Flippity Flopping Between Cruelty and Compassion (GoW 11-18)

What I've seen in this sequence of chapters reminds me of the song "Chip Away at the Stone" by Aerosmith. The chorus goes something like this: " Chip away, Chip away at the stone. And I won't stop until your love is my very own." Now, despite the fact that our protagonists aren't looking to "get next to" a "sweet little mama" the whole time as the rest of the song suggests, I've found that many of the westerners who interact with the migrants begin with a metaphorical "stone wall" around their hearts or morals, seeing these mid-westerners as vagrants. However, as can be seen in chapter 15, we often see that the struggles of these travelers manage to chip away and reveal the compassionate side of those who otherwise may have simply turned them away: ending with the little things which give me hope for humanity, like the waitress giving away two five cent candies for a penny. Although to most this may not seem like much, let alone something worth restoring their faith in mankind, it does for me because it shows that no matter what, deep deep down, people care. Another glimpse of this can be found in the gas station attendant in chapter 13. At first he seems to be more than relatively cold-hearted: assuming that the Joads are beggars and treating them at first with hostility, and later with compassion by burying their now dead dog. He also opens up to the Joads about his business, showing that he, too, is human and struggling with the hard times.