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Sairy said, “You shouldn’ talk like that. We’re proud to help. I ain’t felt so—safe in a long time. People needs—to help.”
In this quotation from Chapter 13, Sairy Wilson assures Ma that Ma doesn’t need to worry about replacing the quilt they use to wrap Grampa Joad. The simple act of being there for a family in a time of grief has made Sairy feel safer and stronger. Even though death often creates fear, being able to help the Joads gives Sairy comfort. Her phrasing that “People needs—to help” emphasizes that creating community and fellowship is not just something nice that people can do, but something necessary for their well-being.
In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream.
In the intercalary Chapter 17, the narrator describes the fellowship of the migrant laborers as they journey west to California. In the face of the difficult road, the families focus on their common losses and hopes, and their common practical needs of care and protection. This communal care becomes an essential survival tool for the families on their journey. The relative strength the migrant families have on the road will later contrast with the more fragmented families seen at places like the Hoovervilles and the Hooper ranch camp. Instead of banding together, the families treat each other with hostility, leaving them weak and vulnerable.
The people here worked me out of a job. They keep the camp clean, they keep order, they do everything. I never saw such people. They’re making clothes in the meeting hall. And they’re making toys. Never saw such people.
Jim Rawley makes this speech to Ma Joad in Chapter 22 when he comes to see how the family is settling into the government camp. He refuses to take credit for overseeing the camp because the people of the camp largely take care of each other, helping each other in fellowship. The communal spirit of the camp means that despite being the manager, Jim Rawley doesn’t need to police, control, or otherwise enforce order as the more individualistic spaces of Hooverville or the Hooper ranch do.
I been thinkin’ how it was in that gov’ment camp, how our folks took care a theirselves, an’ if they was a fight they fixed it theirself; an’ they wasn’t no cops wagglin’ their guns, but they was better order than them cops ever give. I been a-wonderin’ why we can’t do that all over.
Tom makes this speech in Chapter 28, just before leaving the family. Here, Tom asserts his plan to carry on Jim Casy’s labor organizing, citing the need for community as an antidote to the overpoliced isolation that plagues the lives of most migrant laborers. This realization comes on the heels of Tom hiding from the police after killing a man in retaliation for Jim Casy’s brutal, unprovoked death. It’s clear that the sheer number of cops on the Hooper ranch only serves to make it more violent, in stark contrast to the warm and orderly atmosphere at the government camp.
