It is meaningful to note a tone of affirmation in the social novels set in the bristling strikes and hopeless poverty of the Depression era. This affirmation is traced here in the work of the major writer of the 1930s, Steinbeck`s In Dubious Battle. Unlike the highly class-conscious proletarian literature of the time, this work essentially deals with universal human values, not ideology of communism. In Dubious Battle depicts a migrant workers` strike instigated by communists. Devoted to a high cause, Mac and Jim exploit men only as instruments to achieve their goal. However, this work could be an attack on any impure motives that denies and destroys human dignity. This confidence in men is well reflected in this work. This study explores how to overcome the problems of the ills of group struggle for recovering human dignity on the Kant`s proposition that only action done out of the motive of duty have moral worth.