What does Steinbeck imply is the cause and what are the results in chapter 14?The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Chapter 14 of The Grapes of Wrath
expresses in almost Biblical tones the overarching theme of this great novel:  Men when
unified have strength and dignity, for there is a spiritual neccessity to work.  This
unification of the workers comes as a result of the dispossession of the farmers in
Oklahoma and the Midwest.  With this disenfranchisement of the farmers, there is a
hunger of the body and of the spirit.  Muscles ache to work, and spirits ache to have a
house is the cause.

This expository chapter clearly sets
forth Steinbeck's socialist perspective.  For, he writes of "the great owners" who know
nothing of a change, having lost touch with the common man in their wealth.  In their
alienation, these "Okies" find comfort and some safety with others. And in their unity
there is strength:

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The danger is here, for two men are not as
lonely and perplexed as one.  And from this first "we" there grows a still more
dangerous thing....results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were
results, not causes, you might
survive. 

The leaders who
have emerged in various times in history were the result of the discontent of people
that brought about change.  The leaders that Steinbeck mentions emerged as a result of a
cry for change and the need for someone to manage the methods for the
change.

This chapter exemplifies what R. Moore mentions in
his essay, " The Grapes of Wrath:  Biblical Symbolism in
the Grapes of Wrath" as a messanic
message: 

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....[it] is an emphatic reminder of the
individual's place in the scheme of
humanity.