Chapter 14

John Steinbeck switches over to a more general view in chapter fourteen. It talks about how the people in the West were scared of the migrants and farmers moving in to their area. "The Western States are nervous under the beginning change... A half-million people moving over the country; a million more restive, ready to move; ten million more felling the first nervousness." They are scared of the possibility of an uprising among the migrants. If the migrants and farmers teamed up and helped each other, they could become a dangerous tidal wave sweeping across the entire country.

To portray the dark and uneasy feeling of this chapter, Steinbeck uses detailed imagery and metaphors. He compares the nervous people of the West to horses. "The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunder storm." He also sets a dark mood on the chapter. "This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust." He fills this chapter with depression, darkness, fear, and the idea of revolt. "And this you can know--fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe." "Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours."

The farmers were upset by the conflict in the country. Tractors were replacing them and they hated it. Their blame was falling on the government, and the answer for them was to rise up together and end their hardships. However, the people of the West were nervous of this idea of revolt. This bleak, and gloomy idea of man living off man continues throughout John Steinbeck's book. This dark side of human nature carries throughout each chapter. Just like service station owners would take advantage of the travelers, people preyed on their fellow countrymen. Steinbeck's idea of a dark and evil human nature with few glimpses of truth and hope carries on throughout this chapter and the book.