Summary of The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath is about the Joad family’s flight from their repossessed Oklahoma farmlands in search of the dreamland of California: a place where you can eat all the fruit you want and where work is plentiful. It begins with Tom Joad, the oldest son, getting out of prison only to find that farms have been abandoned because the banks are repossessing them. He meets up with Casy, an ex-preacher, and they both find Tom’s family in time to set out on the road with them. Tom isn’t supposed to leave the state because he is out on parole, but he does anyway, much to his mothe