When their farm is repossessed, the Joad family escapes to California chasing the promise of farm work. They discover that jobs are scarce, pay is poor, and migrants starve in squalid camps. John Steinbeck said his aim in writing the novel was to expose those responsible for the depression while revealing the true plight of the workers who remained constant victims of greed. This incisive volume explores issues raised in the novel, such as the need to protect migrant workers' rights, the exploitation of workers, how industrialism dehumanizes workers, how the novel changed perceptions of the homeless, and the need to protect the modern family farm from industrialism.