Chapter 16

Through the characters actions and the imagery, the chapter has a tone of desperation, sadness, and devotion. Ma's actions about the men's decisions creates this tone of desperation. She is upset about splitting up, afraid that the two parties will have trouble meeting back up again or not be able to find each other ever again. She stands with great defiance against the idea that their family will not be traveling to California together. She even threatens to beat anyone, in particular Pa, who stands in her way. "Ma waved the jack handle. 'S'pose we was camped, and you went on by. S'pose we got on through, how'd we know where to leave the word, an' how'd you know where to ask?'" "The eyes of the whole family shifted back to Ma. She was the power. She had taken control... 'I ain't scared while we're all here, all that's alive, but I ain't gonna see us bust up.'"

However, Ma's desperation is based on her devotion to the family. She works hard to keep the family going, and everyone is close to each other. Even the Wilson's and the preacher, Jim Casy, have become closer together. When Casy and young Tom Joad work on the broken-down truck, they talk about their love lives. When Al and Tom go in the closest town and service station, they talk about Tom's experiences in prison. Everyone helps each other; they care for each other, and they protect one another. With this long and hard journey, the families have to help each other and protect one another, otherwise it could end in even more hardship or even death. "'We got a bitter road. Granma's sick. She's up there on the truck a-pawin' for a shovel herself. She's jus' tar'd out. We got a long bitter road ahead... All we got is the family unbroke.'"

Yet even with the devotion, sadness is all around. Granma and Sairy are very sick, and Granma is close to death. The camps they come to and the people they meet are not always the nicest or most hospitable. They are only there because they need rest, shelter, and water. Steinbeck describes the grim scenes that add sadness and tiredness to the chapter. "In the grassy lot the wrecks lay, cars with twisted, stove-in noses, wounded cars lying on their sides with the wheels gone." "'The more fellas he can get, an' the hungrier, less he's gonna pay.'" "'Them children died a heart failure,' he said. Put it on his paper. Shiverin', they was, an' their bellies stuck out like a pig bladder.'" As the Joad's family heard of the depressing stories of California, they quickly doubt if this trip was a good idea. Their light of hope slightly dims.