The Last Clear Definite Function of
Man
Beginning of Chapter 14-- TheGrapes
of Wrath
The western land, nervous under
the beginning change. The Western States, nervous as horses before
a thunder-storm. The great owners, nervous, sensing a change,
knowing nothing of the nature of the change. The great owners,
striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the
growing labor unity; striking at new taxes, at plans; not knowing
these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; results,
not causes. The causes lie deep and simply-the causes are a hunger
in the stomach, multiplied a million times; a hunger in a single
soul, hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times;
muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied
a million times. The last clear definite function of man-muscles
aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need-this
is man. To build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the wall
and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself
take back something of the wall, the house, the dam; to take hard
muscles from the lifting, to take the clear lines and form from
conceiving. For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic
in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of
his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may
say of man-when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies,
when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic,
grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully,
mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back,
but only half a step, never the full step back. This you may say
and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet
out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are
stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the
dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being
taken, if the stumbling-forward ache were not alive, the bombs
would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Fear the time when
the bombs stop falling while the bombers live-for every bomb is
proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the
strikes stop while the great owners live-for every little beaten
strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can
know-fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a
concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and
this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.
Quoted from:
The Portable Steinbeck
Steinbeck, J. (1976). The Last Clear
Definite Function of Man. In P. Covici Jr., (Ed.). The Portable
Steinbeck. (pp 426-427). New York: Penguin Books. (Original
Anthology published 1943)
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Last edited April 17, 2000