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Chapter 26

The peach strike; Casy killed

Summary

After a month at Weedpatch with no work and no food, Ma forces the family to move on. Before going she pierces Rose of Sharon's ears and gives her the gold earrings. State police lead them through a picket line into the guarded Hooper ranch, where they pick peaches at five cents a box and find every price at the company store inflated. That night Tom slips out and finds Casy leading the strike: the pickers were promised five cents and offered two and a half, and the Joads are breaking it. Men with pick handles crush Casy's skull as he says "You don' know what you're a-doin'"; Tom seizes the club, kills the man, and escapes with a broken nose and torn cheek. By morning the rate has dropped, posses are out, and the story is that Tom struck first. Ma hides him under a mattress on the truck and they leave for the cotton.

Plates

Illustration style

Ma calls the family to account
00 Ma calls the family to account
The earrings
01 The earrings
The flat tyre on Highway 99
02 The flat tyre on Highway 99
Through the picket line
03 Through the picket line
The house at the peach camp
04 The house at the peach camp
The checking station
05 The checking station
The company store
06 The company store
Casy's tent in the ravine
07 Casy's tent in the ravine
Under the bridge
08 Under the bridge
Out through the gate
09 Out through the gate
Ma calls the family to account
00 Ma calls the family to account
The earrings
01 The earrings
The flat tyre on Highway 99
02 The flat tyre on Highway 99
Through the picket line
03 Through the picket line
The house at the peach camp
04 The house at the peach camp
The checking station
05 The checking station
The company store
06 The company store
Casy's tent in the ravine
07 Casy's tent in the ravine
Under the bridge
08 Under the bridge
Out through the gate
09 Out through the gate

Composition

Written: 28 September 1938 to 7 October 1938 Journal entries: #81, #87, #88 Ledger pages: 138–147 Dating: from DeMott's editorial markers in Working Days

From the journal

28 September 1938, Wednesday, 11:00 — Entry #81

Well, time again to start [Ed.—Chapter 26]. Action is about to start in this book for a while. People will be led to scab and will break out of it. Will go north for the cotton and will end there. Go to the box car camp and be moved by flood waters. And the book will end there. But there […]

6 October 1938, Thursday, 10:30 — Entry #87

[…] care because the little details are coming, are getting clearer all the time. So the more I wait, the more of this book will get written. How about the jail. Today, the preacher and Tom and the raid on the tent and the killing of the preacher [Ed.—Chapter 26]. Tom’s escape. Kills. Goes back to the camp to hide. Tom—half […]

7 October 1938, Friday, 11:00 — Entry #88

[…] Take all the time on the manuscript I want. It is Friday and I can finish gradually for the week. This leisurelyness must go on although the tempo gets faster the details must be as slow. Today the hiding of Tom and the scene with his mother [Ed.—the end of Chapter 26]. The cut in wages. Tom has to go. […]

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