How To Survive In The Grapes Of Wrath

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“The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket, it’s wool. It was my mother’s blanket―take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning―from ‘I’ to ‘we’” (152). This statement used by Steinbeck marks the transition from “I” to “we” in the novel, where people stop thinking about just themselves and start thinking about others in the exact same situation as them. They begin to learn that they’re not the only ones struggling to find jobs, earn money, and get food for their family. People, like the Joad family, realize they need to stick together with others in order to make it through these tough and dark times. Therefore, the social shift of “I” to “we” becomes necessary for people to survive in The Grapes of Wrath. As people are traveling to California, to find jobs and make a decent …show more content…
In the camp, many of the people, including children, are starving and struggling to survive. So, one night when Ma is cooking stew for her family, she is surrounded by a group of starving children. “Their faces were blank, rigid, and their eyes went mechanically from the pot to the tin plate she held… ‘I can’t send ‘em away,’ she said… ‘I’ll let ‘em have what’s lef’” (257). Even though Ma’s responsibility is to care for and feed her own family, she is still willing to give up some food for the hungry children. Therefore, she displays yet another example of the idea of “I” to “we”.
In conclusion, many events within the novel contribute to the understanding of the concept of “I” to “we”. To clarify, throughout the book, people begin to realize that in order to survive and get through these tough times, they must unite together, share, and help out one other. And sometimes, like in Mae’s case, their actions are rewarded. In the end, the social shift of “I” to “we” is clearly shown by many people in The Grapes of Wrath including Mae, the Wilsons, and

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