Chapter 3

Chapter three not only forshadows the journey of the Joad's family, it also symbolizes the struggle of all the farmers effected by the Dust Bowl, the great dust storm that hit Oklahoma very hard. The chapter is very short, consisting of only a few pages, but it presents a large and dreary historical picture for the reader. The main focus of this chapter is a turtle, slowing moving its way along a dusty road. As he trudges along on the road, he is nearly hit by a woman in a sedan, but she swerves to miss him. The next driver, a man in a truck, sees the turtle and actually tries to hit him. The turtle is flipped off the road by the man's tire and is left helplessly on the back of his shell. "But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over. Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright." Then he continued on his way planting seeds of the little plants that fell on him as his shell slid over them. 192

Each part symbolizes historically the life of the farmers after the Dust Bowl hit. The turtle represents the poor farmers. The turtle's walk across the dusty road symbolizes the hardship of the farmers as the dust storm hit and their struggle for sustenance. The man driving the truck who swerves to hit the turtle is depicted as the terrible things that the farmer goes up against. He can be pictured as the banks who kick the farmers off their land and force them to move. He can be pictured as the people who do not accept them as the farmers and their families move west. When the turtle is hit by the driver and turned over, likewise the farmers' lives are turned upside down. The farmers, like the turtle, pick themselves back up, and they continue on their path, trying to do as they have always done.