And Tom, looking at the ragged peaks across the river and the Needles downstream: "Never seen such tough mountains. This here’s a murder country. This here’s the bones of a country. Wonder if we’ll ever get in a place where folks can live ‘thout fightin’ hard scrabble an’ rocks. I seen pitchers of a country flat an’ green, an’ with little houses like Ma says, white. Ma got her heart set on a white house. Get to thinkin’ they ain’t no such country. I seen pitchers like that."
Pa said, "Wait till we get to California. You’ll see nice country then."
"Jesus Christ, Pa! This here is California."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 18. For Tom Joad the first glimpse of the California landscape doesn’t live up to how he imagined the Golden State would be. The imagery used to describe the landscape suggests that violence and death and harshness awaits the migrants. This foreshadows that the Joads life in California will not match their expectations.