The Western land, nervous under the beginning change. The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunder storm. The great owners, nervous, sensing a change, knowing nothing of the nature of the change. The great owners, striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity; striking at new taxes, at plans; not knowing that these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; results, not causes. The causes lie deep and simple – the causes are a hunger in a stomach, multiplied a million times; a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times; muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 14. As Steinbeck opens this chapter, he makes use of repetition to emphasize the fear of the Western States and the great owners to a great social change taking place. The author uses a vivid simile to compare this fear to that of nervous horses before a thunderstorm. The owners fail to grasp the nature of the change. They attack the results, not the causes, blaming the growing labor movement and new taxes. But the causes are much simpler: hunger for food, happiness, security and work – multiplied by a million. Steinbeck is deeply critical of the landowners’ refusal to accept and address the plight of the big influx of migrant families into the Western States. He sees it as a class struggle between the migrants who have nothing and the owners who have much. The owners are afraid of the migrants uniting and standing up for themselves, as shown by the owners’ attacks on the growing labor unity.