Chapters 8-16

Chapter eight begins with Tom, Casy, and Muley traveling to Uncle John’s house to regroup with the family. At first, upon arrival, Tom’s Pa fails to recognize him, and when Tom reveals that it is him, Pa asks if he broke out of prison. Pa leads Tom into the house where he reunites with Ma. She asks him if prisons life turned him “mad.” She tells the tale of a boy she knew who went insane after a prison sentence. Tom reassures her that he is fine.

Tom asks about his grandparents. Pa tells him that they sleep in the barn son Grampa won’t wake up the family in the middle of the night. Tom eventually reunites with his grandparents and his brother, Noah.

As the family prepares to eat breakfast, Granma, a devoutly spiritual person, asks Casy to say a prayer before breakfast. Instead, however, he explains to the group of his new outlook on life, how all life is holy and pure. After his prayer, the family eats breakfast in silence.

In chapter nine, the narrator explains how families in general prepare to travel across the country. In most cases, the farmers are required to sell their property and goods for outrageously low prices. However, having no leverage in the bargaining process, they must accept the money offered to them if they have any hope of traveling to California.

Chapter ten shifts its focus back onto the Joads. As Pa goes in to town to try and pawn some of the family’s possessions, Tom and Ma discuss California. Ma is worried that the jobs and wages advertised on the handbills may be too good to be true. However, she puts her fears aside and reassures herself that the handbills she saw are accurate. Casy enters the room and asks the family if he can go with them. He can’t stand seeing the land empty and devoid of people. Ma agrees to take him along.

Meanwhile, Pa returns from town, discouraged as he was only able to get a measly $18 for the items he pawned. Despite this, the family begins the load the truck, and Ma and Casy salt pork for the journey ahead. Rose of Sharon (one of Tom’s other siblings) and her husband, Connie, arrive, and the family piles into the truck. However, right as they are about to leave, Grampa comes out and says that he isn’t going. His desire is to stay on the land he was raised on. Knowing that Grampa will not be able to survive by himself, the family decides to lace his coffee with “soothing syrup”. When he finally passes out, the family load him into the truck and drive take off.

The narrator then takes on the persona of migrant farmers traveling along Route 66. As they travel, fan belts break and tires go flat. The salesmen the migrants encounter along the way try to scam the migrants out of money, taking them for every penny.

As the Joads travel along Route 66, they stop at a service station to get gas and rest. However, the family dog is tragically run over by a car. The gas station attendant agrees to bury the dog for the Joads and they continue their journey passing through Oklahoma City. While they drive, Ma expresses concern to Tom over him crossing the state line and violating his parole. Tom tries to sooth her saying that he won’t commit any crimes in California so she shouldn’t worry. Despite this, Ma still shows concern.

At the end of the day’s travel, the Joads set up camp at the side of the road. There, they meet Ivy and Sairy Wilson, migrants from Kansas whose car has broken down. Soon, the Joads realize Grampa has become sick. Before they are able to do anything for him, however, he dies from a stroke. The Joads hold an improvised funeral and bury Grampa, despite it being illegal. The Joads later convince the Wilsons to join them and travel together, citing that both families can benefit. The Wilsons agree.

After a chapter in which the narrator talks about the abundance of migrant farms in the Midwest and their fear of a revolt, the narrator shifts focus in chapter fifteen to tell an almost parable-like about a waitress named Mae who works at a coffee shop along Route 66. Mae waits for the trucks drivers to come into the shop knowing that they leave the biggest tips. One day, two truck drivers whom Mae knows enter the shop. Shortly afterward, a man and his two boys enter asking to buy a loaf of bread for a dime. Although reluctant at first, the cook, Al, tells Mae to give the man some bread, and she softens. Mae then notices the two boys looking at some candy, and Mae offers it to the father for a discount price. On their way out, for her generosity, the truck drivers leave Mae an extra tip.

In chapter sixteen, the Joads and Wilsons travel for a few days. Rose of Sharon declares that when they reach California, Connie will study to prepare to manage a store of his own. Ma takes note of this with great displeasure worried that this may tear the family apart. Along the way, the Wilson’s car breaks down again. Tom and Al go into town to try and find the needed parts. While at the car lot, Al and Tom find the part they need, but encounter a bitter one-eyed attendant who uses his disability as an excuse not to find work. Tom and Al tell the attendant not to feel sorry for himself because of his injury.

Later that night at the camp, Pa tells a ragged man that the family is traveling to California for work. The ragged man laughs at him, however, saying that farmers print 5,000 handbills for every 800 jobs needed. Just then, the proprietor of the camp accuses the ragged man of being a “troublemaker.” The ragged man says that he lost his wife and children to hunger. This worries Pa, but Casy suggests that their family may have a better outcome than the ragged man.