56 Fun Facts About The Grapes of Wrath

Near which Oklahoma town is the Joad family's farm in The Grapes of Wrath?

Sallisaw: when Tom returns home there from prison, he finds the farm deserted because the bank has evicted the family.

At the start of The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad has just been paroled from which prison?

McAlester: Tom got out after four years of a seven-year sentence, but leaving Oklahoma with his family means breaking his parole.

What was Jim Casy's former occupation in The Grapes of Wrath?

Preacher: Casy quit after deciding that 'there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue', only things people do, some nice and some not.

The Joads make the journey west in what kind of vehicle?

A Hudson sedan converted into a truck: it carries the family all the way to California, but the winter floods finally leave it stalled and useless.

Which highway do the Joads follow west to California in The Grapes of Wrath?

Route 66: Steinbeck's line calling it 'the mother road, the road of flight' popularized the highway's best-known nickname.

Which Joad family member dies on the first evening of the journey west?

Grampa: the family drugged him with soothing syrup to get him to leave, and Casy said he was really 'jus' stayin' with the lan''.

Granma Joad dies while the family is crossing which desert?

The Mojave: Ma kept Granma's death secret all through the night so the family wouldn't be held up before they got across.

Which eldest son leaves the family near Needles, planning to live off fishing on the Colorado River?

Noah: Pa secretly blamed himself for Noah's strangeness, since he had delivered him alone and pulled him out with his bare hands.

Rose of Sharon's husband, who abandons her soon after they reach California, is named what?

Connie Rivers: before vanishing, he says he should have stayed home to learn tractors, the very machines pushing tenant families off the land.

How is Rose of Sharon's name pronounced in the family?

Rosasharn: heavily pregnant, she insists on going out to pick cotton, and when the rain comes she falls ill with a chill.

What lures the Joad family west to California in The Grapes of Wrath?

Handbills promising picking jobs: a returning migrant explains that a contractor wanting 800 pickers prints 5,000 of them, so crowds of jobseekers drive wages down.

Why does a local tractor driver in The Grapes of Wrath knock down tenant farmers' houses?

For three dollars a day: he has a wife and kids to feed, even though, as a tenant tells him, his wage costs whole families their homes.

What is Uncle John's private torment?

Guilt over the death of his young wife: when she complained of stomach pain, he told her she'd just eaten too much, and she died the next day.

The Joads' neighbour who refuses to leave the land even after everyone else is evicted is called what?

Muley Graves: he hides out on his old land dodging the law, and when the Joads leave, Pa asks him to look after two of their dogs.

The clean, government-run camp where the Joads find respite is named what?

Weedpatch: growers send men to start a fight at its Saturday dance so deputies can raid the camp, but the campers' own committee quietly foils the plan.

At the government camp, what startles the two youngest Joad children as they explore the washroom?

A flushing toilet: the camp's washrooms are looked after by the residents' own committee, which even tracks down who keeps using up the toilet paper.

The Joads work as strikebreakers picking which fruit when Casy is killed?

Peaches: the strikebreakers earn a nickel a box, and once the strike is broken the ranch halves the rate to two and a half cents.

With what weapon is Jim Casy killed?

A pick handle: Tom wrenches the club away and kills Casy's attacker with it, then has to go into hiding.

Which child accidentally reveals that Tom is in hiding after killing a man?

Ruthie: during a quarrel with another child, she boasts that her brother has already killed two men, so Tom must leave to avoid capture.

What happens to Rose of Sharon's baby?

It is stillborn: Uncle John sets the tiny body afloat in an apple box on the floodwater, hoping it will show people what is happening to them.

In The Grapes of Wrath's final scene, what does Rose of Sharon do for a starving stranger?

Feeds him her breast milk: after one silent look between them, Ma herds everyone else out of the barn so her daughter can save the dying man.

Which animal's journey across a highway takes up one of The Grapes of Wrath's interchapters?

A land turtle: a truck driver swerves on purpose to hit it, but it only spins off the road, rights itself and crawls on.

Who suggested the title The Grapes of Wrath?

Steinbeck's wife Carol: he credited her drive behind the whole book, dedicating it 'To Carol who willed it'.

The Grapes of Wrath takes its title from a line in which song?

The Battle Hymn of the Republic: Julia Ward Howe wrote her verses in 1861 to fit the tune of the soldiers' marching song John Brown's Body.

In The Grapes of Wrath, what insulting name do Californians call the migrants from the Dust Bowl?

Okies: a man at a roadside camp tells Tom the word once just meant someone from Oklahoma, but in California it means 'you're scum'.

Where The Grapes of Wrath uses its title phrase, what is that chapter about?

Growers destroying food to keep prices up: as the hungry watch crops destroyed, 'in the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling'.

The Grapes of Wrath grew out of The Harvest Gypsies, seven 1936 articles Steinbeck wrote for which paper?

The San Francisco News: reporting for it, Steinbeck toured the camps with camp manager Tom Collins, to whom he later dedicated the novel in part.

Which writer, whose own migrant novel went unpublished until 2004, reportedly had 1938 field notes passed to Steinbeck?

Sanora Babb: once The Grapes of Wrath became a hit, her publisher shelved her novel, fearing the market couldn't bear two books on one subject.

