Which factor is identified as a reason people abandon their farms?

• A. The winter season
• B. Excess rainfall
• C. Grasshoppers
• D. Inadequate rainfall

Answer: (D)

In Grapes of Wrath, the central pressure that pushes families off their farms is environmental hardship that makes farming impossible: inadequate rainfall leads to crop failure and a collapsing livelihood. During the Dust Bowl era, rain was scarce and soils dried out, so crops withered, debts piled up, and banks foreclosed. With no income from the land, families must abandon their farms and seek work elsewhere, often as migrant laborers. The other options don’t fit the pattern as the primary force here—a winter season alone isn’t the driving cause, excess rainfall would ease the situation, and while grasshoppers can damage crops, the sustained drought and lack of rain are the defining hardship that compels leaving.