Rhapsody In The Rain Chapter Summaries

Chapter one begins with the drought in Oklahoma and describes the dust storm and its effect on the people in the town. In chapter two, Tom Joad hitchhikes home .He spent four years in McAlester, an Oklahoma state prison, for killing a man in a drunken brawl. In the fourth chapter, Tom meets Jim Casy, an ex-preacher. Casy isn’t a preacher anymore and tells Tom about all of the lustful things he did when he was a reverend. They discuss his loss of faith and the problems that have reduced the homesteaders to sharecroppers. Chapter five describes the landowners and tractors forcing the sharecroppers off the land. In chapter six, Casy and Tom reach the Joad farm and find it deserted and damaged. Muley Graves, a neighbor, explains that the Joad family was evicted by the landowners, and
They find work picking peaches at the Hooper ranch. Here Tom meets Casy who tells him that the Joads are breaking the strike to demand higher wages. Deputies disrupt their meeting, and Casy is killed in a Christ-like manner. Tom kills Casy's murderer and is recognizably wounded. Ma hides him in a cave of mattresses, and the family leaves the camp to protect him. In chapter twenty-eight the family finds work picking cotton, and Tom hides in a nearby cave. Ruthie reveals to a big girl that her brother, who has killed two men, is hiding nearby. Tom tells Ma about his plans to translate Casy's ideas into action.
In chapter thirty the rains flood the boxcar camp where the Joads have been living while picking cotton. The Joads and the other families build an embankment out of mud to prevent the water from flooding them. A fallen tree breaks the embankment and water floods the camp. The Joads find a barn on high ground in which to shelter. They find a boy and a starving man whom Rose of Sharon nourishes both of them with the milk intended for her baby because she had