Character Analysis
Deadbeat Dad
Connie is Rose of Sharon's nineteen-year-old husband who dreams of going to school in California and working for the radio there. Connie is devoted to his wife, but he's a little fearful, too: "Whenever he could, he put a hand on her stood close, so that his body touched her at hip and shoulder, and he felt that this kept a relation that might be departing" (10.46).
He's a moderate kind of guy:
He drank enough, but not too much; fought when it was required of him; and never boasted. He sat quietly in a gathering and yet managed to be there and to be recognized. (8.46)
But he still turns out to be a scumbag. Connie high-tails it out of town, leaving the Joads for good, abandoning pregnant wife, when he realizes just how grim the situation is in California.