The Power of Humility: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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In the great depression many people suffered from hunger and poverty can you imagine not being able to eat for days and days and not only that but imagine having to suffer from sands blowing away all your crops and destroying your home. That’s how it was back then, people suffered from hunger and sandstorms destroyed everything in their paths. John Steinbeck a very well know writer and the creator of “The Grapes of Wrath” is very well known for writing books during the great depression in which he liked to write about the poor, homeless and misfit people. Humility is very well described in the book “The Grapes of Wrath” because it tells about a man trying to take care of his children with the little money he has while also trying to get to California. In the story the man’s humility changes the waitress’s behavior because she feels sympathy towards the man even though she was being a stereotype at the beginning.
When the man first approached the dinner the waitress though he was like anybody else suffering from the great depression just trying to get things for free from people. At the beginning the man just walked to the dinner with a humble self being, asking to buy a loaf of bread. Immediately the waitress Mae being a stereotype and thinking he was trying to trick her said that the bread was for making sandwiches only. In response the man says that he needs the bread to feed his children because it’s a long road ahead of them to California. The waitress then tells him that if they sell bread their going run out to make sandwiches. The man then tells her that he’s hungry but needs to make a dime do all of his family. This gets Mae to change her reaction and change her mind because she’s starting to feel more and more sympathy fo...

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...t the beginning she dislike the man and towards the end she actually feels sorry for the man and tries to help out. Mae changes differently in the story like when the chef was mixing the potato salad said to give it to him and she looked at the truck drives as to tell them what she needed to do next. Another example is when the man asked her for penny candy which might have been more expensive than that she offered to give them 2 for a penny because she didn’t want the man to disappoint his two sons who were eager to taste candy. With this type of humility the man is able to accomplish to get food for his family and not rip-off someone in the process. What I believe about humility is that you need self-esteem and that humility is from a deep confidence in who you are, and what you are capable of and it also requires the courage to stand back when you could stand out.

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