The Grapes of Wrath, a novel comprised of groundbreaking ideas and innovative themes, follows the Joad family as they make a forced pilgrimage across the flat arid lands of the Midwest, through the deserts of the Southwest, over the ominous Rocky Mountains and finally into the luscious valley of California. Steinbeck expertly captures the nature of human hope, and man's inherent tendency to cooperate when pushed to the brink of utter destruction. "Throughout [Steinbeck's] work he...maintains that only through reflection upon his bitter experience can one learn the value of acting in concert with others for the relief of emergency conditions" (Scott Simkins.) This theme of hope and interconnectedness continually surfaces, in various situations.
             Chapter 17 clearly exhibits this paradoxical behavior on page 200. It says, "...the twenty families became one family...in the evening, sitting about fires, the twenty were one." Inferences can be made about the Joads revolving around their connection with their community when they lived in Oklahoma. Similar to Lynden, when a family goes through rough times, neighbors spring in from every direction to lend aid, and plates of food slowly materialize into a mountain of cookies, banana bread, and meatloaf. Yet this concept of families almost literally becoming one would seem absurd, unless faced with the incredible trials which the migrant families were. "Although the Joads are joined by blood, the text argues that it is not their genetics but their loyalty and commitment to one another that establishes their true kinship" (SparkNotes.) Families with malnourished children, desperately in need of food would benevolently give all they had and more if they could, at the very least, lessen another's suffering.
             Even in times of desolation, the Joad family was able to maintain a hope that they would find jobs, earn steady wages, feed the family,...