THE GRAPES OF WRATH
Scene from “Grapes of Wrath” with Henry Fonda as Tom Joad
Description: Poor and unable to pay the rent on their farm in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl days of
the Great Depression*, the members of the Joad family load all their belongings into a truck. Like
millions of other dispossessed farmers they drive to California in search of work. The screenplay is
based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by John Steinbeck, who later won the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1962.
Benefits of the Movie: "The Grapes of Wrath" is a classic film about 1930s America during the Great
Depression. It describes the extremely difficult circumstances faced by the "Okies", the insulting name
for poor farmers from Oklahoma who had to look for work, especially fruit picking in California. The
film explores the stress of hard times on a family and emphasizes the need for solidarity among
working people.
Awards: 1940 Academy Awards: Best Director (Ford); Best Supporting Actress (Darwell); 1940
Academy Awards Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor (Fonda); Best Film Editing; Best Sound; Best
Writing. "The Grapes of Wrath" is listed in the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress as
a "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" film. This film is ranked #21 on the American Film
Institute's List of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time (2006).
Actors: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charlie Grapewin, Dorris Bowdon, Russell
Simpson.
Director: John Ford.
Writer: John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) received the Pulitzer Prize for the novel The Grapes of Wrath. He
was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. Some of his other works are: Cannery Row, Tortilla
Flat, and Of Mice and Men.
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The Grapes of Wrath (1940) is director John Ford's most famous black and white epic drama - the
classic adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1940 Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel. The sentimental film is
much more closely related to Ford's social protest dramas, The Informer (1935) and How Green Was
My Valley (1941) than to his magisterial Westerns. This film was the most popular left-wing, socialistthemed film of pre-World War II Hollywood.
The title of the film was taken from the Battle Hymn of the Republic, by Julia Ward Howe ("Mine eyes
have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of
wrath are stored, He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching
on"). On the screen, the film honestly and realistically recreates the socio-economic impact of the
Great Depression and a mid-30s drought upon one representative family - the Joads. Its theme of an
oppressed people's epic move to a new home parallels the Biblical story of Exodus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5iOF0_z7MM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLun-Ca6b6s
Background:
In 1934 and 1935, in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and the Dakotas, a severe
drought killed the wheat planted by farmers in those states. High winds blew the topsoil off the land
and violent dust storms turned the sky black at midday and people had to breathe through
handkerchiefs. About 150,000 square miles of land in the Southern Great Plains came to be called the
Dust Bowl.
Because of these conditions, farmers were unable to make their mortgage payments and the banks
took the land. Hundreds of thousands of once independent and self-sufficient farmers were run off
their land. Many emigrated west to California where they became migrant farm workers taking low
paid temporary jobs. They were called "Okies" since many came from Oklahoma, one of the states
hardest hit by the drought and soil erosion. They lived in their cars or in camps, usually in miserable
conditions. They worked when they could but since the California farmers needed them only at certain
times of the year, such as harvest time, they spent many months without work.
When people lose their jobs and homes, families come under stress. Some break up, others get
stronger, but adversity changes most families. Some family members will die earlier than they would
normally, others will leave home, and some may get into trouble with the law. The relative positions of
the various people in the family may also change. The father of the Joad family had been the head of
the family on the farm in Oklahoma. By the time the family reached California, he admitted that he
didn't feel useful anymore. By the end of the story, the mother is the strongest member of the family.
It is she to whom Tom says goodbye when he leaves. The character of the mother accepts this by
saying, "A woman can change better than a man."
The "Reds" referred to in the film are the Communists. The movie shows how at times Red Scare
tactics were used to prejudice people against Americans who protested oppressive conditions or tried
to form labour unions.
The U.S. president at the time of these events was Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April
12, 1945). His First Inaugural Address spoken in Washington in 1933, in the depths of the Great
Depression, is referred to in the film. His most famous sentence is that: "the only thing we have to
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fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror". However, there is more to this speech
which speaks directly to us today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHFTtz3uucY
Roosevelt, one of the most famous and highly considered presidents, became the 32nd U.S. president
in 1933, and was the only president to be elected four times (nowadays this is not possible). Roosevelt
led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II, and greatly expanded the
powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal.
http://www.biography.com/people/franklin-d-roosevelt-9463381
*http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression
"The Grapes of Wrath" Film Synopsis
This is the story of one farmer's family driven from their fields by natural disaster and economic
changes beyond anyone's control. And their great journey in search of peace, security and another
home.
The film opens with Tom Joad, out of prison and on parole, returning to his family's Oklahoma farm.
He encounters an acquaintance, Jim Casy, a former preacher. Together they arrive at Tom's home and
through another farmer called Muley, they learn that Tom's family has been forcibly evicted from their
Oklahoma farm and are staying at Tom's Uncle John's before heading for California to find work.
