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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Grapes of Wrath, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humanity, Inhumanity, and Dehumanization
Dignity, Honor, and Wrath
Faith and Guilt
Powerlessness, Perseverance, and Resistance
Family, Friendship, and Community
Summary
Analysis
The lonely migrant travelers camp down for the night in large groups. These groups are inclusive and supportive; in them, “twenty families became one family.”
This general description of migrant community parallels the inclusive values Ma Joad emphasized in the last chapter.
Themes
As these small “worlds” develop, the migrants come to understand what rights they must respect in others, and devise a set of rules that must be obeyed. These rules center on respect and hospitality, and breaking them is punished by violence or, worse yet, ostracism. The encamped families exchange advice for survival and entertain one another. When they leave, their cars move along the highway like bugs.
