Selflessness and the Ages

Selflessness and the Ages

Throughout “The Grapes of Wrath”, the Joad family repeatedly crosses the paths of families in need, and the Joads help them out nearly every time. For the Joads it's almost a requirement, an obligation to help those they can. Why do people help each other? Has this changed any since the 1930's?

There seems to be an inexhaustible number of reasons that one person might go out of his way to assist another. One of the more interesting of these is to give to soothe one's conscience, or to avoid the guilt that comes with not offering help when you can. Ma Joad used this reason to feed the starving children at the first Hooverville they stayed at. She looked at those kids and tried to avoid giving them food so she could feed her family. Even Uncle Tom had a hard time eating his food with those hungry children looking on. Ma eventually soothed her conscience by giving the kids the dregs of the soup kettle, though she knew she should have given the entire helping to her family, as they had less than enough themselves.

Uncle Tom's generosity stemmed from the part he played in his wife's death. He believed that he had done such a great misdeed that he needed to make up for it for the rest of his life by giving children and neighbors treats and gifts. This reason is building or balancing karma. Uncle Tom did his best to balance the large amount of bad karma accrued from the sins of his past, and his charity is the method by which he can accomplish this. Uncle Tom definitely would not have been so charitable if his great sins had not happened, or if he didn't believe in karma, or its spiritual equivalent.

Others look for more immediate results: A word of thanks, good impressions, or maintaining a good reputation. These generally give the charitable person satisfaction, and make them want to do charitable things more often in the future to duplicate that feeling of satisfaction. This is the often the reason behind the charity of most people. They might think of their charitable acts as 'the right thing to do', but if they derived no satisfaction or gratitude at all from the act, then they probably wouldn't continue to be charitable.

Acts of charity seem to be much more public now with non-profit and charity organizations, both government-run and private. But the time of people helping each other indiscriminately seems to be past. People seldom know their neighbors, much less the majority of people in their town. When was the last time you helped out a random person who was in need? When was the last time you were helped out when you needed it? Overt acts of charity are fewer and farther between now, but why?

A part of the situation stems from the advent of television. Watching movies and playing video games gives people the opportunity to entertain themselves without having to go outside or interact with others. This lack of interaction contributes to people not knowing their neighbors or people they work with as much as if they had to spend time with others to entertain themselves. This allows people to lead secluded lives within a large city.

The sheer number of people in large cities has a large