Synthesized answer
Based on the passages, the sharecroppers' journey to California was a desperate migration driven by false promises. They were pushed off their land by tractors and banks, told by owner men to go west because "there’s work there, and it never gets cold" and they could "pick an orange" anywhere [1]. They traveled in cars, "crawled out of the side roads" and "scuttled like bugs" westward, huddling together for company and sharing their lives because they were "lonely and perplexed" from "a place of sadness and worry and defeat" [4]. They were motivated by handbills promising "Pea Pickers Wanted... Good Wages All Season" [5].
Upon arrival, their initial experience was one of awe at California's beauty—"the grain fields golden," "peach trees and walnut groves," and "dark green patches of oranges" [3]—but this quickly turned to grim reality. The crucial detail of their plight is the overwhelming competition for work: "For every manload to lift, five pairs of arms extended to lift it; for every stomachful of food available, five mouths open" [2]. Furthermore, they faced immediate hostility, being driven out of squatters' camps by "Department of Health orders" and having their "paper…
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From the book
We’re sorry, said the owner men. The bank, the fifty- thousand-acre owner can’t be responsible. You’re on land that isn’t yours. Once over the line maybe you can pick cot-' ton in the fall. Maybe you can go on relief. Why don’t you go' on west to California? There’s work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there’s always some kind of crop to work in. Why don’t you go there? And the owner men started their cars and rolled away. The tenant men squatted down on their hams again to mark the dust with a stick, to figure, to wonder.…
squatters’ camps. Get out. Department of Health orders. This camp is a menace to health. Where we gonna go? That’s none of our business. We got orders to get you out of here. In half an hour we set fire to the camp. They’s typhoid down the line. You want ta spread it all over? We got orders to get you out of here. Now get! In half an hour we bum the camp. In half an hour the smoke of paper houses, of weed- thatched huts, rising to the sky, and the people in their cars rolling over the highways, looking for another Booverville. And in Kansas and Arkansas, in Oklahoma and Texas and…
“I want ta look at her.” The grain fields golden in the morning, and the willow lines, the eucalyptus trees in rows. Pa sighed, “I never knowed they was anything like her.” The peach trees and the walnut groves, and the dark green patches of oranges. And red roofs among the trees, and barns -rich barns. A1 got out and stretched his legs. He called, “Ma— come look. We’re there!” Ruthie and Winfield scrambled down from the car, and then they stood, silent and awestruck, embarrassed before the great valley. The distance was thinned with haze, and the Sand grew softer and softer in the…
T HE cars of the migrant people crawled out of the side roads onto the great cross-country highway, and they took the migrant way to the West. In the day- light they scuttled like bugs to the westward; and as the dark caught them, they clustered like bugs near to shelter and to water. And because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a new mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared their lives, their food, and the things they hoped for in the new…
u Vti ell, 111 sure thank ya for a hanl I sure will. Makes a fella kinda feel-like a little kid, when he can’t fix nothin’. When we get to California I aim to get me a nice car. Maybe she won’t break down.” Pa said, “When we get there. Gettin’ there’s the trouble.” “Oh, but she’s worth it,” said Wilson. “Why, I seen han’- bills how they need folks to pick fruit, an’ good wages. Why, jus’ think how it’s gonna be, under them shady trees a-pickin’ fruit an’ takin’ a bite ever’ once in a while. Why, hell, they don t care how much you eat ’cause they got so much. An’ with them good…
More questions about this book
- Given Steinbeck's diverse background – from a quiet upbringing in Salinas to working casual jobs like a hod-carrier and day laborer – how might these specific experiences have shaped his perspective and ability to vividly portray the struggles of the sharecroppers in *The Grapes of Wrath*?
- The description mentions the sharecroppers become "strike-breakers" but their "consciences force them to leave." Explain what this internal conflict implies about their values and how it foreshadows the "wrath" suggested by the novel's title.
- The text highlights Steinbeck's early works being met with "public's indifference" before the success of *Tortilla Flat* and *Of Mice and Men*, leading up to *The Grapes of Wrath*. What does this progression reveal about the typical path of an artist, and how might the "Modern Library" marketing strategy have contributed to making such a significant work accessible?
- The Joads are "driven from their home by drought and poverty" and arrive in California to find "hundreds of others like them being forced to work for breadline wages." If you were explaining the systemic issues at play here to a peer, what specific economic or social forces, as implied by this text, led to such widespread displacement and exploitation?