After spending a month in the Weedpatch camp, the Joad men have been unable to find any sort of work. The family is running out of food, and Rose of Sharon’s baby is due soon. Ma decides that they need to leave the camp to search for work. Her assumption of leadership angers Pa, but Ma continues to goad him. Her sassing is calculated to rile him up, figuring that if a man has something to get angry at, he’ll be okay.
The Joads leave the government camp early the next morning. While fixing a flat tire on the truck, a well-dressed man offers them work as peach pickers. When they arrive at the Hooper Ranch, policemen escort them through wire gates. Angry, shouting people surround the entrance. Inside the gates, the Joads are registered and begin picking fruit for five cents a box. The entire family works and by sundown they have earned a dollar. Ma spends the dollar at the Hooper Ranch store but can only get some poor quality hamburger and a little coffee. The sales clerk is sarcastic, but Ma recognizes his shame. She asks for some credit in order to get a little sugar, but the clerk refuses. Surprisingly, however, he pays for the sugar and tells her to bring the credit slip so that he can get his dime back. She tells him she is learning that if “you’re in trouble or hurt or need—go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help.”
After supper, Tom attempts to find out what had angered the crowd of people around the gate. Slipping out of the ranch, he comes across Jim Casy in a roadside camp. Casy has been in jail and shares with Tom what he has learned about the effectiveness of group action by observing his fellow inmates working together. The ex-preacher then explains that he and the others in the camp are striking against Hooper Ranch. They were promised wages of five cents a box and then given two-and-a-half cents a box. The Joads are being paid five cents because they are strikebreakers. Once the strike has been squelched, the wage will be dropped.
As Casy is explaining this, they are met by a group of men with weapons and flashlights. They strike Casy in the head with a pick handle and kill him. Tom immediately grabs the handle and beats Casy’s killer. He is struck in the face but is able to run away. Tom hides in the orchard until he can make his way back to the ranch.
The next morning, Tom tells the family what he has done. Knowing he would be recognized because of his broken nose, he stays in the house with Rosasharn while the rest of the Joads work. With Casy’s death, the strike is broken, and the wage has been dropped to two-and-a-half cents a box. The family returns from their day of work with only $1.42. Winfield collapses because of dysentery he got from eating peaches. Pa tells Tom that he is being hunted, and there is talk of lynching. Tom wants to leave, but Ma won’t let him. Once dark falls, they hide Tom in the truck and leave the ranch.
Al turns the truck north, keeping to the back roads to avoid any cops. They pass a row of boxcars and a sign that says, “Cotton Pickers Needed.”. The family agrees to get work picking cotton and hopefully, stay in one of the boxcars. Tom will hide down by the stream, near enough that Ma can bring him food each night. He’ll remain there until his face heals.
