The Grapes of Wrath Greed Quotes

If a bank or finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank – or the Company – needs – wants – insists – must have – as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5. Steinbeck uses a metaphor to compare the banks to monsters in their relentless drive for wealth. He sees them as evil and inhuman entities feeding on the labor, misery and misfortunes of tenant farmers. The bank is also personified here, as it is given human attributes – "needs – wants – insists."

Well, it’s too late. And the owner men explained the workings and the thinkings of the monster that was stronger than they were. A Man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that. Yes, he can do that until his crops fail one day and he has to borrow money from the bank. But – you see, a bank or a company can’t do that, because those creatures don’t breathe air don’t eat side-meat.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5. When farmers offer to rotate crops to make the land more profitable, the bank representatives are not interested. They characterize the bank as a monster that needs to continue making profits. In using the monster metaphor, the bank representatives absolve themselves of the personal responsibility for repossessing someone’s home.

"I got orders wherever there’s a family not moved out – if I have an accident – you know, get too close and cave the house in a little – well, I might get a couple of dollars. And my youngest kid never had no shoes yet."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5. The tractor driver demonstrates his greed for a few extra bucks and his betrayal of his own people here. For a few dollars he is willing to do the dirty work of his bank employers and "accidentally" cave in a local tenant farmer’s house with the tractor. This shows how much he has been corrupted by the system, showing no humanity and thinking only of his own self-interest.

"An’ then I’d want to go in town an’ kill folks. ‘Cause what’d they take when they tractored the folks off the lan’? What’d they get so their ‘margin a profit’ was safe? They got Pa dyin’ on the groun’, an’ Joe yellin his first breath, an’ me jerkin’ like a billy goat under a bush in the night. What’d they get? God knows the land’ ain’t no good. Nobody been able to make a crop for years. But thems sons-a-bitches at their desks, they jus’ chopped folks in tow for their margin a profit. They jus’ cut ’em in two. Place were folks live is them folks. They ain’t whole, out lonely on the road in a piled-up car. They ain’t alive no more. Them sons-a-bitches killed ’em."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 6. This quote demonstrates Muley Graves’ total attachment to his home, refusing to leave it even after his family is evicted. They headed off to California without him. The land holds too many old family memories for Muley: his father dying there, Joe being born, and fourteen-year-old Muley laying with his first girl. He angrily indicts the greedy and inhuman banks for killing his family for profit by tractoring them off their land. He now would like to kill them.

Those sons-of-bitches over there ain’t buying. Every yard gets ’em. They’re lookers. Spend all their time looking. Don’t want to buy no cars; take up your time. Don’t give a damn for your time. Over there, them two people – no, with the kids. Get ’em in a car. Start ’em at two hundred and work down. They look good for one and a quarter. Get ’em rolling. Get ’em out in a jalopy. Sock it to ’em! They took our time.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. Dehumanized by his runaway greed, the used car dealer lectures his employees on how to exploit customers. Seeing vulnerable migrants as easy money, he motivates his sales team to suck as much money as possible out of them. There is irony in the fact that even those not interested in buying a car are targets for his cynical sales pitch.

Watch the woman’s face. If the woman likes it we can screw the old man. Start ’em on that Cad’. Then you can work ’em down to that ’26 Buick. ‘F you start on the Buick, they’ll go for a Ford. Roll up your sleeves an’ get to work. This ain’t gonna last forever.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. A ruthless used car dealer takes advantage of the dispossessed migrants fleeing to California. This quote shows how devoid of humanity and profit-hungry he is, his goal being to cheat the unsuspecting customer. Steinbeck uses dramatic irony here, with the reader being able to see the dealer’s dishonesty, but the customer unaware. In this passage the owner advises a salesman to zone in on a female customer who likes a car, so that she will pressure her husband to buy. Deception is a major theme running through this chapter.

Get ’em under obligation. Make ’em take up your time. Don’t let ’em forget they’re takin’ your time. People are nice, mostly. They hate to put you out. Make ’em put you out, an’ then sock it to ’em.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. The used car dealer uses dishonest and manipulative tactics to land a sale. Speaking to a salesmen, he suggests that he take advantage of people’s "niceness" to make them feel obliged to buy. He is dehumanized by the way he acts and speaks, using clipped sentences and staccato speech. A corrupt product of the ruthless capitalist system, he is bent on turning a profit at all costs.

