Chapter+20



=Summary= The Joad family left Granma’s body at the corner’s because they couldn’t afford a nice burial. Ma knew that Granma would have liked a nice burial. They drive out into the country looking for work. They arrive at an unorganized camp, a Hooverville. They scattered about and all of the shacks are different. They don’t seem to like the place and everything’s old and rusty but they need a place to camp. They ask an old man if they could camp here and if they needed to ask someone who owned it. The old man answered pa’s questions with the same questions. He gets angry with pa for no reason. As the old man goes off, a young man came over and told them that they had met the mayor and that they could camp anywhere they wanted to. Tom wants to know why the old man acted that way and asks why he acted that way and the young man, whom we later know as Floyd Knowles, tells him that he’s bull-simple which means that he had been pushed around too much by the police. He explains that they were pushed so that they don’t have to vote and so they wouldn’t have enough time to be organized. He explains that all of those people camped here are looking for work and they were all there for those ‘orange’ handbills. When an owner sends out a handbill, he usually will end up with a hundred people just fighting to get the job at any price. They wouldn’t care as long as they got something to feed their kids. He also mentions that if someone were to organize the people and they were to fight for better prices well that someone was thrown in jail and a person in jail can’t feed his kids. “So we take what we can get, huh, or we starve; an’ if we yelp we starve.”(Pg. 336) He mentions to Tom that he should be bull simple so the cops won’t bother him. They like them that way. As Pa and Uncle John start throwing sticks into the camp fire they notice a couple of kids surrounding them. They had smelled the food and had come for some leftovers. Tom speaks to Casy about the people and how they ask him to pray for them. He feels guilty because that’s not what he believes in anymore and he mentions that he needs to work for the Joad’s hospitality. Tom asks him to tells him to stay because he feels that something bad is about to happen. Connie mentions that he can have a better job learning about tractors and getting three dollars a day for it. Rose of Sharon was sick so she couldn’t help Ma cook dinner. A little girl starts helping Ma so she could get a bite to eat. She tells ma about the government camp in Weedpatch which had nice toilets and baths. It’s a nice place to go. They all get together to eat dinner and they see the children crowding around. Ma and Uncle John feel guilty. Uncle John didn’t eat anything and Ma left some stew for the kids and they went into the tent. The kids’ mother comes out shortly and angrily tells Ma to mind her own children and Ma explains that she had no choice but to give them some stew. Floyd tells Tom and Al that there is a job two hundred miles north where you have to pick prunes and pears and cannery work. Ma’s worried that they might separate and tom tells her that they won’t. A labor worker comes with a job opportunity and Floyd starts questioning him about the wages and the contractor calls the police and tells them that Floyd was talking red and agitating trouble. The deputy arrests Floyd on false charges. Tom speaks up and is threatened to be arrested as well. The deputy then says that if they don’t go to work in Tulare that the town will be attacked and burned. Floyd then escaped and tom tripped the deputy. His handgun went off and he shot a lady in her hand. He tries to shoot Floyd again but is kicked in the neck by Casy and he’s knocked unconscious. Casy tells Tom to leave because he broke parole. When the police arrive, Casy tells them that he did it. They arrest him but aren’t sure if he’s the one. Uncle John felt that Casy sacrificed himself and he drinks till he’s drunk and admits that he kept five dollars aside. He gives pa five dollars but then takes two and leaves. Tom sees Connie walking down the road and they figure later on that he left Rose of Sharon. Tom tells the family that they should leave. Tom finds Uncle John dead drunk and he knocks him unconscious and takes him into the car. Rose of Sharon doesn’t want to go because she doesn’t want to leave Connie behind but they trick her into going. They start driving south and Tom’s mad at how they are treated. Ma notices that Tom is getting angry and reminds him to be peaceful. The Joads then encounter a road block and he is forced to turn back. Tom turns the truck around and turns off the lights. He’s like this until the deputies leave. He then turns the truck and drives to the government camp at Weedpatch.

=Passages=

“I ain’t gonna take it. Goddamn it, I an’ my folks ain’t no sheep. I’ll kick the hell outa somebody.” “Like a cop?” “Like anybody.” “You’re nuts, said the young man. “They’ll pick you right of. You got no name, no property. They’ll find you in a ditch, with the blood dried on your mouth an’ you nose. Be one little line in the paper-know what it’ll say? ‘Vagrant foun’ dead.’ An’ that’s all. You’ll see a lot of them little lines, ‘Vagrant foun’ dead.’” (pg 337)

This passage shows Tom’s frustration at the injustice of the system and explains how the system works – migrants asking for more pay or shelter and being denied these basic rights.

