e land, because... only the tractors...were alive."
             When many other Oklahomans were out of work, out of place to live, and out of food to eat, people began to migrate to California in large numbers. Just as the Graves family had left, the Joads followed the promise of an ad for work, which publicized "800 pickers wanted" to California. Many other families, such as the Wilsons family joined the Joads in the popular migration movement to California.
             However, when the Joads traveled on Route 66, they were faced with only discouragement that lowered their level of expectations about California. Steinbeck foreshadowed this economic situation in a returning migrant's comment that California was no longer "big... big enough...for rich and poor together all in one country, for thieves and honest men...for hunger and fat." Once they reached California, the Joads were unable to find work, like many other families in California, because they did not know where to begin their new life in a foreign land with little opportunity available. Until the Joads were able to find a place to work, they had camped in Hoovervilles.
             Gradually, the Joads found themselves in government ran camps and a government run ranch. Even after reaching the point of finding a ranch to pick fruits, the Joads found themselves with low wages, which were half the announced wage, due to the overabundant amount of workers.
             These economic afflictions were followed directly by social recessions. The Dust Bowl had a great impact on the social and the psychological aspect of the farmers, because for a farmer to depart from their land was a death-like experience at the time. Muley Graves stayed with his land, even when it meant that he was to be a beggar. In like manner, Grampa "died the minute we took 'im off the place" for he was too bounded to the land, for "he was that place, an' he knowed it."
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