2026 Spring Read: The Joads Would Have Been Detained Today

The Joads Would Have Been Detained Today
by Glenda Shepard

This is Glenda Shepard and my Radio Readers BookByte for Grapes of Wrath, part of the 2026 Spring Read for HPPR's Radio Readers Book Club.

Imagine the Joad family trying to make its way from Eastern Oklahoma to California. I can think of one reason they could make the trip and at least 6 reasons for stopping them.

First and the only positive reason:  the Joads were US citizens, all born in Oklahoma or another state they migrated from at least 2 generations earlier.  However, if their citizenship was challenged, I'm fairly certain they did not have passports to prove their citizenship. I haven't even come upon any mention of a driver's license in my reading of the book. So that one positive reason is at least questionable. 

Then the reasons that would have detained them:

First, Tom, out of prison on parole, had to stay in Oklahoma or he would be sent back to prison.  Ma especially was  concerned with this restriction.   She wanted him with the family but she worried, “I can't help it, minute you cross the line you done a crime.”

Second, the Joads were too poor to pay fines or fees. For their first night of the trip the family pulled off the road and asked to share the spot with the Wilson's of Galena KS.  According to Google, camping along the roadside is illegal in most states. If any highway patrol officer had come upon the Joads and Wilson's camp, he could have written a ticket, leading to a fine neither family could pay.

Later because Ma insisted the family stay at a roadside camp, Pa paid 50 cents for one night under a shade tree and access to a water hose. When Tom and Al came in later after fixing their car, the campground owner demanded another 50 cents, which Tom refused to pay.  
Third, by burying Grampa as they did the Joads broke another law: Oklahoma Statues Citationized Title  21  Chapter 47:  Human Remains . . .Funerals.  Holding true to his refusal to leave Oklahoma, Grampa dies.    Casy, the former preacher, says, “Stroke, a good quick one.” Pa realizes their dilemma when he says, “They's laws.  You got to report a death, and when you do that, they either take forty dollars for the undertaker or they take him for a pauper.”  “Uncle John broke in, “We never did have no paupers.”  Tom finds an acceptable compromise -- bury Grampa themselves but include with his corpse this note:   “This here is William James Joad, dyed of a stroke, old, old man.  His fokes bured him because they got no money to pay for funerals.  Nobody kilt him.  Jus a stroke an he dyed.”
However, and this is the fourth reason, the family's pride must accept a pauper's burial when Granma dies the night before the Joads get to California.   After the Ma and Pa turn over Granma's body to the Bakersfield coroner's office, “Pa sighed deeply, “They wasn't nothin else to do, “ he said.

Fifth, in a less serious tone, any ICE agent would have spotted the ragged bunch and brought them in. 

And, sixth, Route 66 later became Interstate 40.  Al, cruising along at a breathtaking 38 mph would have been ticketed for traveling below the minimum speed limit.

I've always considered the Joads heroes.  Today they would have been detained.