Zealotry, or: Another Thing for Which Steinbeck has Considerable Disdain

So, I skipped talking about Granma's death in Chapter 18 so I can talk about her religious ecstasy with Mrs. Sandry's similar spirituality.

In Chapter 22, Rose of Sharon is rather terrified by an especially fanatical woman named Mrs. Sandry. Sandry tells Rose of Sharon about the horrors of "clutch-an'-hug dancin'" and how it's apparently evil. She also talks about the abomination that is "pretendin' to be stuff they wasn't". However, just in case the reader is worried, Mrs. Sandry makes sure to speak of how God is, in fact, watching these people and taking note of their behavior, "sin by sin". In fact, she tells us the outcome of such religiously felonious behavior: She relays the story of a woman with a baby who, after play-acting and hug-dancing, "thinned out and skinnied out" and "dropped that baby, dead."

On a side note, until the next time she talks, I wasn't certain whether the idea was the woman died and dropped the baby or if she just dropped the baby, who died. It turns out it was the latter, as she goes on to describe how the woman had to move away because nobody would talk to her. Of course, no one would talk to a dead woman, either. She goes on to talk about the manager of the camp is apparently Satan. Apparently, he said the reason the women "skinnied out" because they were hungry and overworked, not because the Wrath of God also extends to the offspring of sinners. However, he also said he doesn't believe in sin, which led Mrs. Sandry to, again, believe him to be the Devil.

The reason I brought up Granma in the beginning is because she served as a significantly less crazy version of this. Before her death, most of what she said was either spurning her husband for his sinful nature or praising God. She also, like Mrs. Sandry, appeared mostly serve as comic relief.

More important, they both served as annoyances. Sandry scared Rose of Sharon to the point of tears, only calming down after the manager ("the Devil") calmed her down, followed by her mother after Mrs. Sandry returned. While Granma isn't nearly as bad, she did badger JC into having to say grace, despite the fact that he's no longer a preacher. (Also, I at least found her to be a somewhat annoying character, though it doesn't necessarily count.)

What this says to me is that either Steinbeck dislikes the elderly (basically every major character that is elderly  also serve as jokes, as do some minor ones) or he dislikes the religious (the religious tend to be excessively so and, in the case of Sandry, basically insane).