Edgard Navarrete
10/4/02 Per.3
United We Stand
In his novel the Grapes of Wrath John Stienbeck, demonstrates how people with
self-interest need to help others and be helped to survive. With the aid of others, families
were able to overcome obstacles and get by easier . In the novel the people who
come together are the ones who survive.
By people (migrants) turning to communalism the chances for survival was
greatly increased. “Twenty-families became one family, the children were the children of ...
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United We Stand
In his novel the Grapes of Wrath John Stienbeck, demonstrates how people with
self-interest need to help others and be helped to survive. With the aid of others, families
were able to overcome obstacles and get by easier . In the novel the people who
come together are the ones who survive.
By people (migrants) turning to communalism the chances for survival was
greatly increased. “Twenty-families became one family, the children were the children of
all, the loss of home became one loss and golden time in the west was one dream”(ch.1
pg.39). In situations like this people turn to each other for comfort. People did not just
join up with other just because of economic reasons, they also joined up because of
loneliness and because the other party had a skill that could become useful for the trip.
On the road the migrants felt overall safer while traveling with people just like them, they
became a big family.
Some people changed their views on communalism. A person who had a change
of heart was Mae, the waitress at the truck stop. Mae was reluctant about helping the
traveling migrants who came to the truck stop. One day a man and his two children came
to the truck stop looking to buy a loaf of bread, but the man was begging her to sell him
the bread cheaper than what it was worth. “Won’t you, can’t you take off ten cents off the
price”,(pg.323). This statement and the sad little faces of the children made Mae feel
compassionate so Mae sold the bread to the man. She even sold the kids ten cent candy
for a penny. Mae is a perfect example of a person who goes from self-interest to a person
who looks out for others. With this gesture of kindness Mae is also rewarded, an onlooker
to the whole situation leaves Mae a large tip for her humility.
In the final scene of the book where a dying man trapped in a flood was about to
die Stienbeck gives a kind of exclamation to his idea of communalism. Rose of Sharon
in an act of kindness breast feeds the man saving his life. This is an ultimate symbol of
human kinship. In this last scene Stienbeck illustrates how people need others to progress
and make it in life.
In conclusion communalism was very important to the well being of the migrants.
When the migrants came together they were more likely to reach California. In the face
of adversity , the live hood of migrants and people in general depends on the their union.