Gopher

The gopher is a small burrowing rodent that appears in the opening chapter of The Grapes of Wrath as a minor but significant element of the natural world, its presence marking the early stages of ecological collapse. In the drought-stricken Oklahoma landscape, gophers trigger small avalanches in the water-cut gullies, their movements contributing to the erosion that foreshadows the larger disaster. The creature recurs in the novel as a point of comparison for human behavior, linking the dispossessed migrants to the animal kingdom's instinct for survival and concealment.

Role in the Opening Landscape

In the first chapter, as the sun flared down on the growing corn and the earth crusted into a thin hard crust, the gophers started small avalanches in the water-cut gullies. This action is part of a broader catalog of natural details—ant lions, dust, and wind—that Steinbeck uses to establish the slow violence of environmental degradation. The gopher's small disturbance, repeated across the gullies, mirrors the larger forces of erosion that will soon strip the topsoil and drive the tenant farmers from their land. The creature appears alongside the ant lion, another insect predator, in a passage that emphasizes the interconnected fragility of the ecosystem.

The Gopher as a Metaphor for Human Behavior

Later in the novel, the gopher becomes a point of comparison for human conduct under pressure. When Tom Joad describes Muley Graves as "gettin' screwy as a gopher, livin' like he does," he links the solitary, hunted existence of the displaced man to the burrowing rodent's furtive life. Muley, who refuses to leave his land and instead hides in a cave and sneaks around at night, has adopted the survival strategies of a creature that digs in and stays hidden. The comparison underscores how the dispossessed are being driven to animal-like states of wariness and isolation.

The Gopher Snake and the Natural Order

In a related passage, Tom and Jim Casy encounter a gopher snake wriggling slowly from the cotton rows into the road. Tom stops short of it and says, "Gopher snake," then adds, "Let him go." The snake, which preys on gophers, is part of the same ecological web. Tom's decision to let it live reflects a respect for the natural order that contrasts with the mechanical destruction of the tractors. The gopher snake, like the gopher itself, is a creature of the land that the Joads are being forced to leave, and its presence in the narrative reinforces the theme of a world where all living things are connected and vulnerable.

The Gopher as a Symbol of Persistence

The gopher's ability to survive in the eroded landscape—to dig, to hide, to persist—parallels the resilience of the migrant families. Just as the gopher triggers small avalanches that are part of a larger process of change, the Joads and their fellow migrants are small agents in a vast social and environmental upheaval. The creature's appearance in the opening chapter, alongside the ant lion and the dust, establishes a pattern of natural imagery that runs through the novel, reminding the reader that the human drama is embedded in a larger, nonhuman world that is also under threat.