25-27+Summaries

Summary

Chapter 25: In California, the vines are full of juicy grapes. Fruit and flowers grow in abundance through out the green valleys. Crops are grown in mass quantitiesthanks to the new knowledge.Scientific research has made it possible to grow large fruits. Although it is being grown in mass quantities the cannaries offer low prices for the produce. The result of this is fruit decaying and being thrown away. Farmers are destroying the crops that they can not sell. They dont want to give it to the poor and hungry instead they prefer to destroy it so no one can use it. The crops cant be sold as fast as its being grown. People are losing their jobs and those that had none now find it even more impossible to find them. Children die from not enough food. Adults are slowly wasting away as they give their remaining food to their children. People try to live off their last reserves, but unfortunately it is not enough. Yet, perfectly good food, fruit, are being thrown away. The migrant's hunger has started a chain reactiong of anger. This anger has led to the desire for vengence. "in the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy for the vintage."

Chapter 26: After staying in the government camp for almost a month the joad family realize that their supplies are running low. Ma insistes that they move on since they do not have enough supplies to live on while at the camp. Pa does not want to move because of the toilets and how it is the first place where they have decent living conditions. Ma takes this into account but brings into the light the problem that have not been able to get any work. She suggest that they move on to Marysville where it says that fruit pickers are needed. They make the decision to move on first thing in the morning. Rose of Sharon is worried that he baby will be born with deformadies and complains that she needs milk to deliver a healthy child. They leave in the morning but encounter a problem in the form of a flat tire. A man offers them a job at the Hooper ranch and so they head that way where they find work. When they arrive the find the town over runned with protestors in the streets. The police ushers them into the camp passed the angry crowed. The family works picking peaches at five cents a box. With the money they earn Ma buys groceries at the near by store. After supper Tom sneaks out of the ranch to learn more about the angry crowed. Once outside he finds Casy and they speak about Casy's time in prison. Tom finds out that Casy is trying to organize the migrants. Casy tells him that once the protests is brocken up that the Joad family will only be paid two cents a box. Some men attack and one of them bashes Casy's head, killing him instantly. Tom reacts by grapping th weapon and hitting the man back. He runs back to the ranch and hides out at their lodging. When Tom wakes up the next morning, his face is swollen and his nose broken. He tells the family that he is in trouble and offers to leave rather so he does not endanger the whole family. Ma insists that he stay, because he needs to be protected and needs someone to hide him. Only the family can be trusted with his safety. That day the Joads pick peaches for two and a half cents a box in order to collect enough money for gas. They hide Tom inside a cave made of mattresses and drive out of the ranch. As they travel, Tom sees an advertisement for cotton pickers, and the family stops. Tom proposes to hide in a nearby creek and join them again after his face heals.

Chapter 27: Hand pills on the road and signs advertise the need for cotton pickers. The cotton plants are ready now, for the heavy bolls of cotton are bursting like confetti. Cotton bags cost a dollar each, but this cost is taken out of workers pay. A cotton bag lasts all season and when it is worn out, the open end could be sewed up and the worn out end could be opened up. When both ends were worn away the cloth can be used to make clothes. The cloth had a seemingly limitless list of uses. The wages for picking cotton was fairly good, eighty cents a hundred for the first time over and ninety cents for the second time. The good pickers have seasons of experience and hardly have to look while picking. The pickers sometimes put rocks in their bags to make up for the fixed scales and maintain the records of the weight of each sack so as to avoid being cheated. Cotton picking is good work and the migrants hope that it lasts so that they can save some money for the winter when there will be no work in California. But the numbers of the pickers is going up fast so the work lasts only a short time.

Chapters 25-27