Dakin Timeline and Summary

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Dakin Timeline and Summary

  • Mac, Jim, and London pay a visit to Dakin in his digs on another orchard. They want to convince him to persuade his men to go out on strike.
  • Dakin hesitates because for a migrant worker, he's living the high life: he has a new truck, good dental work, and lots of posh camping gear, plus a wife and kids.
  • Dakin is convinced to join by Jim's suggestion that the pay cuts will follow the workers into the cotton fields and other places of work.
  • The workers "choose" Dakin to be the general chairman of the strike, on London's (and Mac's) very strong recommendations.
  • Dakin meets with London, Burke (another leader), and Mac in his tent to discuss details of the strike, including how they will deal with the scabs who are arriving.
  • After Mac and Jim are nearly lynched outside the camp, Dakin confronts them. He thinks they are nothing but trouble and must be getting something out of the strike.
  • Dakin arranges a group of men to walk down to the train station to try to talk the scabs out of breaking the strike—and to beat them if they don't agree.
  • Dakin is disgusted by Mac's decision to bring Joy's corpse back to camp in order to rile the men. Still, he allows them to use his truck to transport the body.
  • Dakin's still disgusted when Mac suggests they build a platform for Joy's funeral. He refuses to speak to the men at the service, so London will have to.
  • Mac decides that Dakin was probably the wrong choice for chairman and wants to get the men to vote London in instead. But Dakin solves the problem for him. While transporting a load of blankets from town to camp in his truck, Dakin and his men are stopped by vigilantes.
  • The vigilantes destroy Dakin's truck and shoot Dakin in the leg, but not before Dakin humiliates himself in front of the men by screaming about his truck.
  • Now Dakin is in jail for assaulting the cops on the scene, and London is bound for the chairmanship.
  • Dakin's wife strikes camp and leaves with her children.