Study Questions
1. Why don’t the police and deputies harass the people in the Weedpatch camp?

2. What makes the farmer named Thomas lower the wages he has paid to the Wallaces?

3. How does the government camp differ from the “Hoover-villes”?

4. What things does the Saturday night dance tell about the character of the migrants?

5. What kind of men are the three who come to the dance to cause trouble?

6. How does the camp committee forestall the deputies who are poised to enter the camp the night of the dance?

7. Why do the Joads leave Weedpatch and move to the peach field?

8. What is Ma’s big disappointment the first day the family picks peaches?

9. Why were all the people shouting outside the fence?

10. Why is Jim Casy killed?

Answers
1. It is Federal government property that they can only enter with a warrant for a wanted criminal or to quell a riot.

2. The wages he pays are set, and dictated to him, by the Farmer’s Association and the bank which holds his mortgage.

3. It is clean and well-regulated and has facilities for decent living.

4. It shows they enjoy social life and music and, when organized and well led, they can deal with trouble efficiently.

5. They are themselves migrant workers who have been turned against their own kind of people because they are hungry.

6. They stop trouble before it can begin and remove the reason the deputies can use to enter and destroy the camp.

7. They can’t support themselves in Weedpatch and on their way to possible work they learn of a chance to earn desperately needed money before their gas runs out.

8. All the money the whole family made working hard that day did not buy enough food and they were still hungry.

9. They had gone on strike when the wages were cut in half and were protesting because new people were going in to do the work making their strike a failure.

10. He is trying to organize the migrant workers which is what the landowners fear most.