Summary

Chapter 11. The land is empty. Only the tractors move, and as soon as they are turned off, they are dead. The man who drives the tractor does not know the land, and he does not love it. After the farmers are gone, their houses lay open and bare. The cats and mice move in; weeds spring up from the planks on the porches.

Chapter 12. All the migrants to California take Highway 66. People flee across it, terrified they will break down between the sparse towns. The drivers listen for any odd sounds in their engines, and worry. A driver needs a tire, and a gas station attendant tries to sell a damaged one. 250,000 trudge along the road. Abandoned cars line the shoulder. One family, though, waited on the roadside until someone offered to pull them, and they were pulled all the way to California.

Analysis

Both...