After being released from an Okalahoma state prison after having served four years for a manslaughter conviction, Tom Joad makes his way back to his family's farm in Oklahoma. He meets Jim Casy, who was a former preacher who has given up his calling out of a belief that all life is holy. Jim accompanies Tom to his home, only to find it and all the surrounding farms deserted. Muley Graves, an old neighbor, wanders …showed first 75 words of 849 total…

…showed last 75 words of 849 total…Ma, anxious to get her family to safety from the floods, leads them to a dry barn not far away. There, they find a young boy kneeling over his father, who was slowly starving to death. He had not eaten for days, giving whatever food he had to his son. Realizing that Rose of Sharon is now producing milk, Ma sends the others outside, so that her daughter can take care of the dying man.