I’ve been at both ends of U.S. Route 66 this year, the highway we associate with John Steinbeck and the Joad family of The Grapes of Wrath.
It was once one of the principal highways of America. Now, it is a set of legendary fragments and a source of kitschy popular culture.
The best of it is in Arizona, but it is possible to pick up its remnants across (“acrost,” said Ma Joad) from Lake Michigan, where I am photographed above, all the way to the Santa Monica Pier in Southern California.
In the 1939 novel, the Joads never see the Pacific Ocean. They pull off in the great Central Valley of California, where they expect to find work and eventually prosper. The best laid plans of mice and men …. At the end of the novel, we don’t know what will become of them. Grandpa and Grandma are dead. Noah wandered off at Needles, California. Connie Rivers abandons Rose of Sharon. In the novel’s last scene, she gives birth to a stillborn baby. Tom has to go into hiding after murdering one of the men who murdered Jim Casy. So, three are dead (four if you include the stillborn fetus), two are missing, and Tom is a fugitive. This leaves five: Ma and Pa Joad and their three remaining children, Ruthie, Al, and Winfield.
Steinbeck deliberately leaves us in suspense as the novel closes. What happens to the Joads? Presumably — if California history is any indication — the Joads find a way to survive. Maybe Ma gets her small farm with a white picket fence, maybe not. Maybe Tom becomes a human rights freedom fighter, maybe he melds into a quiet life. Do they ever see him again? We don’t know.
But if they hung on until World War II they would probably have enjoyed the full employment and widespread prosperity that eventually made California one of the richest places in America.
The Grapes of Wrath is one of America’s greatest books. And Route 66 is a central metaphor.
Over the next few months, Clay is shadowing Steinbeck’s 10,000-mile trek around the USA (and making a few detours of his own). Clay’s expedition is a central part of LTA’s big initiative to explore the country and take the pulse of America as it approaches its 250th birthday. Be sure to follow Clay’s adventures here and on Facebook — and subscribe to our newsletter.