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Chapter 8

Reunion at Uncle John's

Summary

Walking to Uncle John's at dawn, Tom tells Casy how John's young wife died of a burst appendix after he dismissed her pain, and how John has spent the years since giving things away to make it up. They find the family loading a Hudson sedan cut in half and rebuilt as a truck. Pa, recognising Tom, first fears he has broken out. They surprise Ma at the stove; she goes still, then asks the question that matters — whether prison has left him "poisoned mad" like Pretty Boy Floyd — and warns him not to fight them alone, because a hundred thousand angry the same way could not be hunted down. Grampa and Granma come across the yard bickering, and Noah, Pa's strange calm first-born, follows. Casy says a grace that is really an argument: holiness is people working as one. Pa lays out the plan — a hundred and fifty dollars left for two thousand miles.

Plates

Illustration style

Two men walking the cotton rows before dawn
00 Two men walking the cotton rows before dawn
The committee of dogs in the road
01 The committee of dogs in the road
Uncle John's place at sunrise, the yard piled with furniture
02 Uncle John's place at sunrise, the yard piled with furniture
Pa on the truck bed, nails in his mouth
03 Pa on the truck bed, nails in his mouth
Ma at the stove, a stranger in the doorway
04 Ma at the stove, a stranger in the doorway
Ma's fingers on her son's face
05 Ma's fingers on her son's face
The question over the coffee pot
06 The question over the coffee pot
Grampa and Granma racing across the yard
07 Grampa and Granma racing across the yard
Casy's grace in the crowded kitchen
08 Casy's grace in the crowded kitchen
The men at the truck, and Al comes up the road
09 The men at the truck, and Al comes up the road
Two men walking the cotton rows before dawn
00 Two men walking the cotton rows before dawn
The committee of dogs in the road
01 The committee of dogs in the road
Uncle John's place at sunrise, the yard piled with furniture
02 Uncle John's place at sunrise, the yard piled with furniture
Pa on the truck bed, nails in his mouth
03 Pa on the truck bed, nails in his mouth
Ma at the stove, a stranger in the doorway
04 Ma at the stove, a stranger in the doorway
Ma's fingers on her son's face
05 Ma's fingers on her son's face
The question over the coffee pot
06 The question over the coffee pot
Grampa and Granma racing across the yard
07 Grampa and Granma racing across the yard
Casy's grace in the crowded kitchen
08 Casy's grace in the crowded kitchen
The men at the truck, and Al comes up the road
09 The men at the truck, and Al comes up the road

Composition

Written: 17 June 1938 to 20 June 1938 Journal entries: #17, #18, #20 Dating: from DeMott's editorial markers in Working Days

From the journal

17 June 1938, Friday, 11:15 — Entry #17

[…] family I am to live with for four months. Must take time in the description, detail, detail, looks, clothes, gestures. Ma very important. Uncle John important. Pa very. In fact all of them are important. Got to take it slowly. I don’t care how long it is [Ed.-Chapter 8]. We have to know these people. Know their looks and their […]

18 June 1938, Saturday, 9:45 — Entry #18

[…] piece of work, but when it is done it slides into mediocrity. Well the day—Ma, Pretty Boy Floyd, Grampa and Granma and maybe Noah. Can’t tell whether I will get to Noah. To work now. Well, that’s done and I’ve caught up for my hangover—one day ahead [Ed.—Chapter 8]. Try to get another next Saturday. Watch the old people. Might […]

20 June 1938, Monday, 11:15 — Entry #20

[…] is the most important of all. Take it easy. I don’t mean to write less or less forcefully but to keep the frantic quality out of my approach. Well it is time for work now. Now the day’s work is done. The prayer and Al comes home [Ed.—finish of Chapter 8]. Tomorrow the sorting of things to go and this […]

Source: Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938–1941, ed. Robert DeMott (Viking, 1989).