Listen, Jim, I heard that Chevvy’s rear end. Sounds like bustin’ bottles. Squirt in a couple quarts of sawdust. Put some in the gears, too. We got to move that lemon for thirty-five dollars. Bastard cheated me on that one. I offer ten an’ he jerks me to fifteen, an’ then the son-of-a-bitch took the tools out. God Almighty!

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. This entire chapter is about the theme of deception. It is a masterclass in how to cheat vulnerable families fleeing the Dust Bowl. Used car lot owners dupe desperate migrants into buying overpriced defective cars. A crooked business owner instructs his salesman to sell a "lemon" of a car with engine filled with sawdust to hide noisy transmissions.

God, if I could only get a hundred jalopies. I don’t care if they run or not…Christ, if I could only get five hundred jalopies!…Jesus, I wisht I had a thousand jalopies!

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. Steinbeck employs the literary device of repetition as he quotes the used car lot guy trying to make as much money as he can on his rust buckets. His greed only seems to grow as the sales go on. It is ironic that someone with no moral faith who is a cheat – "I don’t care if they run or not" – calls on God and Jesus to help him make more money.

Soften ’em up, Joe. Jesus, I wisht I had a thousand jalopies! Get em’ ready to deal an’ I’ll close ’em.
Goin’ to California? Here’s jus’ what you need. Looks shot, but they’s thousan’s of miles in her.
Lined up side by side. Good Used Cars. Bargains. Clean, runs good.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 7. The unscrupulous second-hand car dealer speaks at a frantic pace in his bid to rip off car buyers with as many jalopies as possible. He tells his salesman to soften up customers, so that he can can close the sale of his beat-up rust buckets. He is greedily exploiting desperate migrant farmers headed for a better life in California, so that he can extract maximum profit from them. The dealer claims that his cars are good, but the reader knows that they are defective and sub-standard. This is an example of dramatic irony. This passage also foreshadows the nature of the California dream. The dealer’s deception of migrants with worn-out cars that are made to seem roadworthy, suggests that the American Dream of a good life in California may turn out to be just that – simply a dream!

That plow, that harrow, remember in the war we planted mustard? Remember a fella wanted us to put in that rubber bush they call guayule? Get rich, he said. Bring out those tools – get a few dollars for them. Eighteen dollars for that plow, plus freight – Sears Roebuck.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 9. The farmers sell off their belongings to second-hand dealers, who offer them pitifully low prices. They have no alternative but to accept, because they need the money to finance their trip to California. The plow and harrow were tools for survival and living, so it is ironic that during the war they were involved in the production of mustard gas, a type of chemical warfare used to kill people.

You’re not buying only junk, you’re buying junked lives. And more – you’ll see – you’re buying bitterness. Buying a plow to plow your own children under, buying the arms and spirits that might have saved you. Five dollars, not four. I can’t haul them back – Well, take ’em for four. But I warn you, you’re buying what will plow your own children under…You’re buying a little girl plaiting the forelocks, taking off her hair ribbon to make bows, standing back, head cocked, rubbing the soft noses with her cheek. You’re buying years of work, toil in the sun; you’re buying a sorrow that can’t talk. But watch it, mister. There’s a premium goes with this pile of junk and the bay horses – so beautiful – a packet of bitterness to grow in your house and to flower, some day. We could have saved you, but you cut us down, and soon you will be cut down and there’ll be none of us to save you.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 9. This expresses the bitterness of tenant farmers forced to sell their farm tools and belongings, and what they believe will happen to the people who purchase them. They tell profiteering junk dealers who take advantage of their need by paying the least money possible, that they are buying the bitterness of people’s ruined lives. Bitterness is used here as a metaphor. Steinbeck also personifies the tools and belongings the dispossessed farmers are forced to sell. The loss of dignity they experience comes across strongly in this chapter and passage.

And now they were weary and frightened because they had gone against a system they did not understand and it had beaten them. They knew the team and the wagon were worth much more. They knew the buyer man would get much more, but they didn’t know how to do it. Merchandizing was a secret to them.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 10. The Joad family have fallen victim to the capitalist system and been cheated by greedy dealers they went to to sell all their farm and household belongings. They only got eighteen dollars for "every movable thing from the farm: the horses, the wagon, the implements, and all the furniture from the house." They feel as if their dignity has been trampled upon.

