One man, one family driven from the land; this rusty car creaking along the highway to the west. I lost my land, a single tractor took my land. I am alone and bewildered. And in the night one family camps in a ditch and another family pulls in and the tents come out. The two men squat on their hams and the women and children listen. Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlarge of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate – "We lost our land." The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 14. Here Steinbeck speaks to the themes of isolation and unity. One family driven off the land feels isolated and confused. But when they meet another migrant family on the highway who suffer a similar fate, they form a community of shared experience and common humanity. There is a transition from "I" to "we." This is the very thing that those in power hate and fear, says Steinbeck. He believes that the key to fighting injustice and effecting change is for the migrants to unite as a community.