Tone Toward Tom Joad (Second Half)

   As the storyline of the novel progressed, I noticed that the author's tone progressed from showing Tom Joad as a criminal, and a less reputable character to being a man of more upstanding character. This is shown through the quote, "Then I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be ever'where—wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there... I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'—I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready. An' when our folk eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build—why, I'll be there," which is said by Tom Joad near the end of the story (Steinbeck 486). This quote really epitomizes the hardship that Joad faces and shows just how awful the Depression was for people in America. Like the violence and the stark despair portrayed by the words that come out of Joad's mouth generate a profound feeling of sympathy for him at least inside of myself. That is the tone that Steinbeck is hoping to create toward Joad. Sympathy. A feeling that most people in the modern world can't really relate to, but is conjured up by the words of a Depression-era writer.