For the most part, the members of the Joad family seem
resigned to their fate in regards to their feelings toward leaving home and moving to
California. None of them particularly want to leave, but they have watched their
opportunities and their livelihoods dry up with their crops and be carried away with the
dirt on the wind. They don't want to leave, but life on their farm in no longer
sustainable.
The exceptions to this idea are Muley Graves
and Grampa; both refuse to leave. Their reasons are very similar. Everything they have
and everything they are was devoted to making their farms prosperous; the land is "in
their blood." They are too invested and too emotionally intertwined to leave. Muley, in
particular, seems to understand that staying will likely mean physical starvation, but
he consciously chooses this over the emotional and spiritual starvation that would occur
if he leaves.
Grampa is much the same, however, he isn't
given the option to choose for himself. With a heavy dose of cough medicine, the Joad
family drugs him and takes him away against his will. Grampa's fate, however, isn't
changed. Once removed from his farm, he withers and passes quite
quickly.
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