The Grapes of Wrath: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Al deftly and vigilantly guides the Joads’ old, laden-down car westward. He is in tune with the car’s every noise and vibration, and listens attentively for any signs of malfunction. As he drives, he asks Ma whether she is scared of traveling to a new place. She is quick to reply that she isn’t anxious about the future because she can’t do anything more than cope with the present.

The Joads grow thirsty, and their radiator requires water. The family pulls up at a run-down gas station with a water faucet. As Al pulls up to the faucet, the station’s portly proprietor comes out, and doubts that the Joads have any money to pay for gas. Al assures him that the family isn’t begging, and Tom is indignant at the attendant’s assumption. The attendant explains that most of the people who stop at his station are migrants who can’t afford to buy anything—the rich people in new cars stop at the corporate gas stations in the nearby town. Once he notices Ma Joad, the fat man cuts short his complaints about poor migrants, and instead commiserates about the sorry state of the country.

Tom snaps at the fat man for speaking unsympathetically of the migrants. Then Tom notices the attendant’s pathetic attempts to paint his pumps yellow, like the higher-class stations, and realizes that the entire gas station is in a poorly-disguised state of disrepair. Tom apologizes and sympathizes with the fat man’s position.

As the Joads refuel, their dog is struck and killed by a passing car. The big, new vehicle only slows down briefly to survey the damage it has done before speeding off. Rosasharn worries that watching the dog’s gory death might hurt her unborn child. The gas station attendant promises to bury the dog, and the Joads continue on.

The Joads drive through the town of Bethany and decide to stop for the night near a couple, Ivy and Sairy Wilson, who are stopped because their car broke down. The Joads and the Wilsons interact tersely at first, but become fast friends once Tom appeals to the Wilsons’ hospitality.

Soon after the Joads stop to camp, Grampa begins to feel ill, and the Wilsons let him relax in their tent. Grampa’s condition worsens quickly, and he dies of a stroke. Casy, at Granma Joad’s behest, offers a Christian prayer for Grampa, and the Joads throw together a slapdash funeral with the Wilsons’ help. Pa and Uncle John debate reporting Grampa’s death legally, which requires a forty dollar fee, but ultimately decide to bury him illegally.

Because the Wilsons lent Grampa their tent and allowed their blanket to be used as a shroud, the Joads reimburse their debts by giving them money for a new blanket, and Al repairs the Wilsons’ car. The two families then decide that it might be helpful to set out for California together, and the Wilsons agree to take some of the Joads in their car.