The Grapes of Wrath

What 3 purposes does chapter 1 serve?

also the woman studied the men's faces secretly,for com could go as long as something else remained.What is the something else?(still chapter 1)

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Chapter one sets the mood and the tone for the book. In a word it is depressing. Steinbeck lets us know we are in Oklahoma in the farm belt. There is a massive drought. Promises of rain never materialize to much and the hot sun shines incessantly, "Behind them the sky was pale again and the sun flared" All their corn and crops are dying replaced by a massive dust cloud. Farmers’ wives join their husbands who gaze at their failed crops, "And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men - to feel whether this time the men would break. The women studied the men's faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else remained." I think the something else means a glimmer of hope. The crops are all but dead and the women are trying to see if their husbands' will is all but dead as well.

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The Grapes of Wrath Ch1