Muley's story of "the way it [the eviction] happened to [him]" shows how families are forced off their
land by "the dusters"-the severe drought that struck the Great Plains region from 1934-1937. The
official who warns Muley to leave before his home is destroyed by the "cats" (Caterpillar tractors)
doesn't "know who's to blame." An anonymous bureaucracy of companies, banks and government
officials easily crushes the people who say that the land is theirs because of "bein' born on it, and
work'in on it and dyin' on it."
Tom and Casy go to Uncle John's where the family has decided to make their new life in California.
They are sad to leave, but encouraged by handbills which publicize the prospects of work in the
vineyards and orchards of California. We meet the rest of the family: Ma, Pa, Uncle John, Granpa,
Granma and siblings, Al, Rose-of-Sharon, Noah, Ruthie, Winfield, as well as "Rose-a-Sharn's" husband,
Connie. The night before their trip Ma remembers, holding on to apparently worthless items that
connect her to happier days. Ma doesn’t have her home and dignity, but she still has her memories.
The family, including Casy, leave for California on the famous Route 66, but Granpa has a change of
heart. Taking him from his land takes the life from his body and so he dies, holding on to the lifeless
Oklahoma soil.
The family's next stop is a roadside camp where they first hear "the truth" behind the handbills. A man
returning to Oklahoma tells his tragic experience in a system that holds no value for human life.
California growers, the man reveals, print more handbills than they need hoping to attract a great
many workers so they can exploit them by decreasing their wages below subsistence and replacing the
workers who protest. Now with his entire family dead, he was "goin' back to starve." The other
migrants do not trust him, while Casy, who believes this man's story, can only wonder if his "truth" will
be the same for the Joads.
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The family stops at a gas station where they learn that the price of being poor is suffering animosity
from others. But in a restaurant, the Joads find that ordinary people can show compassion and
generosity as well as defend the dignity of those who have lost everything else.
Before the Joads drive thought the desert, they stop at another gas station. The attendants show the
general dislike for the Okies who stream into California in a procession of old trucks. "It takes a lot of
nerve," says one attendant. But Tom is practical and indomitable: "Take no nerve to do something
there ain't nothing else you can do." By now, Granma is dying, softly calling for her dead husband. Ma
gently looks after the old woman, insisting that "the family's got to get across" the desert. When
they're stopped for an agricultural inspection, Ma says that Granma is "awful sick" and needs a doctor.
This is the first scene where officials take pity on the family. Throughout the film, land inspectors,
supervisors, police and other government officials seem as ubiquitous and unkind as the dust storms
the Joads wanted to escape. However, in this scene, the officials allow the family to cross the desert
without stopping the truck. In the morning, the family has their first sight of California. "Thar she is,"
says Pa. But Ma stays behind, exhausted. Granma died that night and Ma's action at the Inspection
Stop saved the family precious time. (Viewers can catch an image of photographer Dorothea Lange's
Migrant Mother – see below). Ma rests her hand against her face as she cries, "I was afraid they'd stop
us and we wouldn't get across. The family had to get across!"
The family's next stop is at a transient camp. The sign reads, "City Limit," but as the camera's eye
enters the camp, one has the feeling that he has reached the end or limit of civilization. Tom says,
"Sure do look none too prosperous" and for the first time, the family faces the fact that despite their
own poverty, there are others even worse off than they. Starving children hover like flies as Ma
prepares a stew to feed the family. The Joads are visibly disturbed by the children's faces. Despite
Tom's insistence, Uncle John can't eat. "I'd still see them [the children] in the tent," he laments. Once
again, Ma ensures that the family will be taken care of, but she also cares for the family of man by
sharing the family's leftover food with the children. This compassion is in contrast to the attitude of
the land contractor and his deputy who enter the camp looking for workers. When a worker insists
that the contractor show his license, that man is accused of being an "agitator." The deputy prepares
to arrest the worker on false charges. A fight occurs and a woman is shot by mistake. Tom protects the
"agitator" and Casy insists on taking the blame for Tom who has already violated parole by migrating
with his family. Casy is arrested and meanwhile, the injured woman lies bleeding; her death is of little
concern to the police.
Later, the Joads arrive at the Keene Peach Ranch looking for work. There is a strike. "These are our
own people," Tom notes curiously. The crowd yells "scab" at the Joads as they try to get work. But the
Joads don't understand that this is the warning given by the demoralized Okie at the roadside camp.
They are the victims of capitalism, when the laws of supply and demand treat human labour like a
cheap commodity. When the family is eating dinner, Ma explains that the high prices at the company
store limit the amount of meat she could buy for the family. At the Keene Ranch, as official warns, "Do
your work and mind your own business. You'll do all right." However, Tom can never just "mind his
own business" if that requires him to be blind to injustice. Later, Tom encounters Casy and other strike
leaders. Tom initially wants no part of the communal protest. But the strike leaders explain that the
employers' aim is to lower the workers' pay. Tom is confused as to why Casy gets involved in the
suffering of others. Casy reiterates the sentiments that got him arrested in the first place, "I gotta ask."
