Car Troubles
Like the Joads, this family of five is stranded. The car is broken and they're not going anywhere until it is fixed. Getting to California is hard enough, and this family made it. Unfortunately, it is not the promise land destination. Reality is apt to show its ugly face in the worst of times. Not only is the car broken down, but the baby is sick too. All the family can do for the moment is sit in the hot sun and wait for their luck to turn.
A car could give a family the opportunity to discover new places and see the country, but it can be difficult to enjoy the trip when stress is involved. Robert Davis points out that along the Joads' journey, "Steinbeck gives precise mileage from town to town but almost no sense of the land on either side of the highway, because both he and the Joads focus intently on the road (402). The beautiful sights are surely not the first thing on a family's mind when they have to worry about inevitable problems. The family above is having difficulties, and the Joads have many of their own. Al and Tom must constantly pay attention to the car, or they could miss a major mechanical issue.
Being stranded is not just an inconvenience. The goal is to find work in California, and every minute spent idle and stranded is time lost; time is money. The longer they stay still, the more resources they must consume. For the Joads, food and money was tightly allocated even before they started their journey. If this family of five are moving their lives from Missouri to California, then it is probably fair to assume that they are not in a financially favorable situation. To add to their troubles, the baby is sick as well. Helplessness is an unfortunate fact in this moment. Stress is at an all time high.
Car is broken down.
Money and resources are being used up just to stay stranded.
And the baby is sick.
A used car is likely to break down at some point. The journey across the country is long and strenuous: over mountains, through deserts. This takes a toll on the families, and it isn't easy on the cars either. Breakdowns are inevitable. If a family has some money to buy spare parts, then the garage would often hike their prices if they knew the family was having hardships. The one-eyed man explicitly shares this information: "If the boss was here, he'd go to a parts book an' he'd find out how much is a new one, an' while you was workin', he'd be findin' out how bad you're hung up, an' how much jack ya got, an' then he'd—well, say it's eight bucks in the part book—he'd make a price a five bucks. An' if you put up a squawk, you'd get it for three" (Steinbeck 181). Olof Jensen writes that this interaction "is a form of exploitation that primarily targets the human psyche and its inability to avoid becoming completely powerless in the act of buying" (14). This is deplorable behavior towards fellow humans, but there are always individuals who prey on the weak.
If a family is real lucky, then they'll have a good mechanic like Al to fix the car. Otherwise they may be stranded for a while. Moreover, a mechaninc like Al knows which car to buy, and the used car a family chose could be a major factor in getting back on the road:
"I gave the whole thing a good goin'-over 'fore we bought her...Reason I says buy her is she was a pop'lar car. Wreckin' yards is full a Hudson Super-Sixes, an' you can buy parts cheap. Could a got a bigger, fancier car for the same money, but parts too hard to get, an' too dear." (Steinbeck 100-101)
Al sure knows his stuff, but not every family is so lucky. Used car salesmen have a bad reputation to this day; it wasn't too different back then. Preying on families is normal practice. It is not too difficult to swindle a family into buying a faulty car. The average consumer may not have too much knowledge when it comes to automobiles. If the used car salesmen didn't try to sell a faulty car, they could also try to sell a car that is unnecessarily expensive and luxurious.
"Danny in the back seat wants a cup a water. Little fella's thirsty. Listen to that gasket whistle. Chee-rist! There she went. Blowed tube an' casing all to hell. Have to fix her. Save that casing to make boots; cut 'em out an' stick 'em inside a weak place. Cars pulled up beside the road, engine heads off, tires mended. Cars limping along 66 like wounded things, panting and struggling. Too hot, loose connections, loose bearings, rattling bodies. Danny wants a cup of water. People in flight along 66...Two hundred and fifty thousand people over the road. Fifty thousand old cars— wounded, steaming. Wrecks along the road, abandoned. Well, what happened to them? What happened to the folks in that car? Did they walk? Where are they? Where does the courage come from? Where does the terrible faith come from?" (Steinbeck 121-122)