Steinbeck said that with The Grapes of Wrath he had tried to rip what 'to rags'?

A reader's nerves: he also said he wanted to put 'a tag of shame' on the greedy men he blamed for the migrants' plight.

Which two prizes did the novel win in 1940?

It was later cited prominently when Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Which California county's supervisors banned The Grapes of Wrath from its libraries and schools in August 1939?

Kern: it was the end point of the Joads' fictional journey, and county officials felt the novel portrayed their efforts to help migrants unfairly.

Which growers' group denounced The Grapes of Wrath as 'a pack of lies' and 'communist propaganda'?

The Associated Farmers of California: local leader Bill Camp presided over a public burning of the book, declaring it 'obscene in the extreme'.

Early attempts to suppress The Grapes of Wrath helped inspire American librarians to issue what?

The Library Bill of Rights: meanwhile county librarian Gretchen Knief wrote to her supervisors urging them to reverse the novel's ban.

What does Tom Joad vow when he says goodbye to Ma?

Fight for the hungry and oppressed: he has come to believe, as Casy did, that each person owns only a piece of one big soul.

Why do the Joads leave the government camp?

There's no work nearby: in a month there Tom gets only five days' work, so with food nearly gone Ma pushes the family to move on.

Who directed the 1940 film of The Grapes of Wrath?

John Ford: he had to fight for his own choice to play Tom Joad, as the studio reportedly first considered its contract star Tyrone Power.

Who played Tom Joad in the 1940 film of The Grapes of Wrath?

Henry Fonda: to land the part, he had to give up his freelance status and sign a long-term contract with 20th Century-Fox.

Which actress played Ma Joad in the 1940 film of The Grapes of Wrath?

Jane Darwell: Beulah Bondi had been tested for the part first, yet it was Darwell who went on to win an Oscar as Ma.

Who wrote the screenplay for the 1940 film of The Grapes of Wrath?

Nunnally Johnson: he married Dorris Bowdon, the actress who played Rose of Sharon in the film.

How does the 1940 Grapes of Wrath film end?

It ends with Ma's "We're the people" speech: the film moves the government camp to the end, so the story closes on hope instead of the novel's flood.

In 1989, the 1940 movie of The Grapes of Wrath was among the first 25 titles chosen for what?

The National Film Registry: Congress created it after an outcry over broadcasters colorizing and cutting classic black-and-white films.

Which folk singer retold Tom Joad's story in a two-part 1940 song called 'Tom Joad'?

Woody Guthrie: he wrote it after seeing the film version several times, lifting lines from Tom's farewell speech.

Which rock star released the 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad?

Bruce Springsteen: Rage Against the Machine later turned the album's quiet folk title song into a full-band cover in 1997.

Which actor played Tom Joad for all 188 Broadway performances of the Steppenwolf stage adaptation in 1990?

Frank Galati adapted it; one performance was filmed and shown on PBS.

At the Hooverville, what does Ma Joad do when starving children crowd around her cooking?

Leaves them the leftovers: but one boy's mother then storms over and scolds Ma for giving her son a taste of stew his own family can't afford.

In which California town was John Steinbeck born in 1902?

Salinas: he later left Stanford without a degree and moved to New York, taking odd jobs while he tried to write.

Why does Tom Joad put a note in a roadside family grave?

So no one assumes a murder: too poor to pay for a funeral, the family buries the body themselves and leaves a note explaining the death.

Which cinematographer shot the 1940 film of The Grapes of Wrath?

Gregg Toland: he shot many scenes in near darkness, lit by a single lamp or candle, giving the film its documentary gloom.

Alfred Newman's score for the 1940 film is based on which traditional song?

Henry Fonda performs it in the film, and 'Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad' is sung at a New Mexico roadside camp.

What did Darryl Zanuck do to defend the Grapes of Wrath film from pro-Communist charges?

Sent private investigators to Oklahoma: they found conditions as bad as the novel described, so Zanuck felt ready to face the red-baiters.

Soviet authorities reportedly pulled The Grapes of Wrath from audiences after noticing what?

Even poor Americans owned cars: Stalin's regime had hoped the story would expose capitalism's misery, but that detail backfired.

Which actor played Jim Casy in the 1940 film of The Grapes of Wrath?

John Carradine played Casy, and off screen he was said to stroll Hollywood Boulevard reciting Shakespeare to anyone who would listen.

Which Alfred Hitchcock film beat The Grapes of Wrath to the Best Picture Oscar for 1940?

Rebecca won, but the Best Picture statuette went to its producer, David O. Selznick, rather than to Hitchcock himself.

Which young man at the Hooverville stands up to a labour contractor, leading to Casy's arrest?

Floyd Knowles presses the contractor for a firm wage, and when a deputy chases him, Casy kicks the deputy unconscious and takes the blame.

Which magazine named The Grapes of Wrath among the 100 best English-language novels published since its own founding?

Time: its critics went back only to 1923, the year the magazine began, so James Joyce's Ulysses, published in 1922, missed the cut.

Which band's song 'Dust Bowl Dance', from the album Sigh No More, is based on The Grapes of Wrath?

Mumford & Sons won British Album of the Year at the 2011 Brit Awards for Sigh No More, and the album's UK sales soared afterwards.