An Unwavering Will to Survive: The Joads and The Frankes

By Zara Chuback

On February 27th, 2025, a 3-episode docu-series aired exclusively on Hulu, entitled Devil in The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke. Devil in The Family is essentially a tell-all recount of the rise and fall of YouTube's once beloved family vloggers, the Frankes, AKA, 8 Passengers. The Frankes were a family of two parents and six children living in Utah and upstanding members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as "Mormons." From 2015 to 2022, this family posted YouTube videos each week highlighting everyday family activities, trips, church, school, and more. The internet fell quickly in love with the family and they rapidly gained an enormous following, beginning to collect massive profit from their videos.

Spoiler alert: Ruby Franke is now incarcerated under 4 convicted counts of aggravated child abuse. The scandal revolving around the family, however, began to unfold far before Ruby's actual arrest. Over time, loyal followers of 8 Passengers began to express concern in the comment section of videos that tipped off "red flags" in Ruby's parenting and communicated distress for the children. Some examples included Ruby forcing a child to sleep all night on the bathroom floor by the toilet when he was sick, withholding Christmas gifts from "ungrateful" children, and taking away a child's privilege to sleep in a bed for 7 months. Ruby's once beautiful faith in Jesus Christ quickly became a totally distorted excuse for her to relentlessly and shamelessly punish her children, believing they were possessed by evil spirits. Soon, those more minor punishments would rapidly turn into total starvation, extortion, detainment, and severe mental manipulation and abuse.  

It happens that I was an avid watcher of 8 Passenger's videos when I was in high school. I loved the wholesome family dynamic the family played in my life for a few minutes each week, bringing a sense of comfort. I would have never guessed the future would unfold this way, and for that, I am genuinely heartbroken for these children. 

I chose to highlight this docu-series for the outreach post because I found immense connections, both directly and inversely, to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. While the storylines themselves may not be perfectly parallel, the underlying themes and struggles mirror each other quite closely. There are two sides to these comparisons. First is the person or group in a position of power and influence. For the Joad family, this would be the upper class who seemingly controlled the outcome of their lives. For the Franke children, this would be their mother, Ruby. 

Besides the obvious overlying theme of family struggles, unfortunately, both the Joad family and the Franke children had one thing very clearly in common: the desperate will to survive. Additionally, these parties share the status of near powerlessness in their respective situations. The Joads were disregarded entirely and left in the dust by a system that they had worked so tirelessly for. The Franke children were, to the ultimate degree, disappointed by the disgraceful acts of their own, once "God-fearing" mother. Another strong connection between the two stories involves the burning desire to escape to a better place or better life. The Joads exhibited this desire by fleeing everything they once knew for the promise of work, health, and prosperity in California. The Franke children exhibited this by physically fleeing to a neighbor's house, still in duct tape restraints, pleading for help. 

The one positive thing both the Joad family and the Franke children had in common was hope. Either of these families could have completely succumbed to their unforgiving circumstances and thrown their hands up in the air. However, both remained steadfast until the very bitter end.