Tom Joad
The novel's protagonist, and Ma and Pa Joad's favorite son. He is good-natured and thoughtful and makes do with what life hands him. Even though he killed a man and has been separated from his family for four years, he does not waste his time with regrets
Ma Joad
The mother of the Joad family. She is introduced as a woman who knowingly and gladly fulfills her role as "the citadel of the family." She is the healer of the family's ills and the arbiter of its arguments, and her ability to perform these tasks grows as
Pa Joad
Ma's husband and Tom's father. Is an Oklahoma tenant farmer who has been evicted from his farm. A plainspoken, good-hearted man, he directs the effort to take the family to California. Once there, unable to find work and increasingly desperate, he finds h
Jim Casy
A former preacher who gave up his ministry out of a belief that all human experience is holy. Often the moral voice of the novel, he articulates many of its most important themes, among them the sanctity of the people and the essential unity of all mankin
Rose of Sharon
The oldest of Ma and Pa Joad's daughters, and Connie's wife. An impractical, petulant, and romantic young woman, she begins the journey to California pregnant with her first child. She and Connie have grand notions of making a life for themselves in a cit
Grampa Joad
Tom Joad's grandfather. The founder of the Joad farm, he is now old and infirm. Once possessed of a cruel and violent temper, his wickedness is now limited almost exclusively to his tongue. He delights in tormenting his wife and shocking others with sinfu
Granma Joad
She is a pious Christian, who loves casting hellfire and damnation in her husband's direction. Her health deteriorates quickly after Grandpa's death; she dies just after the family reaches California.
Al Joad
Tom's younger brother, a sixteen-year-old boy obsessed with cars and girls. He is vain and cocky but an extremely competent mechanic, and his expertise proves vital in bringing the Joads, as well as the Wilsons, to California. He idolizes Tom, but by the
Ivy and Sairy Wilson
A couple traveling to California whom the Joads meet on Highway 66, just before Grampa's death. They lend the Joads their tent so that Grampa can have a comfortable place to die. The Joads return the couple's kindness by fixing their broken-down car. Hopi
Connie
Rose of Sharon's husband, he is an unrealistic dreamer who abandons the Joads after they reach California. This act of selfishness and immaturity surprises no one but his na�ve wife.
Noah Joad
Tom's older brother. He has been slightly deformed since his birth: Pa Joad had to perform the delivery and, panicking, tried to pull him out forcibly. Slow and quiet, he leaves his family behind at a stream near the California border, telling Tom that he
Uncle John
Tom's uncle, who, years ago, refused to fetch a doctor for his pregnant wife when she complained of stomach pains. He has never forgiven himself for her death, and he often dwells heavily on the negligence he considers a sin.
Ruthie Joad
The second and younger Joad daughter. She has a fiery relationship to her brother Winfield: the two are intensely dependent upon one another and fiercely competitive. When she brags to another child that her brother has killed two men, she inadvertently p
Winfield Joad
At the age of ten, he is the youngest of the Joad children. Ma worries for his well-being, fearing that without a proper home he will grow up to be wild and rootless.
Floyd Knowles
The migrant worker who first inspires Tom and Casy to work for labor organization. his outspokenness sparks a scuffle with the police in which Casy is arrested.
Muley Graves
One of the Joads' Oklahoma neighbors. When the bank evicts his family, he refuses to leave his land. Instead, he lets his wife and children move to California without him and stays behind to live outdoors. When he comes upon Tom at the abandoned Joad farm
Agnes Wainwright
The daughter of the couple who shares the Joads' boxcar toward the end of the novel. She becomes engaged to Al, who leaves his family in order to stay with her.