The Grapes of Wrath Religion Quotes

"I got no God," he said.
"You got a God. Don’t make no difference if you don’ know what he looks like." The preacher bowed his head. She watched him apprehensively. And when he raised his head again she looked relieved. "That’s good," she said. "That’s what I needed. Somebody close enough – to pray."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 18. Sairy Wilson, whose health is deteriorating, has asked Casy for a prayer. He tells her that his prayers are no good and he has no god. But she knows that while Casy is not traditionally religious, he is very spiritual. After he says a silent prayer Sairy reveals that what she wanted was human closeness. Her desire to share a prayful moment with another human being while near the point of death echoes what Emerson called the "Over-Soul." This is the idea that all human beings are united as part of the one universal soul.

Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won’t all be poor. Pray God some day a kid can eat.
And the association of owners knew that some day the praying would stop.
And there’s the end.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 19. Steinbeck believes that when disspossessed migrant families stop praying to God for sufficient food for their children, they will rise up against the landowners. He thinks that revolution is inevitable. He also criticizes the lack of kindness among the rich class, as a migrant expresses hope that one day "kind people won’t all be poor." The author also seems to take a swipe at organized religion, when he suggests that justice for the dispossessed will only happen after the praying stops.

"They’s a army of us without no harness…Ever’ place we stopped I seen it. Folks hungry for side-meat, an’ when they get it, they ain’t fed. An’ when they’d get so hungry they couldn’ stan’ it no more, why, they’d ast me to pray for ’em, an’ sometimes I done it…Use’ ta rip off a prayer an’ all the troubles’d stick to that prayer like flies on flypaper, an’ the prayer’d go a-sailin’ off, a-takin’ them troubles along. But don’ work no more."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 20. Jim Casy speaks about the army of migrants hungry for food and for justice. Once he was able to pray for them and prayer would take away their troubles. But now that no longer works, says Casy, highlighting how conventional prayers and religion are not effective against mass starvation and injustice.

"An’ Almighty God never raised no wages. These here folks want to live decent and bring up their kids decent. An’ when they’re old they wanta set in the door an’ watch the downing sun. An’ when they’re young they wanta dance an’ sing an’ lay together. They wanta eat an’ get drunk and work. An’ that’s it – they wanta jus’ fling their goddamn muscles aroun’ an’ get tired. Christ! What’m I talkin’ about?"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 20. Jim Casy speaks of the dispossessed migrants’ wish list. It is simply to live a normal and contented life, fulfilling their natural rights and urges. He has no faith that the God of conventional religion can raise the migrants’ wages to enable this.

"Got a live tumor…You be good. If you got sin on you – you better watch out for that there baby." She squatted down in front of Rose of Sharon. "They’s scandalous things goes on in this here camp," she said darkly. "Ever’ Sat’dy night they’s dancin’, an’ not only squar’ dancin’, neither. They’s some does clutch-an’-hug dancin’! I seen ’em."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. In the government migrant Weedpatch camp Mrs. Sandry comes upon the pregnant Rose of Sharon. Ironically, instead of congratulating the mother-to-be, this religious fanatic refers to her baby as a "live tumor" and warns her about the sinful dancing that goes on at the Saturday night dances. Sandry’s warning to the poor girl in this passage sounds more like a curse!

"The devil was jus’ a-struttin’ through this here camp…An’ don’ you think them sinners is puttin’ nothin’ over on God, neither. No, sir, He’s a-chalkin’ ’em up sin by sin, an’ He’s drawin’ His line an’ addin’ ’em up sin by sin. God’s a-watchin’, an’ I’m a-watchin’. He’s awready smoked two of ’em out."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. A self-declared "Jesus-lover" corners Rose of Sharon in the Weedpatch camp to warn her about the sinful ways of the people there, especially the dancing and play-acting. Sandry’s idea of religion ironically revolves around judgement of others, righteousness and the gospel of fear. This is the very perversion of religion and one that Jim Casy has turned his back on.

"I seen it. Girl a-carryin’ a little one, jes’ like you. An’ she play-acted, an’ she hug-danced. And" – the voice grew bleak and ominous – "she thinned out and she skinnied out, an’ – she dropped that baby, dead…Dead and bloody."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Religious zealot Lisbeth Sandry turns the very purpose for which Christianity was founded on its head. She uses religion to frighten the living daylights out of the pregnant Rose of Sharon. She warns her of a girl who lost her baby by miscarriage because of sinful dancing and play-acting, activities meant for fun and relaxation. Steinbeck criticizes religion through the use of irony using the character of the crazy "Sin Lady." Jesus-lover Sandry offers the unfortunate Rose of Sharon hate instead of love, and judgement instead of understanding and compassion.

