The Children Are Hungry

Their stomachs cramp. Their sleep is restless. Their life is horrid. The children were always hungry. All they wanted was an orange, a piece of meat, something to fill their deprived tummies. But there was no work for the Oakies and if the father starves so does the child. 

Steinbeck utilizes short sentences within chapter 19 of the Grapes of Wrath. By creating every sentence in a precise, cryptic manner, the reader feels the sense of urgency that the father feels in the story. He needs food for his family! Or they will die. The travlers from Oakland were no longer the men looking for work, no, they had become the starving Oakies. Their shame could not evade them. They were starving their own children.