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Boxcar Floors or Prison Cots?
In the beginning of Grapes of Wrath Tom has just been released from prison, and is trying to get home. Home was a place with family, and food from a thriving farm. However, this is not the case anymore. My question is: are the conditions at Tom’s home any better than the prison that Tom was just released from. This was a real question for many hobos and even children ridding the trains during the great depression. At least in prison you did not have to scavenge for food, run from the cops, or sleep in cold boxcars. In prison, you were guaranteed a bed, and food. In 1933, an accurate yet controversial film called Wild Boys of the Road directed by William Wellman illustrated this dilemma. The movie was about two high school sophomores who parents lost their jobs. The kids decide to hit the road to find work. They hopped on and off freight trains looking for work. They did not care if they went to prison or not, for the conditions in prison were no worse than their current ones. 
Wild Boys on the Road- William A Wellman (1933)“What about us? We're kids! Go ahead! Put me in a cell. Lock me up! I'm sick of being hungry and cold. Sick of freight trains. Jail can't be any worse than the street. So give it to me!” The two boys while talking to a judge expressed their feelings and preference to being locked up rather than riding the trains looking for work, food, and a warm bed. The kids seem to place much of the blame on their situation with the government. As for Tom, the home he is returning to was not the same as it was when he left. In fact, it is not his family’s home anymore. Would Tom be better off back in prison? It depends. Would you rather be in prison with food, and a warm bed, or with your family struggling to eat. It is not clear if this question ever crossed Tom’s mind, but what is clear is that he wanted to be with his family. This question of the street or jail is picking the worst of two evils. They both are dangerous, and non-desirable, but during the depression it was a question that needed to be asked. I think a major difference is the freedoms. In prison you do have food and shelter, but at what cost. If you live on the streets your conditions may be worse, but you have mobility. If there is no work then you hit the road, and that is what many kids during the depression did.
Boxcar Floors or Prison Cots?
I was also very intrigued by this question, whether Tom might not have been better off staying in jail where at least he could count on the constants of basic survival. When Casy asks how he was treated, Tom responds “Oh, awright. You eat regular, an’ get clean clothes, and there’s places to take a bath. It’s pretty nice some ways. Makes it hard not havin’ no women” (26). This is said before Tom finds that his family and home are gone, and before he begins the trying journey west, the hardships of which far outdo not having any women around. Once the reality of life after parole sets in, it’s impossible not to wonder whether Tom might wish to an extent he’d never left jail. “I sure did pick a nice time to get paroled. I figgered I was gonna lay aroun’ an’ get up late an’ eat a lot when I come home. I was goin’ out an’ dance, an’ I was gonna go tom-cattin’—an’ here I ain’t had time to do none of them things” (175). Not only are all these luxuries denied him, but he’s also stripped of the regularity and conveniences jail had to offer. Why then doesn’t Tom violate his parole and go back, like the man he tells Casy about? It seems it has to do with his pride and need for free will, the lack of control over his whole life and subjugation to others was impossible for him. It also makes me think about what the equivalent to this would be today. We are taught to believe—especially through horrific media portrayals—that life in prison is scary, dangerous, and a form of punishment, not a last resort. But are there people today that are desperate enough for a meal and a roof over their head that prison seems like a preferable option?
I thought a lot about this,
I thought a lot about this, too. Didn't it just seem like it just would have been way easier for Tom if he was just like, "You know what guys, I think I had a pretty good thing going in that jail over there. I always had food and books and I got to drive cars sometimes. Good luck, but I'm going to violate my parole and turn myself in." But then again, I've never been in jail. And every other cultural influence I've ever had tells me that it's actually probably not as comfortable and convenient as it seems next to the horrors of this book.
It's been a long time since I saw this movie, but I kept thinking about The Shawshank Redemption. There's that scene where Brooks Hatlen finally gets out of prison after years and years and years, and he doesn't know how to live on "the outside." He was the librarian in the prison--he got to read all the books he wanted, helped the other guys read whatever books they wanted, and even made a little. Then when he was released, he suddenly had to fend for himself. He had to go grocery shopping in a world that had changed while he was locked up, and live by himself for the first time in forever, and be the only convict in his community for a change. He couldn't handle it, and he killed himself. But he was old and alone--Tom had his whole family waiting for him and supporting him and counting on him. And I think that's the point that Steinbeck is trying to make with this whole book--it's that connection to other people, that spirit of cooperation and communion and togetherness that is what will save mankind.