This was a great movie, but it is simply inexcusable for a character to disappear without explanation.
I rewatched parts of the movie twice to try to figure out what happened to Noah. At one point, I concluded that the guy who protested the wages at the first camp (the guy who fought with the cop before Tom and Casy hit the same cop) was Noah, even though he didn't look like him.
Then, I read on this board that he simply disappeared.
Simply inexcusable.
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Noah "wasn't quite right", which is brought up a couple of times. When the family is camped by a river Noah tells one of them (Tom?) that he's just going to stay there and try to fish and trap for his food.....and he does, that's how and why he disappears.
shareHe disappears without explanation in the film because the director and writers apparently lost interest in him. I imagine they would have preferred to cut him out but maybe reshooting early scenes wasn't practical.
In the book he is 'strange' from birth, possibly caused by Pa's panic as Ma was in labour due to the doctor having not arrived and he wrenched baby Noah out. His head had to be partislly remoulded by the nurse. From then he was just very simple and lived away from the family on the farm, just doing farm work with the others but having no urges beyond this, particularly sexual. Before the family cross the desert to California he doesn't want to go any further than the stream where he can live on fish and everything can be simple like it was at home.