Chapter 14 had an impact on me...

Chapter 14, to me, was very powerful in the sense that these folks figured out what they were up against - like they knew that the "monster" was out to divide and conquer them. They knew that by coming together through these perilous times, that it gave them some power. It may not have been much, but it was enough to make them realize that although they were divided from their land, they do not have to be divided from each other in community. I highlighted the passage:

"This is the beginning - from "I" to "we." If you who own things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes form results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I," and cuts you off forever from the "we.""

This is the true meaning of revolution; when two or more people can come together in the midst of the very thing set out to tear them apart and dehumanize them. The events that lead up to the Great Depression, and the depression itself marked a new era in the banking and financial world. It is unspoken that it was also a start of a new era when people lost their sense of community and focused more on themselves, regardless of the welfare of others. The illustration of The Joads and the Wilsons; two families who never knew each other who crossed paths at their lowest points - when it is said that people cannot trust each other- is a prime example of the genuine form of revolution that I have expressed here in this post.