Themes
Contentment with Life's Circumstances Leads to Happiness
"Mack was the elder, leader, mentor, and to a small extent the exploiter of a little group of men who had in common no families, no money, and no ambitions beyond food, drink, and contentment. But whereas most men in their search for contentment destroy themselves and fall wearily short of their targets, Mack and his friends approached contentment casually, quietly, and absorbed it gently" (Steinbeck 10).
"Social Ostracism Can Lead Either to Great Strength, or Great Sadness" (SITS)
"Mack and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a generation of trapped, poisoned, and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods, come-to-bad-ends, blots-on-the-town, thieves, rascals, bums" (Steinbeck 14).
"Mack and the boys just didn't like William. Now William's heart broke. The bums would not receive him socially. They felt that he was too far beneath them" (Steinbeck 19).
"Mack and the boys were under a cloud and they knew it and they knew they deserved it. They had become social outcasts" (Steinbeck 140).
The Importance of Community
"People didn't get the news of the party—the knowledge of it just slowly grew up in them. And no one was invited. Everyone was going" (Steinbeck 166-167).
"Of her girls some are fairly inactive due to age and infirmities, but Dora never puts them aside although, as she says, some of them don't turn three tricks a month but they go right on eating three meals a day" (Steinbeck 17).
"And the loneliness—the desolate cold aloneness of the landscape made Andy whimper because there wasn't anybody at all in the world and he was left" (Steinbeck 24).
"In spite of his friendliness and his friends Doc was a lonely and set-apart man. Mack probably noticed it more than anybody. In a group, Doc seemed always alone" (Steinbeck 100).