Strong men love what they can call their own. They take pride in claiming,"This is my land. We were born on it and we have died on it" (33). In Grapes of Wrath, men hold strong to their land even if it means that their houses get driven to the ground around them. The dust never lifted. The dust was always there. If they could of just planted and reaped the benefits, they could have made it. But it wasn't the dust's fault, it was The monster's fault. The monster, the bank, that ate up all the money and consumed healthy lives. Because of the monster the men don't have a choice, their children must starve, their wives must die, and they must stand by and allow it to happen. But the other men, the weak men, the monster's slaves, don't take pride in what they own. They destroy and taunt. Why? "For three dollars" (37). These men will ravish their neighbor and leave them in the mud. They will take orders from a monster that kills, that hates, that neglects. In fact, they can't be men at all because strong men love, they take compassion, they are willing "to kill the ones that are doing the starving" (38). Weak men are "goggled" (35). Weak men admire The monster that desolates the land. Because if the weak man can't be like the strong man, and love something enough to starve and die for it, then the weak man must become an expert at destroying the strong man. Weak men must be good at something.
Chapter 5, of The Grapes of Wrath, is used to distinguish good and evil. The good is the strong man. The evil is the weak man. Even though the weak man is a human, he is more of a machine, more of a tool in The monster's great scheme. The man with the house, "that he built with his own hands" (38) is in awe that a fellow neighbor could do such a mindless thing. The machine man is "putting people into the street" (36). The strong man knows right. The monster is controlling the mechanical, weak man. He knows that in the end, The ravaging monster will toss the weak man out into the dirt just like the mechanical man is tossing the strong man out of his home. So the strong man will hope and he will leave his land because he is wise and understands that he has a family that will die if they stay. The farmer is furious but he will become calm for the sake of his loved ones. Be a strong man! He might not have a house, but he is always deeply rooted.
