Empathy through Kinship
In Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the clerk’s charity reveals the power of understanding in a community. While rude and shameful at first, sarcastically declaring, “then go git ‘em in town” (375), the store clerk soon recognizes that his futile comments add to the struggles of the already dilemma-ridden families. Ma’s questioning of the shop’s ownership leads the clerk to contemplate his own situation, finally displaying the uncanny similarities between the customers whom he mocks and himself. The clerk’s own self-preservation and worry, “I can’t do it…I’d get in trouble” (376), accounts for his condescending attitude that he develops under the strict regulation of the store manager. This understanding that they both
In Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the clerk’s charity reveals the power of understanding in a community. While rude and shameful at first, sarcastically declaring, “then go git ‘em in town” (375), the store clerk soon recognizes that his futile comments add to the struggles of the already dilemma-ridden families. Ma’s questioning of the shop’s ownership leads the clerk to contemplate his own situation, finally displaying the uncanny similarities between the customers whom he mocks and himself. The clerk’s own self-preservation and worry, “I can’t do it…I’d get in trouble” (376), accounts for his condescending attitude that he develops under the strict regulation of the store manager. This understanding that they both