Chapter 28
Ruthie tells; Tom says goodbye
Summary
The Joads live in one end of a boxcar, sharing with the Wainwrights, and for a few weeks there is cotton work and meat every night. Then Ruthie, fighting over a box of Cracker Jack, boasts that her brother killed two men and is hiding. Ma carries supper up the stream to Tom's thicket and tells him he must go, feeling his broken nose in the dark because she cannot see him, and forcing seven dollars on him. Tom has been turning over Casy's idea that a man has only a piece of one great soul, and means to organise as Casy did. Asked how she will know if he is killed, he tells her he will be everywhere — wherever there is a fight so hungry people can eat. Al announces he will marry Aggie Wainwright. Next morning twenty acres are picked clean by eleven, the rain begins, and Rose of Sharon collapses with a chill.
Plates
Illustration style
Composition
Written: 12 October 1938 to 17 October 1938 Journal entries: #91, #94 Ledger pages: 152–158 Dating: from DeMott's editorial markers in Working Days
From the journal
12 October 1938, Wednesday, 10:45 — Entry #91
[…] or rather birth of dead baby. Breast pump. Then the rain. Tom comes back. And he goes again. Letter from Sis. * La Follette people* are here. That may raise hell. I think the time has come and with one page. One end of a box car [Ed.—Chapter 28]
17 October 1938, Monday, 11:00 — Entry #94
[…] could hardly be expected to whip out finished copy. It’ll work out some way. Kind of dull feeling up around the eyes. Clinical I guess. I’ve had a fine rest this week end. And am all ready to go, and there is no time like right now [Ed.—final section of Chapter 28].
Source: Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938–1941, ed. Robert DeMott (Viking, 1989).