Tobacco Road (novel)

Tobacco Road is a 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell about a dysfunctional family of Georgia sharecroppers during the Great Depression.

Although often portrayed as a work of social realism, the novel contains many elements of black comedy and sensationalism which made it a subject of controversy following its publication.

A 1941 film version, played mainly for laughs, was directed by John Ford, with many of the darker plot elements altered or removed.

The main character of the novel is Jeeter Lester, an ignorant and sinful man who is redeemed by his love of the land and his faith in the fertility and promise of the soil.

The entire family, acting in complete desperation, works to steal the turnips from Lov, who then becomes nauseated by the sight and leaves for home.

When Sister Bessie returns the next day to the Lester house, she exclaims that God has given her his approval for the marriage between Dude and herself.

Once they are in the auto showroom, the salesmen take advantage of Bessie's rural naïveté to pull off a quick and profitable sale, while at the same time constantly making fun of her deformed nose.

Some days later Bessie refuses to let Jeeter ride in her car anymore, which makes him upset to the point of kicking her off the land.

While fleeing from Ada and Jeeter’s onslaught, Dude backs the Ford right over Grandma Lester, who then lies with her face mashed into the sand, near dead.

After this discussion about the girls running away, the two notice Grandma’s corpse and drag her into the field to dig her grave and bury her.

His landlord was an absentee who abandoned Jeeter and the rest of those who had lived on his land and given him shares of their crop in exchange for credit for seeds and fertilizer.

Jeeter sets a fire to burn off broom sedge and hopes somehow to find enough credit to farm his land that spring.