Ch. 1-10(F)

In the Grapes of Wrath, pride is a very important aspect of life. It is rare for one to back down and accept their situation. However, in Tom's case, he is one of the few people who has come to accept his life and swallow his pride. While in jail he states that "I ain't proud like some fellas. I let stuff run off'n me." While Tom is in jail, he learns to accept his time in there. He is not mad at being in jail as he had come to terms with it. He also compares himself to the others, showing how rare it was for someone to swallow their pride and that he was able to. In doing so, he takes pride in that he can swallow his own while others cannot. This in itself is dignity as well, however there are those that cannot back down.

Boy Floyd is someone who had gone to jail as well. However, unlike Tom, Floyd comes back angry, with Ma describing the experience as "An'he was mad. He wasn't no boy or no no man no more, he was jus' a walkin' chunk a mean-mad." Floyd could not accept how he had gone to jail and thus once he had come back he was resentful of the experience. This shows how his pride had been damaged and because he could not accept that damage, it led him going to jail again for he kept fighting the jail in order to regain his pride. The pride shown here is the traditional pride of the 1930's.

 The Grapes of Wrath highlights the how people's standard for pride changes. One shows a man who has learned to accept what had happened to him and the other, a man who continues to challenge what had happened to him to regain his pride. The man who continues to challenge a lost prospect in order to regain his lost pride is the traditional dignity, but that pride develops into a new one, a modern aspect of a man who has accepted his position and takes pride in being able to recognize that.