GOW+Chapter+10

back



Summary Passage Discussion Questions Theme Song

**Summary Chapter 10**

In this chapter Ma and Tom discuss the move to California while the rest of the family is in town trying to sell their possesions. Ma is worried that California won't be as nice as the brochures show and thinks it is too good to be true. Tom tells her not to think too much about the future because it will drive you crazy, "You can't go thinkin' when you're gonna be out. You'd go nuts. You got to think about that day, an' then the nex' day..." (p. 117) Ma trusts California will be wonderful and Grampa can't wait to let the grape juice run down his pants. Casy asks Ma and Tom if he could accompany them to California and Ma tells him it is up to the men to make the final decision. When the rest of the family gets back in the truck they are discouraged because they only made eighteen dollars in town that day. The Joad family has a meeting around the truck and decide Casy could go with them and that they would leave the next day. Everyone helps prepare to leave and Casy helps Ma with the salting of the meat even though she says its a women's work. As the family piles into the truck to leave Muley arrives to say good bye. Seeing Muley's dedication to the land makes Grampa suddenly want to stay. The Joads slip drugs in Grampa's drink and loads him into the truck and begins their long journey to California.

In this chapter the importance of family and family structure is seen again. When Casy asks to go to California Ma first waits for Tom to speak and then tells Casy to wait unitl the men get home. This shows that men lead. As the family prepares to leave and Casy helps salt the meat we can see that the trip to California will change the family roles. Everyone will have to work together and traditional roles will have to be disregarded. We also see that the truck has become the new family center and represents the migratory life the Joad family will now live, "The family met at the most important place, near the truck. The house was dead, and the fields were dead; but this truck was the active thing, the living principle." (p. 128)

**Passage Chapter 10**

"The Preacher stepped beside her. "Leave me salt down this meat," he said. "I can do it. There's other stuff for you to do." She stopped her work then and inspected him oddly, as though he suggested a curious thing. And her hands were crusted with salt, pink with fluid from the fresh pork. "It's a women's work," she said finally. "It's all work," the preacher replied. "They's too much of it to split up to men's or women's work. You got stuff to do. Leave me salt the meat." (p. 138)

This lovely passage from Chapter 10 in the novel by John Steinbeck called the Grapes of Wrath alludes to the changes the Joads will face on their journey. Casy, by offering to help Ma, tears down the gender-based divisions in the family. It also shows Casy's philosophy that people are what is truly holy and that they must help one another to succeed. We see Casy's character develop as he becomes part of the family and becomes more in tune with his own beliefs.

**Discussion Questions Chapter 10


 * In the beginning of the lovely chapter 10 Grampa is very excited to go to California and squeeze grape juice but as the family preapres to leave his attitude toward the journey quickly changes. Why does he have this sudden change of heart?

Grampa spends the night before the family is planning to leave thinking about leaving his home, "This here's my country. I b'long here. An' I don't give a goddamn if they's oranges an' grapes crowdin' a fella outa bed even. I ain't a-goin'. This country ain't no good, but it's my country." (p. 143) Grampa feels the same strong agrarian connection to the land as Muley and says even though he is old he will survive just as Muley has. Grampa's strong feelings toward staying and the need to drug him to get him to leave foreshadow his death. Once he leaes his land it is as if part of him dies.

**Theme Song Chapter 10

Lyrics If you're letting go It's alright,alright, it's alright Didn't know I was hurting you so It's alright, alright, it's alright.
 * Need to know

You came to me from nowhere With nothing And no-one Hold tight, hold tight, hold tight Goes to show You never really know It's alright, it's alright, it's alright

This is just one of those Lonely night The good times gonna come

See me then Investing so much In you, in you, in you Came so close To the edge I do, I do, I do

This is just one of those Lonely night The good times gonna come

In the end We let it go away We let it float away On the breeze

'Round the bend The sun is in the sky It's starting to look like It's gonna be, yeah, it's gonna be A bright Beautiful day Yeah, the good times gonna come, oh no The good times gonna come, yeah, yeah,

This is just one of those Lonely night The good times gonna come, oh, The good times gonna come, oh yeah The good times gonna come, ohh The good times gonna come, yeah. Need to know if you're letting go It's alright, it's alright, it's alright




 * Analysis
 * The beginning of the song could be about the family letting go of their past life and letting go of the home and the land they have always known. Where it says, "You came to me from nowhere, With nothing," it is refering to how the tenant farmers originally started out on the land with nothing and how they made their lives out of their land. "See me then, Investing so much," shows the farmers put so much care and love into the land just to have it taken from them. The end of the song talks about letting go and moving on. It promises good times to come and that is exactly what the Joads are looking forward to in California.