To California or any place – every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day – the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together, and there’ll be a dead terror from it.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 9. This passage reminds one of the opening lines of the American patriotic song, <em>The Battle Hymn of the Republic</em>, which sings of the fight to end slavery. Steinbeck appears to advocate a socialist revolution, here as in other parts of the novel that take a stand against social injustice. He warns that the bitter army of angry sharecroppers will one day rise up in a united resistance to the injustices perpetrated against them.