When in trouble, a natural reaction is to seek help from the privileged, who have more resources, financial or material, to provide assistance. However, often they don’t truly understand how dire a situation is because of their background. Because of this, Ma Joad suggests in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath to “go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help the only ones”. This is seen at the beginning with Tom getting help from the truck driver and at the end with Rose of Sharon giving assistance to the starving man, but also in real-world circumstances, such as Ron Williamson’s story of being wrongly convicted and then exonerated as detailed by John Grisham’s work of non-fiction The Innocent Man.
Steinbeck incorporates the idea of random help from a stranger right from the beginning of the story. As Tom is released, from prison, he tries to find a ride and ends up attempting to hitchhike into town. The first truck he sees has a “no riders” sticker on its windshield, but Tom is persuasive and convinces the driver to let him ride. Tom mentions, “being a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker” (Steinbeck 11).
This creates a connection from morals to wealth. He’s suggesting just because the driver is a low-paid employee, he doesn’t have to be selfish. The driver acknowledges Tom’s logic and agrees even though he’s on the bottom of the corporate totem pole, he is a “good guy and also he was not one whom any rich bastard could kick around” (Steinbeck 11). This further emphasizes the idea that someone with more wealth feels more authoritative and more bound to rules, and thus more likely to obey the policy of “no riders”. Fortunately for Tom, the driver is not wealthy, and understands his needs and agrees to help.
At the end of the novel, Rose of Sharon breast-feeds a man in a barn dying of hunger. Steinbeck never names the man or his son, despite being encouraged several times by his editor and the publisher to have it be a previous character, or at least name them. He refused, demanding that the end of the book once again show the importance of a random gesture of kindness. In this case, it may be saving the old man’s life. His son pleaded with the Joad family, “He’s dyin’, I tell you! He’s starvin’ to death, I tell you” (Steinbeck 618).
This is ironic because the Joads are in a similar situation; with their resources exhausted and living in a boxcar, the future doesn’t look bright for them, either. However, despite just losing her newborn baby, Rose of Sharon agrees to help. She tells the old man, “you got to,”” because she understands what his situation is (Steinbeck 619). She understands because her family has almost experienced the same. They aren’t rich and living in a mansion, but poor farmers trying to make it in the west. In this way, Steinbeck carries the theme of help from one poor stranger to another.
The reason Ma Joad believes poor people are more likely to help is not only because they’ve experienced similar circumstances, but because they have the motivation to help others. Both of these traits are seen in lawyers of The Innocence Project, which helps free Ron Williamson from his wrongful conviction, narrated in The Innocent Man by John Grisham. Williamson was accused of murdering a young woman at a nightclub, and a prosecution full of lies made up by prison inmates swung the jury to sentence him to death.
Just five days from his execution, Williamson made a last attempt to get the real story heard. His brief was picked up by two young lawyers, Jim Payne and Gail Seward, who were working overtime and underpaid hours for The Innocence Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to freeing wrongly convicted inmates. They spent a majority part of two 80 hour work weeks pouring through thousands of files of evidence in a “thorough review of the case in its entirety” (Grisham 330). They then got Williamson’s execution postponed, and formed another legal team to devote full-time hours to the case.
The federal public defender had done Williamson no good, as he was just a name among hundreds of assigned cases. The private attorney paid for by his sister took the money and staged a defense in the original trial that was easily poked through. But the Innocence Project lawyers were paid lower than both the former, yet performed at many times the level of the others because they had reason to fight. They knew he was innocent, they knew they would be saving a man’s life. For a full year, “the team labored and… a new trial was granted” (Grisham 335). Their efforts paid off, and so Williamson was set free due to the help of a few poor young lawyers trying to make a living in the non-profit sector. His life was saved due to their motivation, mirroring Ma Joad’s statement in Grapes of Wrath.
So next time you’re in a situation in need of serious help, think twice about just asking someone you know has the resources to help out. Seek someone less fortunate who’s been in the same shoes and not influenced by money. This tactic was used successfully by Tom and Rose of Sharon in Grapes of Wrath, but also in the real world under life or death circumstances by Ron Williamson. Clearly they are benefitting from seeking help from a stranger.