Ma frowned. "Rosasharn," she said, "you stop pickin’ at yourself. You’re jest ateasin’ yourself up to cry. I don’ know what’s come at you. Our folks ain’t never did that. They took what come to ’em dry-eyed. I bet it’s that Connie give you all them notions. He was jes’ too big for his overhalls." And she said sternly, "Rosasharn, you’re jest one person, an’ they’s a lot of other folks. You git to your proper place. I knowed people built theirself up with sin till they figgered they was big mean shucks in the sight a the Lord."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Whenever someone in the Joad family is in trouble or pain, Ma is there to support and comfort them. Her love for family is limitless and she will try to make them happy, whatever it takes. In this case Rose of Sharon fears losing her baby after she is rattled by a religious fanatic who links sin to miscarriages. Rose of Sharon starts out in the story as an immature, needy, self-absorbed and self-pitying girl who is dependent on her family. Later she will mature into a capable woman who can do things for herself and for others.

"Know what the preacher says? He says ‘They’s wicketness in that camp.’ He says, ‘The poor is tryin’ to be rich.’ He says, ‘They’s dancin’ an’ huggin’ when they should be wailin’ an’ moanin’ in sin.’"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Lisbeth Sandry, a religious fanatic, is quoting her preacher as she speaks to Ma Joad. Here religion is used to keep the poor in their place. The preacher argues that they are meant to stay in poverty and not escape their class. Here Steinbeck makes effective use of irony to ridicule self-styled Jesus-lovers who use religious for purposes it was never meant to be used.

And the preacher paced like a tiger, whipping the people with his voice, and they groveled and whined on the ground. He calculated them, gauged them, played on them, and when they were all squirming on the ground he stooped down and of his great strength he picked each one up in his arms and shouted, Take em, Christ! and threw each one in the water.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 23. Steinbeck is at his ironic and mocking best with his description of the aggressive and unlikeable baptizing preacher. He likens the ridiculous preacher in a simile to a ferocious tiger who exploits fear to save groveling and whining souls.

In front of their tents the Jesus-lovers sat and watched, their faces hard and contemptuous. They did not speak to one another, they watched for sin, and their faces condemned the whole proceeding.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 24. There is effective use of irony here as the Jesus-lovers watch the Saturday night dancing get under way at Weedpatch camp. Instead of joining in the fun and relaxation like everyone else, they frown on the proceedings and watch out for sin. Steinbeck is poking fun at their expense, portraying them as rather ridiculous people with "hard and contemptuous" faces.

"You fellas don’ know what you’re doin’. You’re helpin’ to starve kids."
"Shut up, you red son-of-a-bitch."
A short heavy man stepped into the light. He carried a new white pick handle.
Casy went on, "You don’t know what you’re a-doin’."
The heavy man swung with the pick handle. The heavy club crashed into the side of his head with a dull crunch of bone, and Casy fell sideways out of the light.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. As Jim Casy leads the workers’ strike for decent wages, he gets murdered for his troubles. Two police officers approach and recognize Casy as the worker’s leader and call him a communist. As Casy pleads that the officers are helping to starve children, one of them smashes his skull with a pick handle. In a Biblical allusion, Casy forgives the corrupt officer before he dies, using the same language Christ did when he forgave his crucifiers. In sacrificing his life in the cause of workers’ rights, the former preacher is presented as a Christ-like figure.

"I been thinkin’ what he said, an’ I can remember – all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’ he didn’t have no soul that was his’n. Says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ’cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no good ‘less it was with the rest, an’ was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn’ think I was even listenin’. But I know now a fella ain’t no good alone."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Tom Joad is talking to Ma in the darkness of his cave during his self-enforce exile there to evade the law. He speaks of Jim Casy’s revelation when he went into the wilderness to discover his own soul. What he learned was that the answer is not in the wilderness, but in uniting with all other souls. In Casy’s religion we are all part of the one great soul, a universal spirit. Tom is about to leave his wilderness and join with the other migrant worker souls in the fight for equality and justice.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lif’ up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Tom recites a piece of scripture from Ecclesiastes, taught to him by Jim Casy. It says that people are stronger if they work together to help one another. Tom is quoting it in support of organized labor and fighting against the injustice and inequality meted out to workers.

Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. "You got to," she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. "There!" she said. "There." Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Rose of Sharon is often compared to Mary, the mother of Jesus, because of this final scene of self-sacrifice and act of altruism. After her own loss and hardship, she lies down beside the starving man in the barn, guides his mouth to her breast and breastfeeds him. Despite losing her own baby, she offers life to a total stranger with her breastmilk. Her suckling of the dying man evokes the image of The Pietà, the Christian art work depicting Mary holding the body of Jesus after he is taken down from the cross. In this closing passage, Steinbeck present a message of hope, compassion and kindness, to be found even in a world of inequality and injustice. This is the Promised Land that poor migrant families have arrived at, where new life can come out of tragedy, humanity endures amid hardship and desperation, and each of us is part of the one human family. Rose of Sharon’s gesture is the living expression of Jim Casy’s belief that we are all part of the one great soul.
    • 1
    • 2
Close