Chaos In John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes Of Wrath'

In this passage, Ben, the main character, makes sense of chaos by realizing what causes the good and the bad chaos in his life. At the end of the book, Ben finally meets with Janet, his now ex-wife, to give her the divorce papers he has avoided dealing with for two years. This comes after meeting with her several times, having a bounty hunter chase after him, and a road trip with Trevor, a teen who is bound to a wheelchair. He meets up with her in a ‘Babies “R” Us’ parking lot, and he reflects on why they did not work out, which he believes is due to the fact that “she can no longer navigate a world with no signposts, no living landmarks, only colored plastic ruins. She cannot live on a borrowed light that only grows weaker with each passing day, cannot walk …show more content…
In his car, he realizes he will “never stop caring. But the thing about caring is, it’s inconvenient. Sometimes you’ve got to give when it makes no sense at all. Sometimes you’ve got to give until it hurts”. As Ben drives away, he realizes that all the chaos in his life, both the good and the bad, was caused by caring. He was hurt so deeply, and fell into the chaos of being unemployed because he cared for his kids, and was wrecked by grief when he lost them. When he was fired from being Trevor’s caregiver, he moped because he missed Trevor. He held onto the divorce papers for so long because he cared deeply for Janet. Ben also let Dot, Peaches, and Elton ride with him because he cared for these random strangers who he knew he would have to let go of. Ben describes caring as “inconvenient” because it can lead to pain, like with Janet or his kids, but it can also lead to trusting new people and helping others out, like with Trevor, Dot, and Peaches. Ben also saying that people need to care and “give until it hurts” shows that he made sense of chaos by realizing it came from the source of caring, and also realizing that chaos can be good for some people, like