In Chapter 26 the Joads find jobs picking peaches for credit at the local store. When Ma goes in to use the money they have made, she finds that prices in the store are too high for her to buy sugar. Eventually the man working pays for the sugar with his own money and Ma says "I'm learnin' one thing good... Learnin' it all a time, ever' day. If you're in trouble or hurt or need--go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help--the only ones" (513-14)
Throughout the Joads time in California, they have been helped out many times by other poor people and migrants like them. Casy takes the blame for something Tom did in Hooversville and goes to jail for it. The Wallaces alert Tom about a job while they are staying in the government camp. The Joads even help the Wainwrights by telling them about a job, and they in turn help the Joads when Rosasharn feels ill. These poor, desperate families have nothing and yet they are still willing to help each other. The more well off people scorn the migrants because they are afraid of them, and they refuse to help, instead making their lives harder. During the Depression there were many rich people who barely knew that there were so many poor people in their country, and in their home towns, and they did nothing to help the less fortunate. Despite the fact that they have no money, the other suffering people understand what the Joads are going through and they want to help each other in any way they can, even if it would be better for them not to.
We had wondered earlier on whether or not the bond between families would last when they got to California and realized how hard it would be. Throughout their time in California we have seen that this connection and helping of other families has not decreased much. The struggling migrants continue to help each other and be kind to each other despite the fact that other families could be seen as their enemies. I wonder if this bond and desire to join together and help each other out will lead to more. Will there be more strikes or uprisings as the families realize that joining together makes them stronger?
By the poor families sticking together through "thick and thin", it seems to make them stronger as individuals. By always being helpful towards others, the Joads always seem to have good karma because they usually receive enough help to get them by. Is Steinbeck trying to send the reader or the more well-off people a message that says having a good heart and sound morals is better than wealth itself?
ReplyDeleteThe families seem to already realize that working together makes them stronger as a whole; for the Joads, they will probably only join striking when the real injustice of what they're going through hits them. Or, when their "Grapes of Wrath" come to the bursting point; when the grapes pop, that will be when they go on strike and join the other families. But, unless families are at their breaking anger point, they may not be willing to help with strikes.