the mountains

The mountains were mentioned quite a bit in the Grapes of Wrath. The mountains the family is referring to are the Rocky Mountains. The mountains, I believe, are a symbol of hardships or difficult times. The family was dreading the mountains. They wre worried they were not going to make it through. A reader could take the mountains in a literal sense or a reader could take them to be something emotional. The mountains I think are going to be the hard times of the family, like finding a new job or feeding the family. They were worried because California was so far away from their home. It is also physically difficult to get throught the mountains. They have a lot of stuff, and a lot of people. They also don't have very much money and the longer they take to get to California to find work, the higher chance they have of running out of food and money.