This final intercalary chapter serves as a partner to the novel's opening chapter by repeating several key motifs. The scrolling description of the weather and its effect on land is virtually the same except, instead of drought, Steinbeck is chronicling the spread of the floods. The circle of squatting men figures prominently as well, a tribute to the indomitability of the life force symbolized by the land turtle in Chapter 3 and illustrated in Rosasharn's gift of life-saving milk in the closing chapter. As in the first chapter, the woman worry that their men will break under the strain of accumulated hardships, but now there is a difference: Where two men squat together, fear turns to anger. As long as they can work together, they will be able to survive.
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