When I worked in that hotel in Albuquerque, Al, the way they steal – ever’ darn thing. An’ the bigger the car they got, the more they steal – towels, silver, soap dishes. I can’t figger it.
And Al, morosely, Where ya think they get them big cars and stuff? Born with ’em? You won’t never have nothin’.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 15. The diner waitress Mae recalls that when she worked in a hotel in Albuquerque the biggest thieves were the people with the big cars. The cook Al suggests that that’s how the well off got their big cars, by stealing from others. This passage illustrates the themes of money and greed.

Big car. Big Cad’, a special job and a honey, low, cream-color, special job. Hit a truck. Folded the radiator right back into the driver. Must a been doin’ ninety. Steerin’ wheel went right on through the guy an’ lef’ him a-wigglin’ like a frog on a hook…Drove like he’s blin’ drunk. Jesus, the air was full of bed clothes an’ chickens an’ kids. Killed one kid.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 15. Two truckers in the diner describe an accident they witness on the highway. A luxury Cadillac driving recklessly slams into a migrant family’s truck, leaving the migrant driver impaled on the steering wheel and a migrant child dead. This illustrates the reckless greed of the rich and how they destroy the lives of the innocent and less well off.

The proprietor said, "If you wanta pull in here an’ camp it’ll cost you four bits. Get a place to camp an’ water an’ wood. An’ nobody won’t bother you."
"What the hell," said Tom. "We can sleep in the ditch right beside the road, an’ it won’t cost nothin’."
The owner drummed his knee with his fingers. "Deputy sheriff comes on by in the night. Might make it tough for ya. Got a law against sleepin’ out in this State. Got a law about vagrants."
"If I pay you a half a dollar I ain’t a vagrant, huh?"
"That’s right."
Tom’s eyes glowed angrily.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. This conversation develops when the Joad family pulls up at a place to camp for the night. Tom reacts refuses to pay the exploitative landowner who demands a 50 cents fee in order to sleep there. When Tom says that he will sleep for free at the side of the road, the camp owner threatens him with a visit from the deputy sheriff for being a vagrant. But he won’t be a vagrant if he pays half a dollar, the owner confirms. This display of corruption with law enforcement working hand in glove with greedy landowners provokes Tom’s anger.

"It don’t make no sense. This fella wants eight hundred men. So he prints up five thousand of them things an’ maybe twenty thousan’ people sees ’em. An’ maybe two-three thousan’ folks gets movin’ account a this here han’bill. Folks that’s crazy with worry…The more fellas he can get, an’ the hungrier, less he’s gonna pay."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. A ragged man coming back from California provides the first evidence that California may not be the promised land migrant families like the Joads hope for. He explains to Pa Joad that the handbills promising work in California are designed to attract too many workers, so that employers can exploit those who show up and pay them as little as possible. Steinbeck is hitting at the corrupt system whereby greedy employers can take advantage of workers’ starvation to add to their own wealth.

Crops were reckoned in dollars, and land was valued by principal plus interest, and crops were bought and sold before they were planted. Then crop failure, drought, and flood were no longer little deaths within life, but simple losses of money. And all their love was thinned with money, and all their fierceness dribbled away in interest until they were no longer farmers at all, but little shopkeepers of crops, little manufacturers who must sell before they can make. Then those farmers who were not good shopkeepers lost their land to good shopkeepers. No matter how clever, how loving a man might be with earth and growing things, he could not survive if he were not also a good shopkeeper. And as time went on, the business men had the farms, and the farms grew larger, but there were fewer of them.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 19. Between the narrative story chapters are sandwiched Steinbeck’s brilliant analysis and commentary on America’s merciless agricultural economic system. In this chapter he speaks on how the love of the mighty dollar fuelled the growth of corporate farming and agribusiness. As a result the farms became bigger, and the small farm as a way of life disappeared. With his journalistic background, Steinbeck had the courage to confront what he saw as the greed and inhumanity of large-scale corporate farming in wiping out the family farm.

Now farming became industry, and the owners followed Rome, although they did not know it. They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves: Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos. They live on rice and beans, the business men said. They don’t need much. They wouldn’t know what to do with good wages. Why, look how they live. Why, look what they eat. And if they get funny, report them.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 19. Steinbeck puts class discrimination on trial in this chapter of the novel. He speaks of how modern industrialized farming has copied the methods of the ancient Romans, and built empires on the backs of slaves. Foreign workers are dehumanized by the big landowners – "look how they live." This is so that they can justify paying them slave wages.
    • 1
    • 2
Close