Summary from Chapters One through Seven

The Grapes of Wrath begins on a dry day in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Tom Joad, a recently released prisoner, cleverly persuades a truck driver to give him a ride near his home. After the driver lets Tom out at his stop, Tom begins the walk to his home. Along the way, he meets a former friend and preacher named Jim Casy. Casy agrees to go with Tom to the farmhouse to see if Tom's family is still living there. When Tom and Casy reach the house, they find it empty and nearly demolished. Later, an old family friend named Muley Graves drops by to see the two travelers. Although now wild and uncivilized, Muley does provide information about what happened to the tennant farmers, including Tom's family. Because of the Great Depression, the tennant farmers were evicted because of their innability to pay back their debts to the bank. Muley, however, refuses to leave the land, but tells Tom that his family is staying at Uncle John's home.