One early sign of bad things to come in this novel is the death of the family dog after being run over by a motorist outside a gas station. This contrasts with an earlier scene where a turtle was run over by a truck, but simply flipped itself over and kept on walking. That turtle is found by the protagonist shortly before he encounters a preacher who has lost faith in the Holy Spirit, and now believes in the human spirit,
One early sign of bad things to come in this novel is the death of the family dog after being run over by a motorist outside a gas station. This contrasts with an earlier scene where a turtle was run over by a truck, but simply flipped itself over and kept on walking. That turtle is found by the protagonist shortly before he encounters a preacher who has lost faith in the Holy Spirit, and now believes in the human spirit, named Jim Casy. The family unit begins to crumble when Grandpa dies and Connie abandons Rose of Sharon to deal with her pregnancy by herself, but the family increases again when they get to California and Al gets hitched to Agnes Wainwright, a fellow Okie. This is, FTP, what John Steinbeck novel about a family of Dust Bowl migrant  workers, the Joads.
One early sign of bad things to come in this novel is the death of the family dog after being run over by a motorist outside a gas station.