighter, economic future. The name Joad and the exodus to
California is parallel to the Biblical story of Exodus and the character Job, but at the time
was depicting the Okie Exodus. The Okies were farmers whose topsoil blew away due to
dust storms and were forced to migrate along Route 66 to California in search of work.
The Okies were resented for migrating in large numbers to areas in the West where work
was already hard to find and the sudden multitude of workers caused wages to be
lowered. The Joads reside in Oklahoma, referred to as the “Dust Bowl” of the U.S.
because of its lack of rain. The story takes place during the late 1930s when the country
was in the midst of the Great Depression. The Joad family were sharecroppers evicted
from their homes because they failed to pay the bank their loan payments to the Shawnee
Land and Cattle Company.
On their journey, the Joads ran into a returning migrant from California who tells
them that the handbill they have looking for 800 pickers is a bunch of hogwash. Hed
rather starve in Oklahoma then starve in California. The migrant scolds them on their
naivety saying “Now, how many of you all got them handbills?(The men respond that
they all have them) There you are, same yellow handbill. 800 Pickers Wanted. All right,
the man wants 800 men, so he prints 5,000 handbills and maybe 20,000 people see em.
And maybe two or three thousand people start West on account of that handbill. Two or
three thousand people that are crazy with worry headin out for 800 jobs. Now does that
make sense?” He tells them that the growers are exploiting them, causing a surplus of
workers to drive down labor costs according to supply and demand. The significance of
his role in the movie, is that he lets the Joads know everything they are moving West
for is false. Their journey is based on a lie, and the grass isnt greener on the other side.
While stopping for gas, Mr. Joad heads into the diner to buy a loaf of bread. Mr.
Joad is a nickel short of the 15 cents that the bread cost, and against the waitresses
opinion the chef tells her to sell it to him for a dime. Not wanting charity, Mr. Joad tells
them to cut a nickel worth of bread off, but the chef refuses and makes him take it. The
Joad children stare in wonder at some of the candy in the diner, and the waitress out of
the goodness of your heart sold it to Mr. Joad for a penny rather then the dime it was
worth. Upon seeing the waitresses good will, two truckers eating at the diner leave the
waitress a generous tip. A little further up the road, the family is stopped at a checkpoint
by two policeman wanting to search their truck for any fruits or vegetables to prevent the
spread of rodents into the West. Though revealed later the grandmother was actually
dead at this point, Mrs. Joad tells the cops that her mother is ailing and must see a doctor.
The police immediately let them through and tell them where they can find a doctor.
Mrs. Joad knew that if the police saw the grandmother was dead that they would make
them turn around and head back to Oklahoma. These good deeds were symbolic of the
common good in people during the hard times of the depression. People helped those in
need, because they were most likely experiencing the same hard times. It also proved