Literature shows us that man is man, at all times and places, remains the same with his unknown motives and simple needs, his tendency to violence, hatred, love and power. Literature not only falls into the category of vulgar romanticism, as some promote it, but it introduces us to countries we did not know about, ideas and religions we did not know existed. Literature dispels our loneliness and makes our world rich in feelings and experiences hard and soft without being a real party to it. It not only gives us ideas, but also makes us more compassionate and humane than before. A couple of novels make us get out of our self-immersion and let us share with their personalities their poverty, ostracism, and harsh conditions. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck, and Hunger (2013) by Mohamed El Basaty shed light on the harsh conditioned families have to get through in two different countries in two different generations but their routes cross by the motives of survival through the tough economic crises in both the United States and Egypt to prove that humans share the same feelings and thoughts in time of hunger and led by their fear of starvation, and their journey through the hardest times until they reach the safety shore. Social realism is adopted to illustrate the great poverty and exploitation lower class Americans and Egyptians are suffering. Social philosophy maintains that human survival is dependent upon the banding together of humans to find strength in group unity and action. The elaboration of this theory in the novels is seen in the education of the oppressed and disadvantaged with the organization of unions and strikes as vehicles of group protest and change.