In California

Now that I’ve gotten some of those random thoughts about the Catcher in the Rye, I think its time for me to go back to the tale of the Joad family in the novel the Grapes of Wrath. At this point, once again someone has warned the Joad family to turn back because there is no work. This time it is from a man that Tom meets by a river. The man and his son are there and the man says that they have just turned back. He tells them that the people of California are very hostile and resentful of all of the migrant farmers that are coming into the state. Now this is something that would really make oneself feel bad. Tom had already heard from the man at the car shop that there is no work and now he had another first hand account that things are not as good as people hoped for. This situation must have been even worse though because at this point the Joad family is in the state of California. They are not in the area they plan on reaching yet, but they are in California none the less. I can only imagine how awful it would feel to reach your destination and then be told that you might as well turn back. I mean, these families have sacrificed everything just to make the journey, and now that they are where they were headed, they have been told there is nothing there for them. A lot of this novel is quite depressing. Though there are glimpses of kindness, it seems that for the most part everyone does not want the migrant tenant farmers coming to the west. This part of the chapter obviously fits into the category of depressing. I do not know how a family could go through all of this. I guess that if you are that desperate you would do anything to make ends meet.