The Great Depression and the Arts

The Great Depression and the Arts
A Unit of Study for Grades 8-12

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"The Grapes of Wrath"

Film Synopsis

"The Grapes of Wrath" was directed by John Ford and stared Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, Jane Darwell as Ma Joad, and John Carradine as Casey. Twentieth Century Fox, 1940.

"The Grapes of Wrath" Opening Sequence

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 on parole, returning to his family's Oklahoma farm. En route, he encounters an acquaintance, Jim Casy, a former preacher. Together they arrive at Tom's home and through a fellow sharecropper, Muley, they learn that Tom's family has been forcibly evicted from their Oklahoma tenant farm and are staying at Tom's Uncle John's before heading for California to find work. Muley's account of "the way it [the eviction] happened to [him]" reveals the failure of the tenant system. 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 succumbs to the "cats" (Caterpillar tractors) doesn't "know who's to blame." An anonymous bureaucracy of companies, banks and "tin shield" deputies easily crushes those whose claim to the land is, as Muley says, "bein' born on it, and work'in on it and dyin' on it."

Tom and Casy make their way to Uncle John's where the family is resigned 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. At Uncle John's the viewers 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 reminisces, holding on to seemingly worthless items that connect her to happier thoughts. Deprived of home and dignity, Ma is not deprived of memories.

The family, including Casy, leave for California, primarily on Route 66. Granpa, however, has a change of heart. Wrenching him from his land draws the life from his body and he dies, clutching 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 relates his tragic experience in a system that holds no value for human life. The laws of supply and demand are just as harsh in his story as they were for the Okies and Arkies caught in the Dust Bowl. California growers, the man reveals, print more handbills than they need hoping to attract a glut of workers. Rather than limiting the influx of laborers, they 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 wonder if he is some sort of "labor fink," while Casy, who believes this man's story, can only wonder if his "truth" will be the same for the Joads.

The family stops at a gas station where they learn that the price of being poor is enduring animosity from others. But in a restaurant, the Joads find that ordinary people can show compassion and generosity as well as uphold the dignity of those who seem to have lost everything else.

Before the Joads drive thought the desert, they stop at another gas station. The attendants echo the prevailing disdain for the indigent Okies who stream into California in a procession of jalopies. "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 caresses the old woman's brow, insisting that "the family's got to get across" the desert. When they're stopped for an agricultural inspection, Ma pleads that Granma is "awful sick" and needs a doctor. This is the first scene where law enforcement officials take pity on the family. Throughout the film, land inspectors, supervisors, police and the "tin shield" deputies seem as ubiquitous and unfeeling as the dust storms the Joads sought to escape. However, in this scene, the officials allow the family to cross the desert without evacuating the truck.

In the morning, the family has their first glimpse of California. "Thar she is," says Pa. But Ma stays behind, exhausted. Granma died that night and Ma's resourcefulness at the Inspection Stop saved the family precious time. Viewers can catch an image of photographer Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. Ma rests her hand against her face as she laments, "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 Hooverville. 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. Even the campers walk in deliberate slow motion as they size up the newcomers. Tom's comment, "Sure do look none too prosperous" is the ultimate irony. 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 leftovers with the children. This compassion is in sharp contrast to the attitude of the land contractor and his deputy who enter the camp soliciting workers. When a worker insists that the contractor show his license, that man is accused of being an "agitator." The deputy prepares to apprehend the laborer on trumped up charges. A scuffle ensues and a woman is mistakenly shot. Tom protects the fleeing "agitator" but Casy insists on taking the rap for Tom who has already violated parole by migrating with his family. Not surprisingly, law reinforcements appear on the scene. Casy explains that his role in the fight all stemmed from the fact that he "talked back." He even holds out his hands to be cuffed. Meanwhile, the injured woman lies bleeding; her death is of little concern to the police.

The camera's eye is again purposefully maneuvered to convey the Joads' apprehensions and confusion as they enter the Keene Peach Ranch during 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 run amuck, when the laws of supply and demand treat human labor like a cheap commodity. Later, when the family is eating dinner, Ma explains that the high prices at the company store limit the amount of meat she could purchase for the family. At the Keene Ranch, as official warns, "Do your work and mind your own business. You'll do all right." Of course, this warning foreshadows the opposite of what really does happen. 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. Since there is a ready supply of laborers and no voice for their cause, the owners can get away with it. Tom is confused as to why Casy gets involved in the plight of others. Casy reiterates the sentiments that got him arrested in the first place, "I gotta ask." The film continues to depict strikers and laborers as simple good people who "gotta ask" but never demand.

When the plotting 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 auspices of the Agricultural Department. The contrast between this camp and the Joads' previous experiences shocks them. The director, an FDR look-a-like, was modeled after Tom Collins, the director of the government-run Weedpatch camp in California. (Steinbeck traveled with Collins and dedicated the novel to him. Ford used Collins as a technical advisor for the film.) 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 laborers are insulated from arbitrary law enforcement. "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 dismissed. At Wheatpatch, the community bands together in work and in entertainment. Students should note Tom's first act on behalf of the community—he turns off a running faucet. Later, when local growers plot to disrupt a dance, Tom and the other campers cleverly diffuse the situation 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 upon what Charles Shindo calls, the "migrant worker solidarity" when he says to Ma, "A fella aint got a soul of his own. It's just one big soul." The sound of a faint train whistle signals his impending flight and Tom goes, assuring Ma that he "will be everywhere." Students should also note yet another Migrant Mother pose as Ma watches her son leave.

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. . . ." And it would seem that they do continue the legacy of the migrants following the road to work and redemption.

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The Great Depression and the Arts

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