Why did the townspeople’s pity for the hungry migrant workers change to anger and then to fear?

    '' The Grapes of Wrath '' is a novel written by John Steinbeck, set during the Oklahoma Depression in 1929. At that time thousands of people went to California, looking for work, land, and hope for a future best. The novel describes truly desperate times for migrant families. The rains arrive and do not stop, leaving the men in a situation of begging and robbery to help their families survive until they have a job again. Due to this situation is that the feelings of people in the cities, begins to change, which initially was a feeling of sympathy with the situation of migrant workers, over time they began to worry about their own security, compassion for the Soaked men changed to anger and anger against hungry people changed to fear, there was repression, the sheriff took the rifles, tear gas and ammunition. Considered the masterpiece of John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath," in it the author dramatizes strongly the desperate situation of migrant workers of the Depression era.