The Grapes of Wrath

The movement of the major characters in the novel from a religious-based to a humanity-based philosophy of life supports the concept of humanism found in Steinbeck's social theory. This thought reflects the political ideals of the nineteenth century American poet, Walt Whitman, who believed that democracy was based on the existence of a mutual connection between individuals, a situation in which the group entity was of as great an importance as the individual. Humanism can be traced back to Whitman's exaltation of the common man and can best be understood as a love of all persons. This is the spirit that Jim Casy is referring to when he claims that it's "all men and women that we love…the Holy Sperit — the human sperit." This love will most often be physically expressed by the mother figures in the novel: Ma, Sairy Wilson, and eventually, Rose of Sharon. From her first appearance in the novel, Ma is the epitome of the concept of loving one's neighbor. She is the first to extend comfort or nourishment to strangers. This willingness to help people is seen in her welcoming of Casy into the family and her feeding of the hungry children in the Hooverville camp. She works selflessly for others and tries to instill the same attitude in Rose of Sharon. Sairy Wilson's compassionate help during Granpa's death, in spite of her own illness, is another example of human love extending outside the family. Rose of Sharon is slow to embrace this selflessness and giving, focusing instead on her own comfort and well-being for the majority of the novel. In the end, however, she, too, becomes part of this embracing of all humankind when she offers her life-giving milk to the starving stranger.