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The film continues to depict strikers and labourers as simple good people who "gotta ask" but never
demand.
When the strikers are discovered, a fight breaks out. Casy, unarmed, is killed and Tom kills Casy's
attacker. Wounded, Tom returns to the family's cabin at the ranch. Ma is fearful and desperate.
"We're crackin' up," she laments. "They ain't no family no more now—got nothing to trust." But Tom
takes heart in Casy's example. He tells Ma that Casy "was like a lantern, he helped me see." The Joads
leave Keene, hiding Tom under some blankets.
"Like a lantern," a light guides the Joads to the Wheatpatch Camp under the control of the Agricultural
Department. The contrast between this camp and the Joads' previous experiences shocks them. The
director, who looks like FD Roosevelt and it is here that the Joads encounter decency for the first time.
"Licensed agents" employ the workers; elected members run the camp; the community even hosts
dances. Best of all, the labourers are defended from arbitrary law officials. "Who runs this place?" Tom
asks incredulously. "The government," is the director's reply. When Tom wonders why "there aren't
more camps like this one?", the director is evasive, "You'll have to find that out for yourself."
At the government camp, the Joads learn the values of collectivism within the context of government
provision. Unlike the community of capitalists at the Keene Ranch, the "fellas runnin' the camp are just
fellas." The government provides, but the people produce. This is populism, not socialism. Yet Tom is
always hearing about "Reds." "What is these Reds anyway?" he asks. In the film, Tom's question is not
answered. Later, when local employers try to break up a dance, Tom and the other campers cleverly
stop them while the authorities can only look at their watches wondering why the anticipated riot
never materializes.
Unfortunately, the incident at the Keene Ranch follows Tom to the government camp and he must
leave the family. In a powerful soliloquy, he tells Ma that he has to "find out what it is that's wrong."
He thinks about Casy, "what he said—what he done—how he died." Tom reflects on the "migrant
worker solidarity" when he says to Ma, "A fella aint got a soul of his own. It's just one big soul." Tom
goes, assuring Ma that he "will be everywhere." The final scene in the film follows the family en route
once more. Ma continues to hold the family together by explaining that unlike a man, a "woman flows
like a stream." More significantly, Ma offers the ultimate optimism in the name of "the people."
"We've sure taken a beatin [but] we keep a comin. We're the people that live. . . We'll go on forever. ."
MA
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Migrant Mother, taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936
ASSIGNMENT
A. Copy out and answer the following questions TRUE or FALSE. If you think the answer is false, correct
the sentence in your own words.
1. Tom Joad and his family left Oklahoma because they lost all of their money in the stock market
crash.
2. The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s covered several states including parts of Oklahoma and Texas.
3. In the movie, The Grapes of Wrath, the name “Okie” was considered a complimentary term.
4. The Joads completely owned their farm in Oklahoma before coming to California.
5. The Okie migration to California took place in the 1920’s during a period of great prosperity.
6. Grandpa Joad died before the family left Oklahoma.
7. Grandma Joad died after they had reached California.
8. The transient (not the government) Okie camps were clean and friendly places.
9. After arriving in California, the Joad family’s first job was picking peaches.
10. The employers’ men tried to cause trouble at the government camp during the Saturday night
dance.
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B. Copy out these questions and answer them in your own words with complete sentences.
1. Why do the Joads and their neighbours have to leave their land?
2. There is a scene in the diner where the Joads are able to buy a loaf of bread and some candy for
probably much less than the items were worth. Is this typical of the treatment the Joads receive
during the film? What is the importance of this incident?
3. How are the migrant workers treated by the police and employers throughout this film?
4. What is the trouble at the Keene Ranch in Pixley? How do the Joads react?
5. The Joads find themselves at a U.S. Department of Agriculture Camp. In many ways, this camp is
quite different from the migrant camps they have experienced in other places. What does the USDA
camp symbolize?
6. Even in the setting of a USDA camp, there is tension between the police and the migrant workers.
Who or what does “the law” protect in this film?
7. What is the Joad family’s dream in this film (that is, what are they ultimately pursuing)? Is the
dream a constant, or does it evolve throughout the course of the film?
8. What does Tom Joad tell his mother when she asks him how she’ll know what happens to him (that
is, whether he’s hurt or killed after he leaves them)?
9. What does Ma Joad mean in her closing speech, when she explains to her husband, “We’re the
people that live.... We’ll go on forever, Pa, ‘cause we’re the people”?
10. Do you think the Joads’ story has any relevance for modern Spanish society?
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