Of course, everything must die except life. Jesus is no more immune from death than those sardines speared out of the water by diving pelicans. Those sardines that some poets describe as dancing on the water, skimming over the waves, are not dancing, but trying to keep from dying. The skipjacks are after them and the roosterfish are after the skipjacks and the buzzards are waiting for all of them. Steinbeck concludes that all of life is a whole.
Death sustains life.
Even the end of a species is not the end of life. No matter what, life goes on. We flew home, up the Sea of Cortez, across the border, right over Rancho Santa Fe where wealth has its mansions and 39 men were preparing for suicide. We drove past farmlands, recently flooded, now cultivated, planted and vegetables coming up, we saw recently trimmed vineyards which a few weeks ago looked like dead sticks, now sprouting green leaves. Fruit trees were showing blossoms.