I had not previously read this book, but I am glad that I finally did. You definitely see why it is considered “Literature”, but it is also a powerful story, with unique, imperfect characters. In some ways, I can’t say I really related to any of them, but you do understand their motivations. I have never seen the movie, either, so I can’t say if it is faithful to the book, but I am guessing it is just as powerful. Apparently, Steinbeck actually travelled to some of the camps, and saw the conditions there first hand. He was also acquainted with the director of one of the Sanitary Camps, and learned much from him.
As the story opens, Tom Joad returns to his family farm just in time to discover that the Joad family is preparing to abandon their drought-stricken farm in, yes, Oklahoma, and head for California. They have seen handbills stating that laborers are needed for the harvests there. They seem to put a lot of faith in the veracity of these handbills, but they really didn’t have many other options. One of their neighbors decides to stay, and has to hide from the sheriffs and live off the land, and another neighbor takes a job driving a tractor for whoever has bought out the small farmers. But most of the other people in their area have already left. All of the available choices have potentially more bad points than good. Ma Joad does her best to keep her family together, with less than perfect success. The family also takes along Jim Casy, a former preacher who will have a role to play in California.
In addition to getting to see how the “Okies” lived, if you can call it that, when they migrated to California, there is also a wealth of accurate period detail. Since Steinbeck lived through it, he didn’t need to research the various products, music, or other details. Ma Joad supposedly knew the mother of Pretty Boy Floyd, and so felt sorry for him, and his mother. Many of the events described in the book either actually happened, or are based on things that happened. The depictions of the motivations and actions of both the migrants and the people who already lived in the areas they were migrating to ring true. And I had no idea Cracker Jack was that old!
If this was your family, how would you research them? You would know from the census if your family went from a farm in the Dust Bowl to the West Coast. Also, there might be bankruptcy records. You will find archival images at the National Archives of some of the migrants at Sanitary Camps, and photos from FSA Migratory Labor Camps on the Library of Congress site. The camps were still around in 1940, and that census also should tell you where your ancestor was living in 1935. Some cooking techniques and ingredients changed by necessity, although the Depression had an impact there, too. Did your family have any stories of “making do”? I can imagine some things being told to children or grandchildren as humorous stories, that weren’t funny when they were happening. Ask the older people in your family. For example, my mother remembers her parents telling her that there was a period of time in the Depression when all they had to eat was onions.