As the families go through much torment, from the moving, the camping, the different people, the law, the new experience, there is one thing that keeps many of them together and pushing on. That is their devotion to each other and other families. Continually the reader sees this with the Joad family. This is the biggest spark of hope throughout the book, the devotion and loyalty and bonding of the families on the great trip. This connection through troubled times keeps many of the families moving on, facing their fears, and finding a way to survive.
Chapter nineteen shows one of the ways the families helped each other. "D'ja hear about the kid in that fourth tent down? No, I jus' come in. Well, that kid's been a-cryin' in his sleep an' a-rollin' in his sleep. Them folks thought he got worms. So they give him a laster, an' he died. It was what they call black-toungue the kid had. Comes from not gettin' good things to eat. Poor little fella. Yeah, but them folds can't bury him. Got to go to the county stone orchard... And hands went into pockets and little coins came out. In front of the tent a little heap of silver grew. And the family found it there. Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor. Pray God some day a kid can eat."
In this chapter, John Steinbeck also shares his own view of human nature. He views human nature to be evil, selfish, and dark with very little good at all. In his book, people prey off other people; the migrants are tormented by the people of California and the people of the west. This is one of his biggest examples of his view of a dark human nature. People from the same country--the only difference being in location--from a free country, turn on their fellow Americans in order to get themselves ahead.
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