Tom Joad Timeline and Summary

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• Yeehaw. Tom gets out of jail.
• A truck driver gives Tom a ride home.
• Tom meets Reverend Casy under a tree.
• Camping is fun, especially when you get to chill with Muley Graves and Reverend Casy in a riverbed.
• The Joads are happy to see Tom.
• During the first leg of the journey westward, Tom drives the family car.
• With his father, uncle, and brother's help, Tom digs his grandfather's grave.
• After giving a one-eyed mechanic some good advice, Tom fixes the Wilson's touring car.
• The campground owner is snarky, and Tom can't help but pick a wee fight with him.
• Time for swimming! Tom chills in the Colorado River with his family.
• Noah tells Tom he's going to leave the family, and Tom tries to convince him otherwise.
• Truck driving time! Tom takes the wheel again.
• Floyd Knowles gives Tom some good advice at the Hooverville camp.
• In back of the Joad tent at Hooverville, Tom and Casy chat about how grim things are.
• Just as the mean policeman is about to run after Floyd Knowles, Tom trips him.
• After messing with the law, Tom hides out in the willows.
• Time for the Joads to pack up and push out; Tom helps.
• Uncle John is missing, and Tom finds him drunk by a stream. Tom knocks him out, and carries him to the Joad truck.
• A group of ruffians stop the Joad truck from driving south and tell Tom to get out of town.
• As he turns the truck around, Tom sobs quietly.
• Tom drives the family to Weedpatch camp.
• The smell of delicious breakfast brings Tom, Timothy, and Wilkie Wallace together.
• After breakfast, Tom and the Wallaces venture out of the camp to find work.
• Mr. Wallace, a smalltime farmer, gives Tom work and tells him about the Farmer's Association, to boot.
• The Weedpatch dance committee recruits Tom to be a bouncer.
• Jule Vitela is Tom's co-bouncer, and the two hit it off.
• Three rabble-rousers infiltrate the Weedpatch dance like spies, and Tom helps kick them out.
• The Joads need to leave the camp in order to find work, so Tom says goodbye to Wilkie and Jule.
• The Joads' tire pops, and Tom and Al fix it like MacGyver.
• Tom drives the family to a peach farm.
• That very same day, Tom turns into a machine and picks, like, a million peaches.
• When they first arrived at the peach camp, Tom noticed people picketing outside of the gates – he wants answers.
• By scooting under some barbed wire, Tom sneaks out of the peach camp.
• Holy smokes, is that Reverend Casy? It is! Tom and Casy are reunited.
• Reverend Casy tells Tom stories of prison life.
• Something is rustling in the bushes outside of Casy's tent, and the men high tail it out of there.
• Someone throws a pick axe into Casy's head, knocking him dead.
• Tom strikes a man with the very same pick axe that has just killed Reverend Casy.
• Someone hits Tom's face, breaking his nose and tearing his cheek open.
• After swimming across a ditch, Tom sneaks back into the peach camp.
• With a throbbing face, Tom can't sleep.
• The next morning, while the rest of his Joads pick peaches, Tom hides out in the cabin with Rose of Sharon.
• The Joads sneak Tom out of the peach camp nestled between two mattresses.
• While the Joads live in an abandoned box car, Tom makes his home nearby in the woods.
• One night, Tom's mother brings him pork chops and tells him he is in danger of being caught.
• Tom tells his mother he wants to be like Reverend Casy and help organize people, help fight inequality.
• Tom says goodbye to his mother for good.