Grapes of Wrath- Tom Joad

In the book Grapes of Wrath, the main character and protagonist is Tom Joad. Tom was in jail for a few years because he killed somebody, but he is still favorited by his parents. Tom is described as a thoughtful, good guy who seems pretty down to earth. After he returns home after being gone from his family for four years, they waste no time and pick up where they left off. He now says that by being in prison for four years, he has changed into a man who lives for the current moment and he wastes no time on regretting the past. It becomes pretty obvious that Tom is the supporter of the rest of the family pretty early on in this book. Tom Joad made the big decision of packing up his entire family and moving to California in search of better jobs. Tom decides to move the family because all of the small farms in their area were being destroyed by the bank, and there is a quote from the book that describes how the farmers felt when their farms were being destroyed "The squatting men raised their eyes to understand. Can't we just hang on? Maybe next year will be a good year. God knows how much cotton next year. And with all the wars--God knows what price cotton will bring. Don't they make explosives out of cotton? And uniforms? Get enough wars and cotton'll hit the ceiling. Next year maybe. They looked up questioningly. We can't depend on it." This quote is saying how the farmers can not stay and wait for next year to roll around because they will not survive. This is why the Joad family left in search of a better life, and it is because they realized they could not survive if they waited for next year. I think that because Tom made such a big decision, this shows that he is very brave and he has the traits of a leader.

Bibliography

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print