style of the old reporters from the newsreels at the movie houses, Route 66 is described as the main migrant road, the mother road to which rutted country roads and tributary side roads connect.  In the 1930s before any interstate highways, Route 66 ran across the country, transporting victims of the Dust Bowl from Oklahoma to California.  However, along the way, through the desert and over the hills, these transitory people experienced the anxiety of never knowing if their old vehicles would make it to the new frontier.  They worried about old tires, rattles, broken fan belts.  They faced hostility:  "Whyn't you go back where you come from?"  They encounter unethical salesmen who raise prices for old tires because they know people are desperate:

Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else.  That's what's important.  You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tied to steal your four dollars for a busted tire.  They call that sound business.

Clearly, here Steinbeck satirizes capitalism that condones conduct that is contrary to moral laws.  At the same time, however, he praises the sense of the fraternity of man as the narrator relates a story of a family who had no vehicle, but put all their belongings on a homemade trailer:

They pulled it to the side of 66 and waited.  And pretty soon a sedan picked them up.  Five of them roade in the sedan and seven on the trailer, and a dog on the trailer.  They got to California in two jumps.  The man who pulled them fed them.  And that true.  But how can such courage be, and such faith in their own species? 

The paradox of these migrant families is expressed in the final paragraph, 

The people in flight from the terror behind--strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.

A number of characteristics are put on display in this chapter. Two of them which offer a direct contrast are the human qualities of greed and compassion/generosity. 

Much of the chapter is taken up by discussions of the hardships of travel and the poverty of those on the road. Here again, as in many of the interstitial chapters of the novel, the greed and chiseling of the roadside purveyors is put on display. A man wants to over-charge for a damaged tire, etc.

The chapter ends on another note, relating a brief story about a family that is tractored off their land. They have no car so they pile their possessions on to a home-made trailer and pull the trailer to the road. Someone comes in a car and picks them up and pulls the family and the trailer to California, feeding them along the way.

Ending with this comment, the chapter clearly demonstrates the variety of experiences people have on the road:

"The people in flight from the terror behind - strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever."  

This chapter depicts three qualities of greed and generosity. In this non-narrative chapter, a family needs a new tire for the car and has  to go to a road-side chiseler selling cars and car-parts. The salesman attempts to sell the family a damaged tire for an exaggerated price. He claims not to have known it was damaged. 

This specific type of greed has been on display in many of the non-narrative chapters up to this point. 

At chapter's end, another side of people is put on display. A family that has been pushed off their land has and has no car has built a trailer and pulled it to the roadside. Someone picks them up and hauls their trailer to California, feeding them along the way. 

The chapter ends with this commentary: 

"The people in flight from the terror behind - strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever."