The people and the Depression In the book The grapes of Wrath, the Joads undergo the hit of the depression, they have to leave their farm. They go to California for jobs, but find there are few jobs, and it Pays little, or at least less then what they were told. The government tried to start programs to house and employ people like the Joads. Since the people who already lived in the cities in which these developments were put didn't want them there anyway, they tried to start a riot and have the police Arrest them. Although in the movie the plan was foiled, it could have worked in many other places, or the towns folk could have just created a lynch mob, and eventually t