2.Overview

Summary  During this chapter the farmers leave the land in which they have farmed on for several years due to their lack of production from the land. The bank was the official owner of the land and since the farmers were unable to pay for the land they were evicted. Steinbeck describes the way in which the horses brought life to the farm and that even when the horses were not working the land, it still stayed alive and full of warmth. After the farmers were evicted and no horses were left, the only people left to tend to the land were the tractor drivers who plowed and worked on the land with no connection to it what so ever. The farm houses that were once busy with human life were now vacant and the only occupants of the abandoned farm house left were those creatures that were once not allowed inside. As the farmers first began to leave cats began to occupy the home. Then bats, mice, weasels, and owls followed. “The wind loosened a shingle and flipped it to the ground” (116). Steinbeck ends this chapter by explaining how the farm house began to slowly fall apart.