"I been thinkin’ a hell of a lot, thinkin’ about our people livin’ like pigs, an’ the good rich lan’ layin’ fallow, or maybe one fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan’ good farmers is starvin’. An’ I been wonderin’ if all our folks got together an’ yelled, like them fellas yelled, only a few of ’em at the Hooper ranch."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Tom Joad has an epiphany in his cave, speaking fighting words to his mother before leaving his family for the last time. Tired of landowners unjustly treating starving migrant workers and paying them slave wages, Tom is now a transformed man. He speaks of rallying workers together to fight for better conditions. This is despite the breaking of the Hooper Ranch strike and killing of Jim Casy. Tom has become Casy’s successor.