" Granpa also states, "Just let me get out to California where I can pick me an orange when I want it. Or grapes. There's a thing I ain't never had enough of. Gonna get me a whole bunch of grapes off a bush, or whatever, an' I'm gonna squash 'em on my face an' let 'em run offen my chin (90)." The "grapes" of the novel are mostly associated to Grandpa, and at this point represent the dream of a greater life. Tom asks his Pa when they plan on starting out West, and his response is one of much anticipation. "If Al gets back from his squirtin' aroun', I figgered he could load the truck an' take all of it in, an maybe we could start out tomorra or day after (90)." The night before departing, Jim Casy asks if he can travel with the Joads, so a family meeting is then held, where they decide to let him come along. Following the meeting, the whole family helps slaughter the pigs, and then salt-pack the pork so they can take it along with them. The next day at daybreak, the "emotional", but not physical death of Grampa occurs, as he refuses to leave the day of departure. Ma then slips some sleeping syrup into Granpa's drink, and the Joad family begins their journey to California.
The second section of the novel is about their journey to California. Highway 66 is the main road to California and is filled with migrants, or in other words, "a path of people in flight (128)." This description is seemingly in connection with the biblical story about the oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptians. At sundown on the first day of travel, the Joads turn off the road to camp for the night, when they meet Ivy and Sarah Wilson, a couple from Kansas that is stranded with a broken-down car. Granpa becomes even sicker and dies while in the Wilson's sheltered tent after suffering a stroke. During his death however, Granma erges and insists that Jim Casy say a prayer, even though she knows it will make no difference.