The Grapes of Wrath Foreshadowing Quotes

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. These are the opening lines of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece exposing the cruelty of the Great Depression and struggles of migrant farmworkers forced to flee west from the Dust Bowl that struck the southern plains of the U.S. It was Steinbeck’s journalism that inspired the 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Three years earlier he was commissioned by the San Francisco News to write on migrant labor camps in California’s Salinas Valley. His series of seven articles, titled <em>The Harvest Gypsies</em>, described the migrants’ desperate conditions. Steinbeck explained his purpose in writing the novel about the plight of dispossessed tenant farmers driven from their homes. He famously said: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this." The opening quote takes the reader to the heart of Oklahoma, to its land and its agriculture, greatly damaged by the severe dust storms of the 1930s. This is suggested in the description of the earth as "scarred" – implying that it is disfigured or injured. The red country and gray country refer literally to the red soil characteristic of Oklahoma and caused by its high iron content and the normal brown-gray clay found in other parts of the state. But there is also a symbolism in these colors, with red signalling danger and warnings and gray being associated with sadness. This may be seen as foreshadowing the difficulties that the "Okie" Joad family will face, first losing their home to foreclosure, then setting off on their epic odyssey to California. In Steinbeck’s defining novel, the land becomes one of the most important characters after the Joads. The entire first chapter is devoted to an apocalypic description of the slow decay of the land that forces the great migration to California during the destructive Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

And as the sharp sun struck day after day, the leaves of the young corn became less stiff and erect; they bent in a curve at first, and then, as the central ribs of strength grew weak, each leaf tilted downward. Then it was June, and the sun shone more fiercely. The brown lines on the corn leaves widened and moved in on the central ribs.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. The opening chapter pitches us right into the drought in Oklahoma with its devastating effects on its agriculture. With the sharp summer sun striking daily, weakening and then withering the corn, Steinbeck’s language helps us visualize the farmers watching helplessly and hopelessly as their livelihoods die in front of their eyes. The harsh future facing families is also foreshadowed here.

"A forty-acre cropper and he ain’t been dusted out and he ain’t been tractored out?"…"Croppers going fast now," he said. "One cat’ takes and shoves ten families out. Cat’s all over hell now. Tear in and shove the croppers out. How’s your old man hold on?"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 2. The truck driver’s comments on Tom Joad’s father are foreshadowing of the shock discovery Tom will make in Chapter 6 – the abandonment of his family farm house. A "cat’" is a Caterpiller tractor, which is being used by the landowners and banks to force poor tenant farmers off the land.

She saw the turtle and swung to the right, off the highway, the wheels screamed and a cloud of dust boiled up.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 3. A woman sedan driver shows her humanity when she spares the turtle’s life by swinging to the right off the highway to avoid hitting it. The car is personified here – "the wheels screamed." It should also be pointed out that the woman’s kindness is in stark contrast to the male driver who soon after tries to run down the turtle. Vulnerable migrants like the Joads will also meet compassionate people on their epic journey west to California, as foreshadowed by this passage.

And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 3. While the woman driver goes out of her way to avoid striking the turtle, the truck driver doesn’t. We learn in a simile how the animal is flipped "like a tiddly-wink" as the driver cruelly and deliberately hits it. The truck incident is a metaphor for the people who want to hurt the Joads and other migrant workers and is foreshadowing of the inhumanity that they will meet on their journey west.

Joad took a few steps, and the flourlike dust spurted up in front of his new yellow shoes, and the yellowness was disappearing under gray dust.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 4. Gray is the color that symbolizes hopelessness in The Grapes of Wrath. Here gray dust covers Tom’s new yellow shoes, with yellow and gold being the colors of hope and prosperity in the novel. The slipping away of hope for people like Tom of being able to begin new and normal lives in the face of the Dust Bowl disaster is foreshadowed here.

"Where the hell you s’pose he’s goin’?" said Joad. "I seen turtles all my life. They’re always goin’ someplace. They always seem to want to get there."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 6. When Tom unwraps the turtle from his jacket and puts it on the ground, it continues to head southward in the same direction it was going when he picked it up. Here he is comparing the animal’s wandering to his. The turtle is a metaphor and a foreshadowing of the journey that migrant farmers such as the Joads will make in search of a better life.

A large red drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 6. Steinbeck’s description of sunset, on the surface, may seem to paint a picture of beauty and tranquillity. But the author deftly employs color imagery to tell us otherwise. The red sun that "drips" over the horizon does not appear friendly. References to blood and the "bloody rag" remind us that the homes of the Joads and other farmers have being torn from them. The darkness that creeps over the land foreshadows the hard road that lies ahead for these dispossessed.

Hot sun on rusted metal. Oil on the ground. People are wandering in, bewildered, needing a car.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. We have staccato speech. Staccato sentences. Rapidly changing topics. Images of hot sun. Corrosion and rust. Oil that is both dirty and wealth-promising. Confusion and flight. It all adds up to the dispossessed migrant farmers’ exodus to their uncertain future. Will they make it to the Promised Land? Or will that dream be corrupted? The tone and language of the passage are foreshadowing of the uncertainty of the California dream.

