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Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—Weedpatch Camp:
Steinbeck uses detailed imagery to describe the Weedpatch government camp where the Joad family seeks shelter during their journey to California. After speaking to a night watchmen, who informs Tom that there are no police offers present as the migrants themselves govern the camp in an autonomous and democratic fashion, Tom looks around the camp as he walks back to the family car:
Tom walked down the street between the rows of tents. His eyes grew used to the starlight. He saw that the rows were straight and that there was no litter about the tents. The ground of the street had been swept and sprinkled. From the tents came the snores of sleeping people. The whole camp buzzed and snorted. Tom walked slowly. He neared Number Four Sanitary Unit and he looked at it curiously, an unpainted building, low and rough. Under a roof, but open at the sides, the rows of wash trays.
Steinbeck describes the “rows of tents” illuminated by starlight. Tom is surprised to see that the “rows were straight” and “there was no litter about the tents.” The floor, he observes, has been “swept and sprinkled” in a clean and orderly manner. Steinbeck also invokes the sense of sound, noting the “snores of sleeping people” in their tents. Though the Weedpatch camp has limited resources and its bathrooms are “unpainted, low and rough,” Steinbeck’s imagery nevertheless emphasizes the quiet dignity and communal spirit of the camp. When left to their own devices, Steinbeck suggests, most people can get along with each other in a harmonious fashion, as reflected in the orderly and self-governed camp.
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