"We’re Joads. We don’t look up to nobody. Grampa’s grampa, he fit in the Revolution. We was farm people till the debt. And then – them people. They done somepin to us. Ever’ time they come seemed like they was a-whippin’ me – all of us. An’ in Needles, that police. He done somepin to me, made me feel mean. Made me feel ashamed. An’ now I ain’t ashamed. These folks is our folks – is our folks. An’ that manager, he come an’ set an’ drank coffee, an’ he says, ‘Mrs. Joad’ this, an’ ‘Mrs. Joad’ that – an’ ‘How you getting’ on, Mrs. Joad?’" She stopped and sighed. "Why, I feel like people again."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Three of the themes in this passage are family, humanity and dignity. Ma Joad has just met with manager of the Weedpatch government relief camp Jim Rawley. After the Joads’ bad experiences at the hands of hostile police and exploitative landowners, she is pleasantly surprised by him. Rawley treats her with kindness and respect, making her feel like a human being again. She speaks of the Joads as a proud family who worked the land until they were dispossessed. But the affects of life on the road turned her into someone mean and tough, she admits. Her encounter with Rawley she helped her feel part of the fellowship of humanity again and reconnect with her fellow migrants.