American Revolution

The American Revolution functions as the deepest historical anchor for the Joad family's sense of identity and entitlement. It is not merely a distant event but a living precedent that defines their relationship to the land and their understanding of justice. When the tenant farmers are told to leave their land, they instinctively reach back to this founding moment to articulate their grievance and to frame their potential response.

The Revolution as a Claim to Land

The family's claim to their Oklahoma farm is rooted in the narrative of the Revolution. Ma Joad, in a moment of defiant pride, declares, "We're Joads. We don't look up to nobody. Grampa's grampa, he fit in the Revolution." This statement directly links the family's present struggle to the nation's founding, asserting that their right to the land is not a matter of legal paperwork but of ancestral sacrifice and participation in the creation of the country. The Revolution is the ultimate proof of their belonging and their worthiness.

The Revolution as a Precedent for Resistance

When the owner men explain that the bank, a monster beyond individual control, now owns the land, the tenants' first thought is of armed resistance modeled on the Revolution. They cry out, "Grampa killed Indians, Pa killed snakes for the land. Maybe we can kill banks—they're worse than Indians and snakes. Maybe we got to fight to keep our land, like Pa and Grampa did." The owner men immediately counter this by invoking the state's monopoly on violence, warning that the sheriff and then the troops would be called, and that staying would make them thieves and murderers. The Revolution thus becomes a contested symbol: for the tenants, it is a justification for taking up arms against an unjust power; for the authorities, it is a historical event that has been superseded by a legal order that now protects property, not the people who work it.

The Revolution as a Measure of Degradation

The contrast between the heroic past and the degraded present is a constant theme. The family's journey west is a flight from a land where the old certainties no longer hold. The Revolution represents a time when a man's relationship to his land was direct and meaningful, a stark contrast to the mechanized, corporate agriculture that has dispossessed them. The memory of Grampa's grandfather fighting in the Revolution is a measure of how far the family has fallen, from participants in the nation's founding to homeless migrants labeled "Okies." This historical memory fuels their anger and their sense of injustice, even as it offers no practical solution to their immediate plight.