Tom turned his head and grinned. "Granma finally heard I’m home. Ma," he said, "you never was like this before!"
"I never had my house pushed over," she said. "I never had my fambly stuck out on the road. I never had to sell – ever’thing – Here they come now."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 8. Tom Joad notices a change in his mother after the experience of the family’s home being taken away from them. This is foreshadowing of the many more changes that will come about during and after their migration to California. It also shows us a glimpse into Ma Joad’s great inner strength and calm that will get them through those difficult times.

"Tom, I hope things is all right in California…Seems too nice, kinda. I seen the han’bills fellas pass out, an’ how much work they is, an’ high wages an’ all; an’ I seen in the paper how they want folks to come an’ pick grapes an’ oranges an’ peaches. That’d be nice work, Tom, pickin’ peaches. Even if they wouldn’t let you eat none, you could maybe snitch a little ratty one sometimes. An’ it’d be nice under the trees, workin’ in the shade."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 10. If something seem too good to be true, then maybe it is. Ma Joad is fantasizing about the good life in California. But at the same time she has reservations that the reality will match the dream as promised in the fruit farm owners’ flyers. This is foreshadowing of things to come for the Joads.

"I’m scared of stuff so nice. I ain’t got faith. I’m scared somepin ain’t so nice about it."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 10. The practical Ma Joad is skeptical of the promise of an abundant and better life in California. She hopes that it will live up to its promise. But she admits to being scared that the promised land there is only a dream. Ma proves to be a very perceptive woman, as she foreshadows that California will not be quite the utopia the migrants had hoped for.

"I knowed a fella from California. He didn’t talk like us. You’d of knowed he come from some far-off place jus’ the way he talked. But he says they’s too many folks lookin’ for work right there now. An’ he says the folks that pick the fruit live in dirty ol’ camps an’ don’t hardly get enough to eat. He says wages is low an’ hard to get any."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 10. Tom Joad tells his mother what he heard about the migrant situation in California. It turns out not to be good news for the huge numbers crowding into the state in search of work. There isn’t enough work to go round, pay is poor, camp living conditions are bad and people are huntry. This foreshadows that the California dream will not be what it’s cracked up to be for families like the Joads.

Ma tried to look back, but the body of the load cut off her view. She straightened her head and peered straight ahead along the dirt road. And a great weariness was in her eyes.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 10. The die is now cast as Ma Joad tries to look back at Uncle John’s house, but her view of obscured by the loaded-up truck. So she sets her sights on the road and the future ahead. But she feels "great weariness," suggesting that she may be more worried than she is letting on and foreshadowing that things may not be great in California either.

The big car slowed for a moment and faces looked back, and then it gathered greater speed and disappeared. And the dog, a blot of blood and tangled, burst intestines, kicked slowly in the road.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 13. When the Joads stop to refuel their truck, their dog is struck and killed by a passing car. The large car slows down momentarily and then speeds off, its occupants showing no concern for the harm done. The incident is foreshadowing of the difficulties the Joads will face on their journey west.

The tent flaps opened and a wizened woman came out – a face wrinkled as a dried leaf and eyes that seemed to flame in her face, black eyes that seemed to look out of a well of horror. She was small and shuddering. She held herself upright by a tent flap, and the hand holding onto the canvas was a skeleton covered with wrinkled skin.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 13. In this description of Sairy Wilson, there is foreshadowing of her death. This is suggested by a number of metaphors and death imagery. Her eyes look out of a "well of horror" and her hand is a "skeleton covered with wrinkled skin." A simile compares her face to a dried leaf.

Pa’s tone was dignified. "We gonna take what they got. They got lots a stuff to work in." The ragged man giggled under his breath.
Tom turned irritably. "What’s so goddamn funny about that?"
The ragged man shut his mouth and looked sullenly at the porch boards. "You folks all goin’ to California, I bet."
"I tol’ you that," said Pa. "You didn’ guess nothin’."
The ragged man said slowly, "Me – I’m comin’ back. I been there."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. This encounter between Pa Joad and a ragged man returning from California foreshadows how the state might not deliver the Joads the prosperity they expect.

And Tom, looking at the ragged peaks across the river and the Needles downstream: "Never seen such tough mountains. This here’s a murder country. This here’s the bones of a country. Wonder if we’ll ever get in a place where folks can live ‘thout fightin’ hard scrabble an’ rocks. I seen pitchers of a country flat an’ green, an’ with little houses like Ma says, white. Ma got her heart set on a white house. Get to thinkin’ they ain’t no such country. I seen pitchers like that."
Pa said, "Wait till we get to California. You’ll see nice country then."
"Jesus Christ, Pa! This here is California."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 18. For Tom Joad the first glimpse of the California landscape doesn’t live up to how he imagined the Golden State would be. The imagery used to describe the landscape suggests that violence and death and harshness awaits the migrants. This foreshadows that the Joads life in California will not match their expectations.
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