Want to learn the ideas in The Grapes of Wrath better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of The Grapes of Wrath

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on The Grapes of Wrath, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by John Steinbeck.

1-Page Summary of The Grapes of Wrath

Tom Joad, who has just been released from prison for a manslaughter conviction, goes home to find that his family is gone. He finds out that they have left Oklahoma and headed west in search of work. Tom meets Jim Casy who believes that people are good at heart and should be treated as equals regardless of their social status or behavior. The next morning, he sets off with Jim to California where he hopes to reunite with his family.

The Joad family is forced to travel in a truck with little room for their possessions. They meet up with the Wilsons, who are also traveling westward. The Wilson’s car breaks down and they can no longer continue on their journey.

As the Joads near California, they hear rumors about a low job market. People are starving because there aren’t enough jobs to go around and people are abandoning their families because of it. The family struggles to find food, work and each other as they move from one camp to another in search of hope. One day Granma dies; Noah leaves the family; Connie abandons her pregnant wife Rose of Sharon for a better life elsewhere.

The Joads find California to be a difficult place to live. There are lots of migrant workers and the camps where they live are crowded and dirty. The locals hate them for taking up their jobs, so different groups fight all the time. Work is hard to come by or very little pay, leaving people hungry at the end of each day. In order to avoid trouble with landowners who want cheap labor, police officers arrest anyone who might cause a problem—including Casy—and burn down any Hooverville that turns violent.

The Joads find a better place to stay, and they soon make friends with the other people in the camp. Tom also learns that there’s a plan for an attack on their camp. He informs everyone about it so that they can prevent the attack from happening. After this event, life in the government-run camp is much more pleasant for them because they now have steady work. However, one day when Tom is working at a job site, he finds out that his friends are being mistreated by their employers because of him; therefore, he decides to leave and look for another job somewhere else where nobody knows who he is or what happened at his last job.

Tom goes into hiding after he kills two men. The family moves to a cotton field, and there’s no work for three months because of the flooding. Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn baby, so Ma Joad decides they should find shelter in an old barn nearby. They take care of a starving man who hasn’t eaten in days by letting his son nurse on Rose of Sharon’s milk.

Chapters 1–3

Chapter 1

A drought in Oklahoma destroys the area’s crops. Dust fills the air and makes it difficult to breathe. The farmers cover their mouths with handkerchiefs, but they can’t do anything about the dust that gets into their homes at night. Their families watch them helplessly, afraid that if something doesn’t change soon they will be left without food and shelter. The women know that as long as their husbands stay strong, things will get better eventually.

Chapter 2

Tom Joad is a character in the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. He was recently released from prison and is returning to his family’s farm. A trucker gives Tom a ride, but he notices that there is a sign saying no riders allowed. However, he asks the driver if he can be “a good guy” even if someone tells him otherwise because it would be wrong to make an exception for one person when everyone else has to follow the rules. The driver agrees and they continue driving down the road until they arrive at their destination where Tom gets out of the truck as it comes to a stop at his family’s farmhouse.