John Steinbeck shows the readers many themes in "The Grapes of Wrath". One
             of the most apparent is as Steinbeck stated, "The Joads passage through a process of
             education for the heart." Many characters in "The Grapes or Wrath" exhibit this theme,
             but it is valiantly apparent in the actions of the Joads as a family, Tom, Casy, and Rose of
             Although each person in the Joad family is a separate individual, the family often
             acts as thought it were one person. As one might expect the experiences they incur
             change the family personality. At the end of the book the Joads have lost their family
             identity, but they've replaced it with something equally worthy: they've found kinship
             with other migrant families. The Joads merge with the Wainwrights and the Wilsons,
             because each family needed the other and the fragmented family becomes whole again.
             The members don't share last names, but they give support to each other in the form of
             food, blankets, a kind word, medicine, advice, and even love. As Casy says, "nobody has
             an individual soul, but everybody's just got a piece of a great big soul." By opening their
             hearts the Joads transformed into members of the universal family.
             Rose of Sharon, the eighteen year old daughter goes through a miraculous
             transformation of the heart as the journey progresses. When the Joads first begin their
             torrid journey Connie, Roses husband, and Rose set themselves apart from the mundane
             matters that occupy the rest of the family. They focus solely on the baby and dwell in the
             future instead of the present. They dream of the house they'll buy for the baby in
             California, about the car they'll drive, and about Connie's schooling and job. When the
             going gets tough, Connie abandons his young wife, which may have been the turning
             point in Roses life. As time the birth approaches, Rose of Sharon does a surprising thing
             for someone in her delicate state, as she in...