‘“I can’t send ‘em away,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. Take your plates an’ go inside. I’ll let ‘em have what’s lef”. ---Her family sat on the ground, each with his plate: and outside they could hear the children digging into the pot with their sticks and their spoons and their pieces of rusty tin.’(page 351)

This passage is about how children didn’t have food. They were too proud to actually tell Ma that they were hungry but they eventually gave in to their hunger and ran to get their plates. It was guilt that made Ma give them food. It showed how some people were driven to beg for food.

=Discussion Questions=

No. The characters were expecting the beautiful green land, vineyards, and orange groves that they had heard so much about but what they found was a Hooverville in the outside desert area of California because they weren’t yet in the valley.
 * Does California look the way the characters thought it would?**

The locals feared the migrants because they were unfamiliar with them and didn’t understand the depths of what had happened in the Dust Bowl. They feared that the migrants would take their jobs and cause a reduction in pay. A Hooverville is a term for a village of multiple shacks and tents that were made as temporary homes. The term “Hooverville” was used because of U.S President Herbert Hoover. Hoover wasn’t doing the best job helping people at the start of the Great Depression. There were other things Hoover’s name was used as an adjective for. “Hoover Blankets” were news papers; people wore “Hoover Flags” which were inside out empty pockets to show they had no money.
 * Why do the local people fear the migrants? What is a Hooverville? How did a Hooverville get its name?**

=Reading Questions=

His sacrifice is so significant because he gives himself up for something he believes in. He lets the police arrest him to prove to himself that he isn't worthless. He does it to repay the Joad's for their hospitality and he is embracing the "human spirit" by letting Tom escape. He mentions that he doesn't care for Al but he cares for his parents and he does something that he is proud of. He tries to teach everyone that if you were to fight for what they want, they would achieve that and maybe more. Casy's sacrifice is also the beginning of his transformation into an activist of sorts. It starts him on the way to becoming the strike leader that he is on the end
 * Why is Casy's sacrifice so significant?**

=Theme Song=

//** Performed by: The Fopmatizer, Mixmaster Juan, and H to the Kizzle Directed and Filmed by: Chelsea
 * //Grapes of Wrath Rap

We’re the grapes of wrath, we’re gonna kick some ath, you see us coming down the street, you take a different path you see, we’re flying away from the Dust Bowl storm, we’re huddling together just to keep ourselves warm

Now we’re working our way ‘cross the USA to the promised land down in Cali-for-ni-ay, where the work is plenty and the fields are green, in reality we found quite a different scene

Now Grandma died when we were crossing the border, we needed a burial in short order, Pa said no Joad ever died without honor, but we dropped off Grandma at the funeral parlor

We pulled into a Hooverville to stay for the night, and Pa and this one dude almost got in a fight, it wasn’t so bright and it was out of my sight, but I believe it had to do with ownership rights

Now Tom got talking to this guy named Floyd, who told him about the kind of deal you can’t avoid, where they work you every day for minuscule pay, and they toss you in jail if you try to complain

Tom said that "If all this injustice is true, w e gotta form a union, that’s what we’ll do." Floyd said, "We’re all Okies and we all wanna fight, but they shoot down our leaders so we can’t get tight."

Tom said, "This ain’t the image they were trying to sell," and Floyd said,"True that, man, and welcome to hell, you can try to resist, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya, they’ll throw you right outta California."

Now the cops rolled up and starting acting tough, it was easy to see it was about to get rough, we could see from the beginning what the guy was about, but Tom had his stuff together and knocked the dude out

When the sirens started flashing, it was time to hide, Tom knew he was officially on the wrong side, he jumped in a bush before he could get beat, and Casy stepped up and took the heat

Now we’re back on the road and we’re looking for work, but we don’t wanna take no work from no exploitative jerk, call us Okies, Reds, or Communists, but we’re the Jo-ad clan, and don’t forget that we’re pissed.

Video - intro [|Joad Rap - backyard] [|Joad Rap - garage]

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