Survival in Despair

Tom Joad got out of prison for killing a man in self defense and came home to find his family's

farm completely empty. The banks had taken everything during the Dust Bowl,

forcing his whole family to pack into a converted truck and chase rumors of work in California.

They lost people along the way, buried his grandparents in fields, watched family members

just walk off into nothing. When they finally reached California, the promise turned

out to be a lie. Too many workers, wages so low you couldn't feed your kids,

deputies beating anyone who complained. The old preacher Tom met hitchhiking, Casy,

tried organizing the workers and got his skull cracked open with a pickaxe. Tom killed the man