In Chapter 6, the generalized actions of the previous chapter are made concrete. The young tractor driver now has a name, Willy Feeley, and just as the tenant's house is knocked off its foundation at the end of the last chapter, so now the Joad house is found crumpled at the corner. The threat of the faceless farmer to use his gun is materialized in Muley's news that Granpa actually shot out a tractor's headlights. Muley Graves' statement, "Place where folks live is them folks. They ain't whole, out lonely on the road.… They ain't alive no more," not only reiterates the plea of the tenant in Chapter 5, it points out the moral deterioration that is a parallel result of economic decline.
Muley physically reinforces Casy's theory of love: All persons are a part of the same spirit, and a refusal to unite together effectively disassociates an individual from the whole. In contrast to the betrayal of the tractor driver in the last chapter, who will feed his own children while others go hungry, Muley finds that he must share his meal. "I ain't got no choice…if a fella's got somepin to eat an' another fella's hungry — why, the first fella ain't got no choice." An individual's very existence is defined by his responsibility (or lack of responsibility) for those with whom he interacts. Muley intuitively realizes this, although he struggles to express it. Ma will recall this line of thinking in Chapter 8 with her willingness to feed strangers.
